|
Domain A: Planning for Student Learning A1: Becoming familiar with relevant aspects of students background, knowledge, and experiences. My supervisor commented that I knew my students but needed to utilize their backgrounds more to help them to understand the lesson. I found this easiest to do while reading and then discussing The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The demographics of my students are primarily Caucasian with one or two African American, Hispanic, Arabian, and Asian children. The one thing the children could relate to was not having enough since unemployment is widespread in this rural community. A2: Articulating clear learning goals for the lesson that are appropriate for the students. It took me until half way through my student teaching to learn how to be more efficient at explaining what we were to accomplish that day and how we would get there. I learned to put the activity/assignment on the board, to list it in a hand-out and then explain the activity verbally. I also learned the importance of asking students to wait until I finished with the explanations before I answered their questions. This method, I have learned, keeps the confusion at a minimum. A3: Demonstrating an understanding of the connections between the content that was learned previously, the current content, and the content that remains to be learned in the future. The class I was best able to accomplish this goal was in the Advanced Placement 7th grade English. I was able to help the students connect the study of the Call of the Wild to their current novel The Hobbit by explaining during class discussions and outlining how both touched on topics of cruelty, greed, and domination. In the regular 7th grade English classes, we just finished The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. We are currently studying “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe. I was able to make connects for them that both authors were at one time newspaper writers, had connections to the south, and were contemporaries of the Civil War era. A4: Creating or selecting teaching methods, learning activities, and instructional materials or other resources that are appropriate for the students and that are aligned with the goals of the lesson. This is a work in progress. My supervisor observed that I have been successful in some of my planned activities, and others did not go as well because of my novice approach as how to administer the activity. To my surprise and thankfulness, the students of my regular 7th grade classes took to the graphic novel page project for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer with little coaching and fussing. Once they understood what I expected from them, their projects bloomed. A5: Creating or selecting evaluation strategies that are appropriate for the students and that are aligned with the goals of the lesson. My supervisor noted that I needed to be sure that my assessment instruments mirror my instruction. I have since changed the way I write my quizzes. I state the vocabulary words, ask for sentences to be written using one of the words, and then in the next section to define that word. My cooperating teacher has worked extensively with me in training me how to write OAT type questions asking for specific how, what, where, and why information. Domain B: Creating an Environment for Student Learning B1: Creating a climate that promotes fairness. My supervisor observed that I model and address my students in a polite manner. She mentioned that I need to develop strategies for engaging all of the students during a discussion. B2: Establishing and maintaining rapport with students. I know my students by first and last name in all of my classes. There are a few that I prefer not to converse with, but I am the adult and it is my job to model polite behavior towards all students. B3: Communicating challenging learning expectations to each student. I struggle with challenging the students. I am afraid I might be asking too much of them. During these final two weeks, I have found while teaching a short story that I studied while in 7th grade is helping me with my confidence level as to knowing what I can expect of the students. I did let them know that I studied the same short story when I was their age. By sharing with them a small part of my student experience, it caused the complaining to die down. B4: Establishing and maintaining consistent standards of classroom behavior. Learning to own the classroom has been my greatest struggle. I finally had to become the stern, ugly adult and demand respect from outspoken noisy boys and mean girls. Day by day, lesson by lesson, it is working. I have learned that when I correct to maintain eye contact with the offender until they drop their glance before going on. B5: Making the physical environment as safe and conducive to learning as possible. I have not had to deal with student violence. I have had encountered students being distracted and discourteous to one another. I established early on in my classroom that no one sits on desks. A student did and managed to tip one over. Luckily he was not hurt. I have had to encounter bullying and put a quick stop to it. I have been fortunate enough to find kind students that will assist those who are victims of bullying. Domain C: Teaching for Student Learning C1: Making learning goals and instructional procedures clear to students. I struggled with this during my first month. I became a bit more proficient at it during March. Now that April is here, I am still learning methods to improve upon making instructions clear. I have found that silence and taking questions once I am finished is one of the best methods to give directions audibly. I learned that tip from a retired teacher with 40 years of experience. C2: Making content comprehensible to students. I found that during The Adventures of Tom Sawyer that playing and audio tape of part of a chapter once a week helped to break up the monotony of reading aloud in class and silently. My first class enjoyed following along with the tape more than reading aloud round-robin. My second class preferred to read aloud because they enjoyed acting out the dialogue as they read. I learned that not all students interact with the content in the same manner. C3: Encouraging students to extend their thinking. I am so grateful for the extended lessons my cooperating teacher gave me on applying Bloom’s Taxonomy. She worked with me on how to write questions for discussion and anticipate the answers I would receive from the students and at what level of thinking. This instruction helped me also to learn how to write better extended response questions for my quizzes and exams. C4: Monitoring students’ understanding of content through a variety of means, providing feedback to students to assist learning, and adjusting learning activities as the situation demands. I am learning that the better I get at test writing, the better answers I am receiving from the students. For The Hobbit, I am including a creative four point question at the end of every exam which includes “draw me a picture of the scene you are describing” which is worth one of the four points. When I give the students room to express themselves, it stimulates deeper thinking in them and I receive deeper, better thought out responses from them. C5: Using instructional time effectively. Per my supervisor I make good use of class time and I list the activities for the class. I previewed and explained the day’s activities. I suggest meaningful activities after they complete their assigned task. I just want to get better at planning closing exercises. I find once day I get it right, I tend to over use the technique. I need some alternative ideas. Domain D: Teacher Professionalism D1: Reflecting on the extent to which the learning goals were met. I have experienced some painful reflection. There have been days that I felt as if the lesson was a wash. But, then I go on the next day and the students make the connections. When the students make the connections from lesson to lesson as we study a classic piece of literature, it inspires to me to try something more challenging with them. D2: Demonstrating a sense of efficacy. Being the introverted person that I am, I am always looking at what I did, how can I improve, ask for suggestions as to how another teacher would handle the same class situation, I never stop looking inward and try to improve. D3: Building professional relationships with colleagues to share teaching insights and to coordinate learning activities for students. I have learned more from working with a team of teachers than I would have ever thought possible about the education and behavior training of 12 and 13 year old students. There has been years of thought, planning, and implementing of technique in how to get what may seem like a simple concept across to these students. I learned more by listening in the break room at lunch, during team meetings, and department planning meetings for our graphic novel project than I could have from reading a textbook. I learned little “tricks” on how to handle off task behavior from a special education teacher while using a pc in her room to record grades. I observed how a male teacher encounters disruptive hall behavior. I used his technique in the classroom and it helps me bring the class back under my control. D4: Communicating with parents or guardians about students learning. I have called the parents of one disruptive student. They both were very helpful and I have seen slow improvement with this student. I have sat in on an intervention meeting with a student, his parents, the principal, and all of his teachers to come to a consensus as how to help him improve in school. The intervention helped the student to know where he needed to focus and his grades are improving. I need to send out notes to parents before I finish student teaching to let them know what great students their children are. Every student learns at a different pace and has special talents. I have been fortunate enough to work with a student on an IEP and watch her learn to enjoy literature. Domain E: Instructional Technology During the Fall Semester when I was observing my cooperating teacher’s classes, the students were working on a co-curricular project between the English and science departments for an upcoming science fair. I would accompany and assist students while in the computer lab and library with project research, writing their project outlines, and converting their work written in other formats to WORD documents. The school where I have been working on my student teaching has mini-computers available for student use while working in the classroom. I have made POWER POINT presentations to use during a lesson in the past. I find that I need to learn how to be more proficient in the use of this software. I know just enough to write a presentation and insert a few pictures and documents into it. Andreas Johansson inspired me to not be afraid to use the computer skills I already possess and accept the challenge to improve on where I know I lack. I need to get over my perfectionist attitude and experiment again with EXCEL, POWER POINT, and learn how to use more applications within WORD. Professor Harry Noden and the IT staff at White Hall helped those of us students enrolled this past semester in his class how to establish their own web page provided to us as students using the university server. Slowly I have loaded items onto my web page using MICROSOFT FRONT PAGE. This is an area that I lack expertise and want to learn more. Currently, my technology skills are good enough to get by, but I need to improve because the world in general is becoming attached to internet.
|
Back to Home