*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.
Friday, May 1, 2009
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
