CONGRATULATIONS! YOU MADE IT!! :))
As your placement ends, complete a final assessment by reflecting upon your overall experience using Danielson's Domains. What domains would you define as your strengths? What skills would you like to improve upon as you move toward student teaching?
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
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I can't believe I have only one day of placement left. It will surely be a sad day tomorrow when I have to leave my students and teacher. Today was a good day to write this blog because I discussed my evaluation with my supervisor and my progress this semester with my cooperating teacher.
ReplyDeleteAs far as planning and preparation, I feel like I have a lot of experience from this semester and semesters past in planning and preparing for lesson plans. I have done lesson plans this semester for placement and classes, so I have a good idea of what I have to do as a teacher when planning a lesson plan to make a lesson successful for the students. I know what concepts I need to be focused on when teaching and I always became familiar with my lessons this semester before teaching them.
As far as Classroom Environment, I definitely feel like this is something I need more exposure to. During student teaching next semester, I hope to learn more about classroom environment and put it into use.
For instruction, I've had a good amount of experience teaching many lessons this semester and getting more comfortable teaching. I began the semester a little more timid and nervous when teaching my students, but my confidence has risen and I feel much more comfortable and effective in the front of the classroom now. I have good questioning techniques, lesson activities, use of technology, and assessments.
Professional Responsibilities is another domain I don't feel particularly strong in. This is something I hope to improve on during student teaching. I didn't attend many meetings this semester, although I have in the past. I was involved in some teacher responsibilities, but not much.
Those are the domains and how I feel I am developing in each.
I can't believe there's only one day left! This always seemed so far away. I'm so sad to be leaving my kids tomorrow but this has been such an amazing experience.
ReplyDeleteI think my strengths are definitely classroom environment and instruction. Taking the classroom management course before this semester was a huge help, I found myself using a lot of the techniques I learned in that class. My instruction has improved a lot this semester, especially these past two weeks since I've been teaching on my own pretty much all day.
My planning and preparation need some improvement. I didn't create many lesson plans for my placement, only when my supervisor observed me. I did get a lot of experience lesson planning in the classes but not really utilizing them in the field. I think this is something that will improve a lot during student teaching. I also need some improvement on professional responsibilities. I was able to attend a lot of field trips and a few meetings with my teacher but there is definitely more that I could experience, which again, I think will come with student teaching.
Today was my last day with my co-op and my students since tomorrow half of the fifth grade teachers will be at the district office to discuss pacing for the science units next year because they're moving to a trimester. It was a bittersweet ending, although I do get to teach one last lesson tomorrow (my social studies one, FINALLY!)
ReplyDeleteI've made some progression in the four domains; notably planning and preparation and instruction. Last semester and my past experiences with PFL had already given me some great experiences in professional responsibilities and the classroom environment.
But this semester was a crash course on how to plan lessons efficiently the night before you're teaching them. I'm not sure if Jena did that on purpose to make sure I was always on top of my game; but it worked out well for me. I've become a lot better at taking the basal and modifying it for my students and my time frame, although I could use more experience with it. I've also gained so much experience in instruction; especially in these past two weeks that I've been teaching everyday (and today was my full day!). I attended IEP meetings, worked with students with Autism, and kept my classroom under control which were all things that surprised me.
This experience has been so eye opening as to what's on the inside of teaching, what makes the mechanism work, so to say. I've come a long way, but I have so much further I can go still :)
On to student teaching next semester!
I believe that the two week experience was a great way to end the semester. Allowing us to work in a classroom for ten days really helps prepare us for student teaching. I feel that my confidence has grown tremendously as has my classroom management. Of the four domains, I think that my strengths fall under the “planning and instruction” and “professional responsibilities”. I have improved my communication skills with six year olds. I have a tendency to have high expectations and I sometimes forget that the students are so young. However, I have gained their respect and I have improved my teaching techniques. I personally know that my ability to engage students is much better than earlier this semester because as I am teaching I realize that I sometimes have to approach topics from a different angle if the class seems confused, for example teaching fractions. When my students were not demonstrating understanding the lesson, I immediately tried a somewhat different approach by relating the lesson to topics in their lives. I think that my questioning skills are strong, and I frequently ask questions that later I find are exactly what the teacher’s text suggests. Children love to talk, so communicating is easy.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, I feel that the “professional responsibilities” domain is a strong category for me. I have had several experiences speaking with parents during conferences, and I have been required by my cooperating teacher to keep a journal of my teaching experience. This requirement made me reflect on the good and the not so good experiences of teaching. Reflecting requires me to face my deficiencies and allows me to celebrate my strengths. Also, during these past two weeks, I have been asked to complete all of the classroom paper work. I have graded and recorded all assessments, and I have done so accurately and promptly. I have taken part in professional development and I believe that my appearance and attitude, my punctuality and my commitment to teaching all demonstrate my ability to be a quality future educator.
I believe that the remaining two domains improve by experience in the classroom. I enjoy planning lessons and the curriculum is not a problem, but I have had limited exposure to creating assessments and I have followed my cooperating teacher’s instructional outcomes. She tells me which lesson to prepare, and I do so to the best of my ability. I am looking forward to having more control over planning the day’s events and deciding which topics to cover and when.
Finally, I hope to improve my classroom management skills. I know I have improve significantly since beginning this placement, but student teaching will hopefully provide me more experience with implementing classroom procedures and controlling student behavior. Since I will be student teaching in the fall, I will be a fixture in the room on the first day, so the students will know me from the start. I will not be a stranger who enters their lives for twenty or so days and vanishes. I am looking forward to making more of an impact on the students’ learning and behavior. Practice makes perfect, and I believe that I am ready and eager to begin student teaching.
I can't believe I have only one day of placement left. These two weeks sure flew by! I never thought I would say that I would miss my students, but after these last 2 weeks, I have grown so much closer to them.
ReplyDeleteI feel as though I made leaps and bounds in instruction. I have had so much time to teach in the classroom. Today, I had no problem getting up in the front of the room and doing an impromptu reading lesson since the PSSA movie was a bust! My supervisor has commented on my questioning techniques and told me I always find a different way to ask a student a question. I wish I was able to lesson plan more to improve my planning and preparation. I was able to space things out for my students. However, the thing I would like most is to get away from scripted lessons sometimes. Math was always scripted for me and I never thought I had an opportunity to teach it “my way” As far as classroom environment, I believe this is an area that I will always need to work on. In student teaching, I hope to grow in this area while I will have more freedom to make the classroom my own. I also believe that there is always improvement in Professional Responsibilities. I will meet a whole new group of colleagues while student teaching. Also, during junior block, I never got the opportunity to interact with parents, which is something I am excited for during Student Teaching.
Overall, I am very grateful for this experience. I learned that fifth grade is a place I want to be! I love being with the older kids and being able to joke around with them and talk to them on a more personal level. This experience has made me all the more excited to student teach in fourth grade next semester!!
The end has finally come. At some points during the year it seemed as though this day would never come but now that it has, I am sad I have to leave my students. I feel as though I have really improved throughout the semester and my comfort level in the classroom has reached a point that even surprises me sometimes. As far as improvement I feel as though I have made great gains in all four domains.
ReplyDeleteIn planning and preparation, I have gained a lot more overall knowledge of timing of the lessons as well as the important concepts I need to focus on when teaching. This category is the one I felt I had the most experience in coming into this semester but I still think I was able to improve throughout my time in the classroom. I also was able to develop a routine of running through my lessons and becoming familiar with what I was going to teach prior to implementing the lesson in the classroom.
For classroom environment, I think I got some exposure to this but it is tough to establish your own personal environment when you are walking into someone else’s classroom. I think I did well implementing my co-op’s established rules and discipline system. I was able to pick up some good techniques that I will more than likely use in the future but I feel like this portion is tough to make great gains in until I am able to have complete control of the classroom.
Instruction is probably the domain in which I have made the greatest gains throughout the semester. I got a lot of experience teaching the students a variety of lessons. I was able to figure out some strategies that worked and some that didn’t. I have developed better questioning skills as well as my ability to think on my feet. As I felt my comfort level increase, I think my quality of instruction went up as well. I think I still have a ways to go in this area but I am very pleased with the progress I have made thus far.
Finally for professional responsibilities, I was able to get to see the different sides of being a teacher. I got to experience the preparation involved each week, the parent-teacher conferences, the grade level conferences, and today I was able to sit in on an intervention monitoring/planning meeting. Overall I got to see a lot of different aspects of being an educator. Although I didn’t have much of a role in some of these experiences, I feel more comfortable knowing what to expect when I have a classroom of my own.
I cannot believe that it is over. I feel like it was just yesterday I was driving home with Kaitlin and Joanne the first day and got a flat tire! It has been the BEST last day! My kids were great today. They made me a class book and each of them wrote me a note. It was the nicest thing ever. I am going to really miss them. It is crazy what a tight bond I have formed with this class. Especially because in the beginning of the semester I was not too crazy about the placement. I had such a great experience though. I have learned more this semester than I have in all my placements. Although at times it has been frustrating having to abide by a strict -testing centered curriculum, it has taught me that sometimes you just need to make the best of of a situation.
ReplyDeleteAs far as planning and preparation go, I think this experience has really helped me realize you can't wing a lesson! There is so much PLANNING and TIME that go into creating lesson plans and activities. The best lessons are PLANNED. It was good to find that out now and be prepared for Student Teaching.
I feel like Classroom Enviornment will continue to develop as I get my own classroom. I have improved though tremendously since the first couple weeks. Even my co-op has noticed the difference. I am much more in control of the classroom than I ever thought I would be. Although the kids sometimes still take advantage of me, for the most part they see me as a authoratative figure and respect my rules.
I have gotten a tremendous amount of experience with instruction. I think the most important thing I learned this semester was that sometimes you need to make the best out of a situation. Our curriculum was everything I hated. Everything was scripted and not unique at all. At first it made me really negative to the school and the classroom, but as I got more active in the classroom and more experience with instruction I realized that there are ways to liven up any lesson. I think that is what seperated a good teacher from an exceptional teacher. I'm happy I had the opportunity to see this and realize that I would like to strive to be the exceptional teacher.
I have also experienced a lot of professional responisibilty. You are the kid's role models. They watch everything you do. My teacher is a great example of being very professional. She tries her best to stay away from teacher's lounge gossip, she never lets her personal life interfere with her teaching, and she acts as a great role model for her students. This experience made me realize how important it is to not get sucked into the school drama. Although I was not involved in much of a professional role besides the way I represented myself, it was still good to see how to be a great role model for your kids!
Overall, my experience was great to get me ready for student teaching. Yes, it was a hard work and these past two weeks have been an emotionally and physically exhausted, but this is going to be the rest of our lives and I realize that it does get easier once you have a routine. Yay! WE FINALLY MADE IT! !
Let me just say that today was so bittersweet for me. I wish I could finish out the year with my class and co-op. I have developed such a great relationship with them and I did not want it to end. Tears were shed yesterday and today between gifts and cards that were given to me.
ReplyDeleteI am so thankful for this experience. I could not have asked for anything better and it really did exceed my expectations.
As for the domains, I think for domain 1 planning and preparation, I have progressed a lot. Throughout this semester I have gained more experience with planning lessons. I was able to better understand the process that is used when writing lessons and thinking about all the different aspects that are involved in planning. I feel that I was always well prepared. Domain 2, classroom environment is something that I gained more experience and was exposed to more as well. However, I feel that I need more experience in this area. I am looking forward to implementing more strategies. Domain 3, Instruction is where I believe I have improved the most. I feel much more comfortable with my style of teaching and the messages that I want to get across when I am teaching. I feel ready for student teaching although I am not until the Spring. Domain 4 professional responsibilities is another area that I have gained a lot more expereience with as well. I attended a faculty meeting and an inservice meeting regarding autism at my school. I was able to gain the professional experience and responsibilties that are expected of you when you are a teacher.
Overall, I am upset that it is over but I am excited to see what will happen in the future.
I cannot believe that today was my last day in 5th grade. Over the course of my time in the classroom, I became so close with my kids and my co-op! I had such an amazing time and I have so many experiences to take with me to student teaching. I can't believe how much I learned from this experience! My confidence in the classroom has sky rocketed!
ReplyDeleteDomain 1: During my time in the classroom, I had many opportunities to plan lessons and implement them. I planned two communication arts lessons, which took place on consecutive days. This was a great experience because I was able to see how lessons flow from one day to the next. My first lesson was on questioning and the second one was on summarizing, both of which were under the category of comprehension. I also did small group work, which was very successful. I used my knowledge of the students to plan the group work because I know that they enjoy working in small groups. They had so many great thoughts to share with one another.
Domain 2: During my two weeks, I definitely became more comfortable in this domain. Since I was in the classroom everyday, I felt that I was better able to assess misbehavior and respond appropriately. On Thursday, I taught the entire day, which was an amazing experience. I had to transition the students between activities, to lunch, special, etc. I moved one step closer to being a real teacher! =) Although I feel much more comfortable with monitoring student misbehavior, I can still improve. I think that this will come with time as I have my very own class and I am the one in charge.
Domain 3: At the beginning of my time in the classroom, I was not very confident in this area because I did not have many opportunities to engage the students. As I taught more lessons, I felt myself improve greatly. I taught a lesson on questioning, which gave me the perfect opportunity to get the students to think and wonder. We read a story about Vitamin C and how too much of it can be bad for you. I posed this question to them, "Why have we always been told to get a lot of Vitamin C if it can be bad for us? What will happen if you take too much?" One of my students went home that night and looked it up online. She came in the next day to share what she found. One area that I need to work on is pacing. I got a taste of this on Thursday, but it is hard to tell how quickly or slowly to progress through lessons.
Domain 4: Although I attended multiple professional responsibility-related meetings, I feel that I could still improve in this area. I attended the meetings, but sometimes I felt that I was out of the loop. I hope to make more strides in this domain when I student teach because I will be even more involved with the school.
As I move into student teaching, I would like to continue searching for my classroom management style. Although I feel that I began to find it during this semester, there are still some things that I am unsure of. I also hope to improve my abilities to pace properly. Finally, I would like to continue planning lessons so they can become even more second nature to me! I had such great time this semester and I am really excited for student teaching!
To think that the two weeks are over is absolutely crazy. My last day was super hectic and unfortunately I couldnt have one last goodbye (there was a school wide assembly and students had to sit with their student homes). Luckily Ill be able to visit in June to be a chaperone :) It blows my mind how close I became to all of my students as well as my coop, they are all so special to me! Each of them wrote me a note about their favorite memory, so cute!
ReplyDeleteAs for the domains, I feel that I have made progress in all of them which is a great feeling.
For planning and preperation, I have had a lot of experience both in and out of the classroom with creating lessons and getting materials ready. Obviously I need more prep for creating week long plans and units as a whole.
For classroom envrionment, I need more experience responding to misbehavior/consequences, etc. I felt unsure when certain consequences were and were not appropriate especially during instruction time. However, I feel that this will come more naturally when I have a classroom of my own as well as with student teaching.
For instruction, I have made an ample amount of progress in this area especially when working with small groups. The confindence that I have developed in this area is a great feeling :)
For professional responsibilities, I feel I will have more exposure to this domain in the future especially with in-service and additional training for student teaching in the fall.
I am beyond grateful for this experience.
Wow! And it's all over now. Time has absolutely flown by this semester and I enjoyed it all so much! Yesterday was a great last day! The students had all written me a note about their favorite memory and my co-op put them together in a book. I love it and the students were so excited to give it to me!
ReplyDeleteI feel like I have made progress in all of the domains, of course there is room for improvement, but it is a great feeling to know I am making progress!
Domain 1: I have had to opportunity to plan lesson and gather the appropriate materials. My co-op said that I do a great job of handling the lesson and the materials simulataneously to keep the lesson moving. However, I the lessons that I have planned have been individual lessons. I look forward to student teaching and developing multiple day lesson, and unit plans. I also know that I need more experience in the assessment aspect of teaching.
Domain 2:My co-op has allowed me to be responsible for dealing with some misbehaviors. The consequences that were given were what I had observed my co-op deliver earlier in the semester. The students respected me as authority and listened to me when I gave directions etc. I do still to improve on my transition time so that I do not lose the student's attention and as a result lose instructional time.
Domain 3: Like others have said, I believe that I have made the most progress in the instruction aspect as a result of teaching whole group and small group lessons. I keep saying it, but it is just a great feeling to feel like I am growing as a teacher and becoming more comfortable in the role!
Domain 4: My co-op kept me involved as she was preparing materials for different students evaluation meetings. I believe that I will get more exposure and opportunities for involvment when I am student teaching and when I am out in the field on my own!
This has been a great semester experience and I am looking forward to student teaching!! :)
I cannot believe that my time at South Lebanon has come to an end! I was much more sad than I thought that I was going to be when it came time to say good-bye to my students!
ReplyDeleteI have learned so much by being out in the field this semester and I really feel like I am ready to move onto student teaching in the fall.
Domain 1: Planning and Preparation
I have made substantial gains in this domain this semester. I have been able to write three formal lesson plans that worked out wonderfully. I have also been able to teach lessons with only a few minutes notice. I feel that I am still an over planner but I like to know that I can also be are effective teacher "on the spot."
Domain 2: The Classroom Environment
I have also made great gains in this area. As the months passed I was able to get to know each of my students on a personal level and I looked forward to hearing what was going on in their lives each time that I saw them. When I was teaching lessons I was able to group students as I chose, which was usually heterogeneous grouping.
Domain 3: Instruction
I feel so much more confident as a teacher as a result of my time at South Lebanon. Each time I taught I felt more and more comfortable in front of the room. I also felt much more confident in the fact that the students were understanding what I was teaching them. It was simply fantastic watching that "light bulb" moment when a student finally understood something that they had been struggling with.
Domain 4: Professional Responsibilties
In this area I have also made gains. Each week I posted my responses on this blog. I also was able to go through crisis prevention training so that I can help deescalate stressful situations in school with students who begin to show signs of violent behavior. Through this training I also learned how to safley restrain a student should he begin a physical attack on someone in the school.
I am in shock that this semester is over and I feel that I have been so fortunate to learn so much!
I can’t believe that placement is over. I’m still in denial that I’m not going back to school on Monday! It was the best experience I’ve had yet and I learned more than I ever could out of a textbook. I’m completely thankful for my amazing co-op and students.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of planning and preparation, I have continuously prepared lessons for each week, and these past two weeks I have had to prepare multiple lessons for different subjects each day. My teacher gave me few details and information as to what she wanted (which she later told me she did on purpose), and I had to do a lot of research on my own. Throughout my experience, I learned more and more how to plan a lesson that would work well for a variety of different learners which I experienced in the classroom. I took into consideration what students did (games) and did not like to do (worksheets). I think this was one of my strengths judging from the feedback I received from my co-op and the reactions and responses of my students.
In terms of classroom environment, my teacher and I constantly are in contact with one another and I really appreciate that she gives me constant feedback on each lesson that I do. I have recently been gaining more and more confidence in the structure and control of my classroom environment. I will admit that until my full two weeks, I was completely intimidated by my teacher and students, and it was visible. The full two weeks helped me gain confidence and from students being able to see me every day, they also treated me with a lot more respect. The students wrote evaluations of me and told me that they truly liked the fact that I had control of the classroom, but never yelled at them. Behavior management is definitely something that I would like to continue to work on during student teaching.
In terms of instruction, I have received a lot more freedom to do whatever I want and I even got to pick two subjects to teach for my full two weeks (social studies and reading). I started out just teaching small group lessons, but as time went on I was allowed to teach full class lessons, multiple times a day. I learned a lot about my students and was able to make lessons that suited the variety of learners in the class. I learned the best ways to engage my students and they always knew what I expected of them. My full two weeks was absolutely crazy, and I learned a lot about how being flexible is one of the most important attributes a teacher can have. I’d still like to work on learning a lot about different types of instruction and ways to help students learn the best they can.
As for my professional responsibilities, I learned a lot about being fully prepared for my lessons is the most important thing, and to always be prepared for what can go wrong…because lessons rarely go perfectly! After I teach my lessons, I reflect and take notes on what went well and what went wrong. My teacher also makes a point to reflect on my lessons with me and gives constructive criticism. During my interactions with teachers and my co-op, I have learned to be more professional and it is visible by others, and even my students who now treat me like a real teacher. I got to participate in inservices and two fieldtrips, which have helped me see a different side of teaching, as well. This is definitely the profession for me!!
Its hard to believe that I won’t be going to the school on Monday morning. These past two weeks have been a great experience and really enjoyed teaching for a full day on Friday. Surprisingly I was not as nervous as I thought I would be to be in charge of the class for the entire day, even though it was a half day. Working on Danielson’s four domains all year really helped me to get through my full day of teaching.
ReplyDeleteThe first domain, Planning and Preparation helped a lot to make it through the full day of teaching. My co-op and I went over the whole day schedule and I designed some instructional activities for the children to do with the lessons. By having everything planned out and writing down a tentative schedule, the day was able to run smoothly.
On Friday, there was a change of plans because we had to switch when I would teach my word study lesson. The reason why we had to change the schedule around was because of something personal for one student. This goes along with domain 3, Instruction. As an Elementary school teacher, you need to have a tentative schedule and be aware that it is very likely to change. In general, a teacher needs to be flexible in planning out the day. I thought this was a great experience to go through. Even though it was difficult to change around my plans, I was able to practice being flexible and adjust my plans.
Domain 2, which is The Classroom Environment, was something I didn’t think I would have an affect on because I didn’t create the rules or the culture of the classroom. After teaching for the full day, I realized that transitions are a major part of the classroom environment. Going from calendar, to the schedule, to the first lesson, etc are all difficult to manage. You need to have all your supplies ready and know when you will be handing them our or how the children to collect them. Overall, I feel that this domain is something that I need to work on the most.
Domain 4, which is Professional Responsibilities, was shown when the school had dress down day. Even though it is dress down day, teachers and staff all need to wear clothes that are appropriate and I made sure to do that.
I think that my strenghs are in planning my lessons. I write out full lessons and that helps me to know what I plan to do. Along with that I write down on a small piece of paper, the order I will do things which helps me to keep everything on track. For student teaching, I need to make sure to know I am the teacher and that I can say this is what we are learning rather than just say what doyou think all the time. So I need to be a little sterner. Overall I am excited for student teaching.
The past two weeks have flown by so quickly!! I am sad that I will not be in the classroom anymore, but have made plans to go back and visit! :)
ReplyDeleteDomain 1: I have had the opportunity to plan several lessons throughout this placement and feel much more comfortable with the components of a lesson plan. It still stresses me out to think about writing plans for each day every week. The block plans I received from my coop were much less detailed than the block plans we have worked on in classes, but I know this varies depending on the school. I feel that I have made improvements in writing lesson plans, but still have a lot of room to grow in planning out each one.
Classroom Environment: With this placement, I sometimes found it difficult to manage the classroom. When working with small groups, I was able to handle this much better. I think it may be different when I am teaching for a full day during student teaching because I will need to be able to manage the classroom. During this placement, I taught for periods of about an hour at a time and then turned it back over to my coop. Through experiences during my senior year, I hope to improve my abilities to manage the classroom.
Instruction: I have found that when working with small groups, I am able to better respond to student questioning. I could definitely use more practice with whole group instruction. I had several opportunities during the past two weeks to teach math, reading, and health lessons, and some classes were easier to teach than others. For health, I taught a lesson on alcohol to all three fifth grade classes. The first two classes went very well, but the last class I taught the lesson to put me on the spot with some of their questions. My coop said I handled it well, but it definitely made me a little uncomfortable. Having more experiences similar to this one will benefit me in my ability to respond quickly to student responses and questions.
Professional Responsibilities:
During the past two weeks, I had the opportunity to observe in the special education classroom and one of the other fifth grade classrooms. These experiences were great for me to see how other teachers organized and managed their classrooms. I also got to sit in on several faculty meetings. It was interesting to see the topics they discussed. One of the meetings was with the principal, my coop, and a few other faculty. We met to discuss one of the students in the class and to determine whether or not he should be tested to see if he is eligible for a 504 plan or an IEP. I enjoyed being a part of these meetings and seeing what was discussed.
Planning and preparation: I feel that I have gotten much better at writing lesson plans, though I still tend to put them off unless I set deadlines for myself. I now am very strict on making sure that I have all of the materials necessary for lessons (I tended to not really think about that before as if the materials would just naturally be in the classroom).
ReplyDeleteClassroom Environment: I got to rearrange the classroom several times and it is funny how much thinking goes into it: who needs to sit near the front? Who cannot sit next to each other? Who has this person not sat next to? I also am getting better at reinforcing rules, as well as using the behavior system to keep the students under control, though sometimes they still do things behind my back without me realizing it. I know that positive feedback is the best motivation for all students no matter their academic 'ability'.
Instruction: I like to have a 'script' just in case I can't think, but normally 'just go with it'. I like to think before I explain, or if I give an explanation that the students are struggling to comprehend I tell them that I need to think about and rephrase my explanation. I like to engage the students in discussion and to hear their inferences, questions, and debates. I also use classroom managements (such as 'give me five') to reign them back in if they are not focusing.
Professional Responsibilities: Reflection on lessons, what could have gone better, what I will change. Earlier in the semester after a math lesson I realized that I need to have extra activities to keep fast learners busy and practicing the subject and materials to help the slower students grasp the concept. I've worked with my peers to co-teach which is nice because I got to hear the ideas and opinions of others that I would not have come up with on my own.
Methods block was definitely a semester of growth for me. I am so excited for student teaching this Fall (I'm going in to meet my co-op on Thursday!) and a lifetime of teaching. I just miss my 2nd graders and co-op : (
In Danielson's Domains I would say I have strengths in each and weaknesses in each. I don't think I've mastered any of them but that leaves me room to grow! Under planning and preparation I think I need to improve on not over planning. I tend to script things out so much just to be prepared. Then when students have questions that stray from my plan I have to take a second to regain myself in getting back to the lesson. I improved on that front significantly this semester but would like to continue. In classroom environment I feel that I have succeeded in creating and environment where students feel comfortable and respected. The only problem is I still haven't found a discipline system that I feel effectively brings control to the classroom. Under Instruction I feel that flexibility and calm under pressure is something I can improve in. I can generally field questions with ease but I still get caught off guard sometimes and would like to handle surprises with at least outward calm. Finally, under professional responsibilities I would just like to continue receiving feedback from my supervisors and cooperating teachers and would like to grow from what they have to share. I appreciate their wisdom and would like to always take their advice and criticism and even praise and learn to be a better educator. That is something I hope never to stop doing. Overall this experience was amazing. I'm so glad I had the class I did, the co-op I did and the experiences I did. It was incredible. THank you for the opportunity!
ReplyDeleteI can't believe the semester is already over! In regards to Danielson's Domains of Teaching, I can identify my strengths and weaknesses pretty easily. In terms of strengths, I feel my Planning and Preparation, and Professional Responsibilities are well up to par. I am always prepared in planning my instruction, and as for Professional Responsibilities, I feel I am professional in the classroom and will continue to grow. Right now, my weakness lies in Classroom Environment. I know some people said the course of Classroom Management proved very helpful, but I will be unable to take the course until next Spring, after my student teaching. I can't wait to learn more about the ennvironment in the classroom, and how I can improve my classroom in that aspect.
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