Final Reflection

*For my second rotation, I was placed in a fourth grade bilingual classroom. When I was first told that I would be teaching this grade level, I was nervous. I had never had the opportunity to work with children in the upper elementary grades. Now, as I look back at this rotation, I cannot believe that I was able to teach a group of fourth graders. At first, I only believed myself capable of teaching pre-kinder or kindergarten. Now, I am happy to say that I feel capable of teaching children in higher grade levels as well.
*As I look back at both of my rotations and compare them, I am happy to see that I have grown as a professional. During my first rotation, I had to be absent due to health issues plus I was late a few times because of issues on the road. Because of this, my professional attribute of attendance and punctuality suffered. For my second rotation, I was determined to not let this happen again. I did some research, changed my route, and because of this, I never had the same issues again.
*Another aspect of my professional attributes in which I have grown is flexibility. When I first started QUEST 2, I would stress out a little whenever things would unexpectedly change. I felt like things were out of my hands. For my second rotation, I decided to be more open to change and just accept it as it came my way. Because of this determination, my second rotation went smoother. One day, my SBTE was absent and I was left in charge. Had this happened at the beginning of QUEST 2, I would have felt terrified and unprepared. However, I was happy to accept the challenge and the day went great! I was able to cover everything with the students and had no issues with them. This gave me a boost of confidence in my teaching abilities.
*My SBTE was so wonderful! I could not have asked for a better one. She always gave me such good feedback on my lessons, and always gave me ideas for my future lessons. I know that all of her help will come in handy for years to come.
*As I write this final reflection, I cannot believe that QUEST 2 has come to an end. I still remember the first day I came into the program, all nervous and afraid of the unknown. I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to work with the staff at my assigned school and the children there. They will always have a special place in my heart because they are the ones that introduced me to teaching. Thanks to them, I now feel ready to accept the new challenge that is QUEST 3 and to continue my path as a lifelong learner.

Reflections on my Second Formal Observation

Pre-reflection
I believe my students will really enjoy this lesson. I chose to teach them how to create a bar graph because I know this will come up in their TAKS test. I really hope that they believe my little white lie of the M&M’s not being edible in order to keep them from eating them. Otherwise, I may have to resort to colored cubes as a backup plan if students do not follow instructions. Other than this, I think everything else will work out.
Post-reflection
This lesson went great! My students were engaged the whole time and they really enjoyed working with the M&M’s. I was so happy that my little white lie worked out. The students did not eat the M&M’s at all; that is until I told them to do so. It was a really fun surprise for them. I was very impressed with my students’ graphs. They were so detailed and accurate. I feel very proud of their work. Next time I teach this lesson I will spend more time on teaching students that bars do not always have to be different colors; they can have different patterns. This will be especially helpful when students do not have enough materials to show different colors.
Post-editing reflection
In my video, you are able to see me use different techniques for teaching this lesson. After watching the video of my first lesson, and watching the video of my second lesson, I believe that I have definitely improved. In this lesson, I gave my students more time to analyze the questions that I gave them before asking them the questions again. This gave them enough time to process the information I was giving them and to come up with well-thought answers. Something else that I liked was my tone of voice. At first I was worried about my tone of voice being too low, but after watching the video and editing it, I was able to tell that my tone of voice is just fine. Overall, I am very happy with this lesson. For my future lessons, I will be setting my standards as high as I did for this one.

Midterm

Quest 2 so far has been such an amazing experience! Yes, it has been tough at times with all the work and the stress, but the kids made it all worth it! During my first rotation I learned so much from my SBTE, especially classroom management. The most important thing that I have learned so far in Quest 2 is that you have to be firm with children at first and then you can soften up; not the other way around. This was my mistake which gave me classroom management challenges. When I first came into the classroom I was very friendly with my children and helped them with everything. Therefore, when it came time to discipline them, they would not take me seriously. However, when my SBTE would tell them something, they would immediately respond. I began to wonder why this was and began to observe her techniques closely. Though she was sweet with her students, they knew exactly what the boundaries were because she was always consistent in all her discipline practices. After observing her, I began to be more firm with the children. Soon after this, I noticed a positive change in their behavior. It no longer took me such a long time for them to listen to me and follow instructions. I am very thankful that I was able to catch this early in the semester and fix it. I now feel more prepared for my second rotation because I will know how to approach the students. My goal is to continue improving my classroom management skills and to continue learning as much as possible from my new SBTE. I am very much looking forward to the second rotation.

QUEST II Professional Attributes Personnal Evaluation

As a pre-service teacher, it is important that I maintain a professional attitude when it comes to working with my peers and my students. I am always looking forward to improving myself not only as a person, but as a teacher. Therefore, I believe that in order to grow, I must first assess my current standing as far as professional attributes go. In this blog entry, I will evaluate my current performance in each individual attribute and how, if applicable, will I improve on those that I need to improve on.

Demeanor: I believe that I am a positive person and I demonstrate this clearly when I am at my school. Whenever other professionals need something or wish to consult me about a specific matter, I am always more than happy to do so.

Responsibility: I am a very responsible person. In the past, I had a few problems with procrastination but I must honestly say that I have overcome that stage and now do all my things ahead of time.

Maturity: I believe that I display a high level of maturity. I always complete the tasks that I am assigned and work well with my peers through the use of good communication.

Cooperation: I believe that I show a high level of cooperation with my peers, site teachers and faculty. I am always open to helping them with whatever it is that they need.

Flexibility: Whenever unexpected changes occur, I accept them and work through them. However, I do stress out a little bit. This is something that I need to improve on. I need to learn to take things easier and go with the flow.

Appearance: I dress professionally every day and maintain a high level of hygiene. This is very important in order for my students and co-workers to respect me.

Attendance/Punctuality: Throughout this semester, I have been on time everyday and have not missed a single day of class. I strongly believe that in order for me to remain on top of things and have a successful semester, I must always be present and on time. Therefore, I will do my best to continue showing this high level of attendance and punctuality.

Initiative: I love taking the initiative on assignments or anything else that needs to get done. Therefore, I believe that I demonstrate a high level of initiative.

Awareness of Individual Differences: I am fully aware of individual differences. I think my standing on this attribute is good, but I will continue improving myself by constantly learning more about the specific needs that the people I interact with may demonstrate.

Patience: I have a very high level of patience. I believe that in order to run a successful classroom, I must be patient with my students and the people I work with.

Tactfulness: I am a very tactful person. Before I speak, I listen carefully to people, analyze what I am going to say, and then say it in a manner that is respectful to them.

Enthusiasm: I display a high level of energy and enthusiasm around my students and co-workers. This is very important when working with lower grade levels.

Organization: I am very organized. My planner is already filled with all the things that I must complete and turn in this semester. It is the only way that I can make sure that I make the best out of Quest 2.

Creativity: I am a very creative person. That is why I love being in an elementary classroom and working with elementary children because you can teach them through many different techniques and activities.

Written Communication: I believe that I have really good writing skills. I am the type of person that proofreads things at least three times before turning them in. As far as communicating with people through email goes, I always make sure that I am tactful and have proper grammar.

Oral Communication: I do have an appropriate voice and good speech delivery. In my classroom, I always make sure that I maintain a clear and loud voice so that all my students can hear me clearly.

Professionalism: I believe that all teachers are lifelong learners because education research is always changing. I believe that I do stay current with the new research findings that are out there, however, I could improve on this attribute by going the extra mile and joining an educational organization.

Reflective Practitioners: I always reflect on my professional experiences. However, I do need to improve on being more constructive. Sometimes, I focus too much on what I did wrong. Instead, I need to devote my energy on coming up with ways to improve them and remain positive about it.

With-it-ness: I believe that I am always aware of what is going on in the classroom and when something needs to get done, I am immediately up for it.

Technology: I love to integrate technology in classroom! I think technology is one of the greatest tools for teachers because there is no end to all the things that can be done with it. Therefore, I think my level in this attribute is very high.

Overall, I believe my standing on all of the professional attributes is very good; however, there is always room for improvement. I am very excited to be in Quest 2 and being able to learn and grow from my experiences this semester. I know that it will be a very rewarding semester indeed.

-Kristy López