Final Reflection

I spent my second rotation in a 3rd grade inclusion classroom. Even though I only went up one grade level I noticed a big difference in the students. Both classrooms I was in this semester were inclusion classrooms, but the 3rd graders were so much more independent than the 2nd, I almost did not know what to do with myself through out the rotation. I really enjoyed both classrooms I was in this semester, I have a learned a lot and am really happy with the outcomes.
I feel like I have really grown as a teacher in many ways. I have learned to plan to the best of my ability for lessons and prepare as much as possible but things often do not go as planned and that I need to be flexible. I like having a set schedule and always being prepared and that is something that will not always happen as a teacher, something always comes up. I have also learned to be creative, while some things need to be taught because of state testing there is no reason to think outside of the box and get creative. The students get bored from doing the same thing day after day, by mixing it up and getting creative the students get excited and are more engaged in their learning.
I also feel that I grew professionally. I was really concerned about my lack of natural creativity at the beginning of the semester, and while I still cannot make things as pretty as others the students don't really care about that. As long as the lesson itself is creative they don't need pretty posters etc. I also found that my creativity does not all have to stem from me, there are plenty of resources I can rely upon to help with my shortcomings.
Overall, I really enjoyed this semester and found it very beneficial to me and thought it was a great experience.

Post Math Menu Lesson Video Thoughts

After viewing and editing my video my feelings about the lesson remain pretty much the same. I can see that most of the students were engaged during the whole group sessions and it seemed that just about all of the students were engaged during cooperative work. I saw that students were interested and excited about the lesson and discussing different methods they could use to keep track of their budget. I also noticed that the students mostly worked very well together and helped each other. One student in the video was not really engaged and it did not seem as though he was understanding the concepts, this student is a special ed student and when the aide came to help him out, he seemed to catch up to problem. This lesson did run a little long and I would have liked to have a more appropriate closing, but I did all that time allowed.

Post Math Menu Lesson Thoughts

I taught my observed Math Menu Lesson today and it went really well. It was something that the students really enjoyed because it was so different from their everyday math that they typically do. I started by relating to the students about eating at restaurants then we talked about budgeting. After practicing making plans on how to stay into budget the students explored the different restaurant options and choose where they wanted to eat and with who. A lot of students chose to eat at Taco Cabana and formed one massive group, I split the group into two groups but that was a little chaotic. I think it would have worked better if I set a maximum number of students limit to each group to four students. This would have kept the groups more organized and the expectation would have been set in place ahead of time. The students had a lot of fun placing their orders and trying to get the most for their menu. We came back as a whole group in the end and discussed our budgets and restaurant choices.

Thoughts Prior to Teaching Math Menu Lesson

I am teaching a lesson in math about planning and sticking to a budget. For this lesson I am going to use menu's from local restaurants and student's will go to dinner with a friend and have to stick to budget.This will be an active lesson and I anticipate that the students will really enjoy it. I expect this lesson to be slightly chaotic which is okay. When the students break into groups everyone will be talking and discussing things so the noise level in the room will be high, I just hope it does not get out of control.

Midterm Reflection

My first rotation has been wonderful. It has been a fantastic experience and I have learned a lot! I still feel that all the Professional Attributes that I would not have a problem with was accurate. The ones I felt I might have a problem with were creativity, initiative and risk-taking.

I don’t feel that I am struggling with them as much as I thought I would be. Creativity is still something I have to push myself to do, but my methods teachers have helped me accomplish this by requiring creativity out of our lessons. I have found that when I am creative the students enjoy and benefit from the lesson more. Initiative actually has not been a struggle. My mentor teacher made her classroom very welcoming and I felt comfortable getting involved and taking initiative. Risk-taking is still something that I struggle with but am getting more comfortable with. I find if I am in an environment where I trust the people around me then I am more likely to take risks.

I have learned that teaching is not a job where you have short days and you can leave your work at work and forget about it. I have been averaging 10 hour days on the days I am with my mentor teacher. It takes time to create lessons and then there is always after school activities or tutoring, it is never ending but it is definitely worth it. This is not a job where I watch the clock, time just flies.
I have really had challenges with not getting emotional over everything my little kids go through outside of school. Some of their lives are so tough and I have to try hard to not bring home all the baggage with me on a daily basis. When kids bring up things that are of concern to me or the class I discuss it with my mentor teacher to see how she handles it. She usually has the child document the even either by writing a story or drawing pictures and when necessary the event gets reported to the school counselor or whatever person necessary.

My personal learning goal for the remainder of the semester is to grasp a better understanding on how to write objectives and lessons for an inclusion classroom. I spent my first rotation in the 2nd grade inclusion classroom and will spend my second rotation in the 3rd grade inclusion classroom at Westwood Elementary and targeting lessons to reach all of the students can be a very difficult task. If I can get master this it will greatly benefit me.

Professional Attributes

The Professional Attributes that the Quest program uses are a great way to prepare us students to be professional teachers. These guidelines are the same that our future bosses will expect of us and it is imperative that we master them now rather than later.

I do believe that working in professional teaching environments has already prepared me and I feel that I follow many of these professional attributes. The ones that will be the easiest to follow will be cooperation, tactfulness, flexibility and patience, organization, responsibility, and attendance and punctuality. Cooperating with peers and coworkers is essential to success, especially in this career and it is something I feel that I have mastered through previous experiences. Tactfulness comes easy to me because I am a sensitive person and understand the implications of my words and actions upon others. I am naturally flexible and patient and can adapt easily to changes. I do not like stress and one key way to not feel stressed is to stay organized, which is something I have practiced for years. Responsibility is something learned through life experiences and is something I feel I have control over. The last attribute that I do not believe I will struggle with is attendance and punctuality, I believe in being at least 15 minutes early to everything because you never know what could happen to cause a delay.

Some attributes I am still working to develop are creativity and initiative and risk-taking. I am a very black and white person and creativity is something I will always have to work at. Initiative and risk-taking is not something that comes natural to me, I tend to stand back unless I am guided or told what to do, I will have to push myself out of my comfort zone with this attribute.

By mastering all of the Professional Attributes I will become a well balanced professional which will help me in all areas of life, not just teaching.