Critical Reflections
Learning to Relate
I have developed professionalism by communicating well with my coop teacher, I have planned to submit my lesson plan for the week by the sunday each week so I am prepared for the lesson and so my coop teacher is also well aware of what I plan to teach during that week. Having my lesson plan done for the sunday shows my professionalism as I am able to get the required supplies with my own money or I am able to use my resources to ask around for the supplies I may need.
I show a huge amount of flexibility, as I have shown my fellow classmates that I may work with in the future that I can plan well to meet for group projects and I can move my schedules around to give them anytime for assignments they may need help with, that I seem to have a good understanding of.
I have good time management skills as I try to have my assignments accomplished the week before the due date to free up time for assignments in the upcoming weeks, this also allows me to have less stress as I am more able to care for my well being with better time management skills, I have time to do my own hobbies and interests instead of just school and work.
I like to speak to the students in my class at their eye level, I lower down so I am face to face with the student who I am speaking to. This shows the students that I am listening and I understand them. It also allows the students to be more comfortable approaching me to talk about things as they feel more welcome than if I was towering above them when they spoke to me.
When speaking and listening to my fellow classmates or teachers at my placement I make sure to give them their full attention and reply when appropriate. I only give my insight on difficult topics about the students when my insight is asked for as it is not my place to state my opinion about the students as I am not with them enough to fully understand the issue.
Adaptive dimension is "the concept of making adjustments in approved educational programs to accommodate diversity in student learning needs. It includes those practices the teacher undertakes to make curriculum, instructions, and the learning environment meaningful and appropriate for each student (Saskatchewan Education, 1992)". When teaching my students in the class I make sure to give great detail about what the outcome of the assignment is, I also make sure to repeat what I want the students to learn and ask the students if they need any further understanding. I also adapt or give the children different ways to reach the outcome if they are at a lower skill level. Such as for one assignment the children were to roll the two dice and count the dots on the dice to get their number. Once they had their number they would put a googly eye over the amount they rolled on their sheet with numbers up to 10. Some students did not know their numbers yet by looking at them so I taught them to count the squares and then place the googly eye on their sheet. I have noticed my coop teacher tends to give more focus to the ones who need help, which can be hard if their is a handful of students who need help so a way I have done this is getting the students who seem to have an understanding of the topic work with the students who may need help. Although I still give additional resources and attention to the children who are really struggling.
I try to make sure my lessons are similar or uses similar resources to allow the children to have a previous understanding of parts of my lesson so they can use it to understand my outcomes further. Such as using similar books in my lesson that the students have already read and discussed, one way I did this was by reading "There was an old lady who swallowed a bat", as the students have read other "There was an old lady..." books.
Learning to Reflect, Review and evaluate
Some feedback I have received from my coop teacher and my teaching partner is my volume of my voice, my first lesson I was a little quite so was told to raise my volume a bit to allow the students to hear and understand me more clearly. In my future lessons after this I was told my volume was at a good level and the children really seemed to engage and understand my lessons because of this. Another feedback was the children talking when I was talking, I was told to stop and wait or use different things to get the children to quite and give me their full attention. In my future lesson I did very well with waiting for the students to listen and give me their full attention again instead of speaking over them, or I redirected certain students that seemed to be distracted. I was also told to repeat the directions more than once or get the students to repeat back to you. I changed my instruction for the following weeks, and made sure to get the children to repeat back to me and then once again repeated the instructions to the children to clear up any misunderstandings. I was also told to be more clear on my directions and not ask children if they want to do something as some students may respond with no, and they don't have a choice about doing the assignment so instead say we are going to. During my lessons I used some non-standard english such as yeah, ok and wanna. I have been working on changing this and have caught myself saying it during instructions so I have corrected myself. I have also used you guys a bit and have been working on using friends or students as it corrects any male/female names.
Some future professional goals are to continue working on time management as some of my lessons are over or less time then I planned for the lesson to take. Which takes away time from other lessons my students may have or it makes me have to plan additional things in my lesson on the spot to take up more time.
Some other goals are to work on attending school events that happen around the school to give me connection to other students around the school that I may encounter or help me get professional resources with other teachers around the school. It also shows good school spirit and helps me connect to the school community.
Another goal I have is to keep up with my time management so that I don't burn out. This will be very helpful for me because I will need more lesson plans for my three week block or even when I become a full time teacher.
Another goal I have is with money management, I need to work on managing my money so I have less stress worrying about personal stuff and can put some money towards resources for my classroom and the students to use.
Learning to Teach
I have developed professionalism by communicating well with my coop teacher, I have planned to submit my lesson plan for the week by the sunday each week so I am prepared for the lesson and so my coop teacher is also well aware of what I plan to teach during that week. Having my lesson plan done for the sunday shows my professionalism as I am able to get the required supplies with my own money or I am able to use my resources to ask around for the supplies I may need.
I show a huge amount of flexibility, as I have shown my fellow classmates that I may work with in the future that I can plan well to meet for group projects and I can move my schedules around to give them anytime for assignments they may need help with, that I seem to have a good understanding of.
I have good time management skills as I try to have my assignments accomplished the week before the due date to free up time for assignments in the upcoming weeks, this also allows me to have less stress as I am more able to care for my well being with better time management skills, I have time to do my own hobbies and interests instead of just school and work.
I like to speak to the students in my class at their eye level, I lower down so I am face to face with the student who I am speaking to. This shows the students that I am listening and I understand them. It also allows the students to be more comfortable approaching me to talk about things as they feel more welcome than if I was towering above them when they spoke to me.
When speaking and listening to my fellow classmates or teachers at my placement I make sure to give them their full attention and reply when appropriate. I only give my insight on difficult topics about the students when my insight is asked for as it is not my place to state my opinion about the students as I am not with them enough to fully understand the issue.
Adaptive dimension is "the concept of making adjustments in approved educational programs to accommodate diversity in student learning needs. It includes those practices the teacher undertakes to make curriculum, instructions, and the learning environment meaningful and appropriate for each student (Saskatchewan Education, 1992)". When teaching my students in the class I make sure to give great detail about what the outcome of the assignment is, I also make sure to repeat what I want the students to learn and ask the students if they need any further understanding. I also adapt or give the children different ways to reach the outcome if they are at a lower skill level. Such as for one assignment the children were to roll the two dice and count the dots on the dice to get their number. Once they had their number they would put a googly eye over the amount they rolled on their sheet with numbers up to 10. Some students did not know their numbers yet by looking at them so I taught them to count the squares and then place the googly eye on their sheet. I have noticed my coop teacher tends to give more focus to the ones who need help, which can be hard if their is a handful of students who need help so a way I have done this is getting the students who seem to have an understanding of the topic work with the students who may need help. Although I still give additional resources and attention to the children who are really struggling.
I try to make sure my lessons are similar or uses similar resources to allow the children to have a previous understanding of parts of my lesson so they can use it to understand my outcomes further. Such as using similar books in my lesson that the students have already read and discussed, one way I did this was by reading "There was an old lady who swallowed a bat", as the students have read other "There was an old lady..." books.
Learning to Reflect, Review and evaluate
Some feedback I have received from my coop teacher and my teaching partner is my volume of my voice, my first lesson I was a little quite so was told to raise my volume a bit to allow the students to hear and understand me more clearly. In my future lessons after this I was told my volume was at a good level and the children really seemed to engage and understand my lessons because of this. Another feedback was the children talking when I was talking, I was told to stop and wait or use different things to get the children to quite and give me their full attention. In my future lesson I did very well with waiting for the students to listen and give me their full attention again instead of speaking over them, or I redirected certain students that seemed to be distracted. I was also told to repeat the directions more than once or get the students to repeat back to you. I changed my instruction for the following weeks, and made sure to get the children to repeat back to me and then once again repeated the instructions to the children to clear up any misunderstandings. I was also told to be more clear on my directions and not ask children if they want to do something as some students may respond with no, and they don't have a choice about doing the assignment so instead say we are going to. During my lessons I used some non-standard english such as yeah, ok and wanna. I have been working on changing this and have caught myself saying it during instructions so I have corrected myself. I have also used you guys a bit and have been working on using friends or students as it corrects any male/female names.
Some future professional goals are to continue working on time management as some of my lessons are over or less time then I planned for the lesson to take. Which takes away time from other lessons my students may have or it makes me have to plan additional things in my lesson on the spot to take up more time.
Some other goals are to work on attending school events that happen around the school to give me connection to other students around the school that I may encounter or help me get professional resources with other teachers around the school. It also shows good school spirit and helps me connect to the school community.
Another goal I have is to keep up with my time management so that I don't burn out. This will be very helpful for me because I will need more lesson plans for my three week block or even when I become a full time teacher.
Another goal I have is with money management, I need to work on managing my money so I have less stress worrying about personal stuff and can put some money towards resources for my classroom and the students to use.
Learning to Teach
Directed Instruction:
Teacher is in control of presenting, modelling of skills and questioning. As my placement is Kindergarten I believed the best way for them to learn is by teacher directed instruction as it may be their first time in the classroom. They need lots of examples and directions to be able to understand the outcomes of the lesson.
Indirect Instruction:
Students discover.. teachers supports and is a resource person. Some ways I support this in my classroom is through problem solving, I make sure to allow children to be able to solve their own problems even if its just zipping up their coats.
Experiential Learning:
Students participate in a context to be studied. They at times prepare and debrief. Ways kindergartens learn this is through role playing as we have free play and lots of toys such as a kitchen for them to role play tools such as cutting, pouring, and cleaning, everyday things they need to know. I help direct this by playing with students in these areas during free play.
Independent Study:
Anything a person does independently to learn...
under the guidance of a teacher or supervisor. A way I use this with in the kindergarten room is with learning centers, I like to divide the learning to give the children more directed learning but for shorter times to allow them to have further understanding in different ways.
Interactive Instruction:
Students work together, interact, share ideas, complete a project. They learn from their peers. I direct students by getting them to role play and playing role playing games during free play. Students are also able to brainstorm ways to complete the required work or problems they may encounter in their every day lives such as using scissors to open up their yogurt tubes.
Learning to Plan
The Saskatchewan Curriculum is a resource used by teachers to complete the necessary outcomes the students need to learn in a school year. Saskatchewan's curriculum is presented by grade and subject level, with associated resources and support materials aligned to outcomes.
Teacher is in control of presenting, modelling of skills and questioning. As my placement is Kindergarten I believed the best way for them to learn is by teacher directed instruction as it may be their first time in the classroom. They need lots of examples and directions to be able to understand the outcomes of the lesson.
Indirect Instruction:
Students discover.. teachers supports and is a resource person. Some ways I support this in my classroom is through problem solving, I make sure to allow children to be able to solve their own problems even if its just zipping up their coats.
Experiential Learning:
Students participate in a context to be studied. They at times prepare and debrief. Ways kindergartens learn this is through role playing as we have free play and lots of toys such as a kitchen for them to role play tools such as cutting, pouring, and cleaning, everyday things they need to know. I help direct this by playing with students in these areas during free play.
Independent Study:
Anything a person does independently to learn...
under the guidance of a teacher or supervisor. A way I use this with in the kindergarten room is with learning centers, I like to divide the learning to give the children more directed learning but for shorter times to allow them to have further understanding in different ways.
Interactive Instruction:
Students work together, interact, share ideas, complete a project. They learn from their peers. I direct students by getting them to role play and playing role playing games during free play. Students are also able to brainstorm ways to complete the required work or problems they may encounter in their every day lives such as using scissors to open up their yogurt tubes.
Learning to Plan
The Saskatchewan Curriculum is a resource used by teachers to complete the necessary outcomes the students need to learn in a school year. Saskatchewan's curriculum is presented by grade and subject level, with associated resources and support materials aligned to outcomes.
Blog Critical Reflections
First day thoughts....
There is a student in my class who suffers with muscle deficiency, when he hits high school age he will lose total control of his muscles. This is very sad, he doesn't know how to handle stuff sometimes, like he doesn't do well between activities and wants to have play time all day.
Lola has a difficulty listening and tends to get off topic a lot. In gym we played a game where we stand in a hula hoop and try to score on the person across from us by throwing a bean bag into the hula hoop. Lola threw a big fit about her partner cheating and ran around the room with her hula hoop. Eventually she switch partners to help her be calm. She seems to love being beside me or her main teacher. May just like the attention she receives... might not get enough at home.
There is a student who has went through a lot in their life, and has went through a lot of foster homes in their live. They struggle with authority figures. They do not want to do the activity today and started kicking the shelf then eventually went and hid behind the teacher's desk. I went and sat behind the desk with them, I started asking questions about his shirt and about him. He didn't answer any of them but I finally asked them if they wanted to join me at the table and they led me and started working on the activity. They started to warm up to me in the afternoon, held my hand going places. There was times they had meltdowns like when they said they had to go number 2. Maybe didn't know how to wipe? Then started crying saying he wanted to go home because he was hungry.
First day thoughts....
There is a student in my class who suffers with muscle deficiency, when he hits high school age he will lose total control of his muscles. This is very sad, he doesn't know how to handle stuff sometimes, like he doesn't do well between activities and wants to have play time all day.
Lola has a difficulty listening and tends to get off topic a lot. In gym we played a game where we stand in a hula hoop and try to score on the person across from us by throwing a bean bag into the hula hoop. Lola threw a big fit about her partner cheating and ran around the room with her hula hoop. Eventually she switch partners to help her be calm. She seems to love being beside me or her main teacher. May just like the attention she receives... might not get enough at home.
There is a student who has went through a lot in their life, and has went through a lot of foster homes in their live. They struggle with authority figures. They do not want to do the activity today and started kicking the shelf then eventually went and hid behind the teacher's desk. I went and sat behind the desk with them, I started asking questions about his shirt and about him. He didn't answer any of them but I finally asked them if they wanted to join me at the table and they led me and started working on the activity. They started to warm up to me in the afternoon, held my hand going places. There was times they had meltdowns like when they said they had to go number 2. Maybe didn't know how to wipe? Then started crying saying he wanted to go home because he was hungry.
Day 3 thoughts...
Lesson plan went very well, the students were really into the activity. The children were very interested in how I got my stones to stick onto the board, it was sticky tack. They were trying to make theirs stick and didn't understand that mine only stuck because I had sticky tack to demonstrate for them. The activity was such a blast and it went so well.
Lola had another off morning and was upset when we went to gym because recess wasn't long enough and she just wanted to swing on the swings. She didn't want to participate in physical education. I discussed it with her and found out how she was feeling. Another teacher said not to give her the attention because she was just looking for it but by the afternoon she was a bit more open with me and didn't have any fits when I told her to raise her hand to speak. She even came to sit next to me during circle time and told me how much she liked me.
Kyle had a better day. Their was still times when they didn't want to participate and wouldn't pay attention during lesson times but when we were dancing in music class they came over to hold my hand and dance with me. They would also come sit with me during circle times. I hope that Kyle continues to warm up to me and starts to warm up to the students in their class.
Lesson plan went very well, the students were really into the activity. The children were very interested in how I got my stones to stick onto the board, it was sticky tack. They were trying to make theirs stick and didn't understand that mine only stuck because I had sticky tack to demonstrate for them. The activity was such a blast and it went so well.
Lola had another off morning and was upset when we went to gym because recess wasn't long enough and she just wanted to swing on the swings. She didn't want to participate in physical education. I discussed it with her and found out how she was feeling. Another teacher said not to give her the attention because she was just looking for it but by the afternoon she was a bit more open with me and didn't have any fits when I told her to raise her hand to speak. She even came to sit next to me during circle time and told me how much she liked me.
Kyle had a better day. Their was still times when they didn't want to participate and wouldn't pay attention during lesson times but when we were dancing in music class they came over to hold my hand and dance with me. They would also come sit with me during circle times. I hope that Kyle continues to warm up to me and starts to warm up to the students in their class.
Day 5 thoughts...
Today I came in and my kindergarten class was gone. There is conferences going on so the kindergartens are gone two days instead of the one day because of their being two kindergarten classes. So today I went an observed a 2/3 class, the teacher in that class has been gone for the past two weeks. The room was very crazy and the children did not get a lot of work done. Which I understand because the children were not used to following her rules and were acting like there was still a sub in the room that doesn't know the rules.
I find it very different being in a 2/3 class as the teaching was more directed but the students always knew what they were suppose to be doing, even if they weren't always on track. There was no free play or playtime like kindergartens. The 2/3's also worked on different subjects besides English and Math like the kindergartens. In science, the teacher has a bunch of questions that the children are wondering about and they type them into google to find out the answers. I think this is an excellent idea as it allows the children to question ideas in their world but it is also a great use of technology.
Today during class reading I read the last chapter of the book they were currently reading to the class. I found this very frightening as I was not use to reading in front of kids this age or was not used to walking around reading while the kids drew pictures. It was a new experience for me, I stumbled over some words because I was nervous but other than that I thought it went well and the children really seemed to listen to me as I read.
Day 6 thoughts...
Today I chose to do my lesson on patterns. First I went over AB and ABC patterns. The students really seemed to have a handle on these patterns. Next we watched a video by Jack Hartman, the students use him to learn about their letters so I thought it would be great to use Jack in my lessons. Jack used the patterns in a movement way so it helped get the students active while learning. This was especially great because of how tired my students seemed. After the students were to make their own patterns on a bracelet. Most of the students seemed to understand the activity and were excited to make their pattern bracelets. There was some students who did not quite understand making the patterns so they had to restart their bracelets. I sat with ones I could see needed help understanding patterns and had added at least four beads with the students to show them the patterns. There was also times that some students could not put the beads onto their string but I had choices of beads with different sizes of holes in the beads. Overall the lesson went very well, I did not get to my closure but that was due to a mix up with the schedule so there was nothing I could do about it.