Reflection Poem:
Something to think about…
The most valuable time spent teaching…
Is not spent teaching.
How can that be?
The most valuable time teaching,
Is the time spent reflecting?
Thinking.
Questioning you.
What went well?
What flopped?
What has promise?
What caught the interest of the learner?
What lost the interest of the learner?
Who needs my attention the most?
Why can’t I get Robert engaged?
Why does Kim seem to fade into the woodwork?
How can I break through Michael’s anger?
Who seems interested enough to explore on their own?
It’s strange,
Almost eerie,
How, in reflection,
The day becomes clearer than the reality
On which it was based.
The following are some reflection questions for you. The most valuable time spent teaching…
Is not spent teaching.
How can that be?
The most valuable time teaching,
Is the time spent reflecting?
Thinking.
Questioning you.
What went well?
What flopped?
What has promise?
What caught the interest of the learner?
What lost the interest of the learner?
Who needs my attention the most?
Why can’t I get Robert engaged?
Why does Kim seem to fade into the woodwork?
How can I break through Michael’s anger?
Who seems interested enough to explore on their own?
It’s strange,
Almost eerie,
How, in reflection,
The day becomes clearer than the reality
On which it was based.
What have you done when a carefully thought-out lesson
didn’t go as planned? When an experiment/ activity didn’t work as you expected? When you
felt certain your students understood a concept, but a formative assessment
showed they didn’t?
How did you address this “bump in the road”? What did you do
to ensure your students learned what they needed to learn? What do you plan to
do differently the next time? If you were new to teaching when it happened, to
whom or what did you turn for help? Did this unexpected result also have any
benefits/positive consequences to it?
You do not need to comment on every question but share what you have done to overcome bumps or challenges.
Every day I learn something new. I believe that I will continue to learn throughout my teaching career. Lessons do not always go as planned and afterwards I know what to change next time. In my student teaching classroom I teach the same three reading classes a day. I also teach three small group lessons that focus on the same skills but use different leveled readers. The way my class instruction is set up allows me to reflect and adjust through each lesson.
ReplyDeleteIf an activity or explanation does not work with one class, I can figure out how to improve it for the next class. An example of this would be when we were reading our whole group story. I ask comprehension questions throughout the story and I got mixed up on one of the answers. My co-op chimed in and helped me so I tried my best to do it better next time. I asked her to explain it to me again before my second class just to be sure I was getting my point across to the students.
Another example of lesson adjustment had to do with my co-op. She was teaching the first reading class and we were playing something called Vocabulary Rock and Roll. One of the tasks include the students acting out a vocabulary word. She did not completely explain the rules and the students got a little rowdy when they were acting out the word. They were all over the classroom and too wild. She then explained it again and the students changed their behavior. When I taught the lesson I made sure to make that adjustment right away and the students had good behavior.
This week I had my co-op video some of my lesson on the iPad. After I got to watch it and see/ reflect how I did. I was able to see what I did wrong, what was positive and also how the students responded to me. I am hoping to video myself again so I can continue to learn.
If I needed help to figure out how to change a lesson to make it better I would go to a fellow teacher and ask them. Schools are filled with so many teachers that vary in experience, age and teaching style. Exchanging experience, stories and teaching approaches can be the most helpful solution. I can also check online, my college notes and books and use what I have been taught to adjust my lesson. There are many resources to help enrich my lessons.
I really like the idea of video taping myself, I think that it would give me a chance to see where my strengths and weaknesses lie. I also agree that other teachers can be used as a source to adjust my own teaching based on their experiences. I think that because we live in such a technology driven world, using those types of resources can really allow us to get different opinions. It will also allow us to combine a few ideas together and adjust things for our own classrooms.
DeleteAlex, I have filmed some of my lessons too. I agree that this was a fantastic way to observe aspects that I do not always think about while I am teaching. It also provided a great opportunity for reflection. I definitely want to film my teaching again in the future.
DeleteGirls, I have also video taped myself! One of my areas of weakness through my teaching experience is my tone of voice. Sometimes I forget that the way you speak during a lesson is very important! The knowledge comes through the children's ears better when it is in a tone of voice that they can relate to! Video taping myself through my first student teaching placement has helped me immensely! It has allowed me to see how the students react to the different tones of voice that I use. Some children respond better to a calmer, more approachable voice. However, some students respond better to a more stern voice that keeps them focused. After watching myself a couple of times, it was clear to me the things that I was improving on and the things that I still needed to work on a bit! It is a great idea for any teacher during his/her reflection process!
DeleteThroughout my student teaching so far, many times I have been able to see when a lesson is not going as planned through completing informal formative assessment. In one specific math lesson, I had reviewed how to write money. The students completed some practice on a whiteboard. However, when they went back to their seats to complete a worksheet to turn in, I noticed that many students forgot their dollar signs and decimal points. The next day, I then created a mini lesson on how to write money so that the students were able to review how to write money. As a whole class review, we were playing I have who has using counting coins. This was right before the test and all students were proficient in counting money. I thought that the game would be simple and easy, however many students were unable to count their card correctly. I then decided to allow the students to write their amount on a post-it note and have a partner check the answer before we started the game. When we went to complete the game a second time, there was very few errors because we had taken the extra time to make sure all students had the correct amount for their card.
ReplyDeleteMy cooperating teacher has been leaving the room for the day so that I am able to be in full control of the class. This has showed me how to handle specific problems. I had an issue with a student cheating on a test. I formulated what I thought would be the solution and then went to my cooperating teacher for feedback. If I was a first year teacher and this happened to me, I would go to my mentor or other teachers at my grade level for help. I have seen the other teachers in my hallway do this and the collaboration among the teachers shows me how beneficial it can be to take my problems to others.
Laura I completely agree that taking the time to re-teach is completely beneficial! The students really do show great progress. I also think that sometimes it may not be our lesson, but it may be the amount of time we spent on that lesson. The same material can be covered with a larger amount of guided time and we see benefits! I also agree that the turning to the other teachers helps tremendously! Every teacher is there to help the students grow academically and personally, so putting our heads together helps! (It's similar to all of us brainstorming together in class)
DeleteI like that you took extra steps to make sure that the students were understanding the lesson. I feel like with the strict curriculum nowadays it is difficult to fit in the extra practice. It was nice that you came up with different activities to help the students see money in a variety of ways. All children learn in different ways and the more differentiation you can provide, the better. It is important to always be prepared with many activities in case one does not fully engage or help students with their learning. I think I should improve this aspect of teaching for myself to make sure students are progressing.
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ReplyDeleteDuring student teaching, there have been times when I have come upon “bumps in the road.” At the beginning of my student teaching experience, I was planning intricate math lessons that would use manipulatives and take half an hour to teach. When I started teaching, I realized that I did not have nearly the amount of time to teach my lessons, so I had to adjust it to make it fit within the time frame. For example, I planned a place value lesson in which I wanted students to use manipulatives to make specific numbers that I said. After that, I would have them do a worksheet with visuals to reinforce the concept. It took my kindergarten students longer than I imagined to put the correct amount of rods and cubes in the tens and ones spots. I had to walk around and help some students before moving on which used up time from teaching the whole class. I changed this lesson by only focusing on making numbers with the base ten blocks and their place value mats and not doing a worksheet afterwards.
A few weeks later, the kindergarten classes started having math and reading interventions, and this meant that my teaching time would be cut down even shorter. My cooperating teacher and I worked together to make up a new daily schedule to work around interventions, and I realized that I would only have 15 minutes to teach math each day instead of half an hour. This was just a small adjustment for me-to ensure that my students learned what they needed to learn, I was able to shorten my lessons and make sure I included the most important concepts of what I was teaching.
I taught the place value lesson at the beginning of my student teaching placement, and I turned to my cooperating teacher for advice. She reminded me of the amount of time I had to teach my lesson and she gave me ideas on how to make it shorter. Her advice helped me a lot, because now I know how to plan a lesson that should only take 15 minutes.
The benefit to shortening my lessons is that I am better able to focus on helping individual students with math due to the extra 5 minutes I give them to get their worksheets finished at the end of the lesson. I review their worksheets with them and we look at the ones they got wrong. This way, everyone understands the concept before moving on.
Emily, I found myself also planning very intricate lessons. I remember particularly a lesson about nouns that I made way too complicated and the students became confused and found it difficult to play the game that I created because it was so detailed. I liked how you explained the different steps you took to break everything down, such as different worksheets and changing your focus. I found that many times, simplicity is key, and sometimes my most simple but straightforward lessons were the most successful.
DeleteI really do agree with the poem that as a teacher, you learn from your reflections that you have made on that day. Those reflections then lead us to the help the points that help the students learn. One reflection that I am thinking about is based on a social studies lesson. The lesson was based on an economic unit, but the students struggled with the concept of profits. I knew the students did not fully understand the concept because of the formative assessments and reflections I had made that day.
ReplyDeleteAfter reflecting on the lesson that day, I knew I had to re-teach the idea of “profit”. My class learned best when they were active and had hand on experiences, so I was trying to brainstorm hands on activities. I turned to my teacher and asked her for a suggestion and she suggested maybe doing a role playing skit with the students. I realized that could work if I was the narrator of the skit and students were the actors. The students had note cards that labeled them as the producer, consumer, or profit. The first time we did the skit I labeled the each part. We did the skit a second time and the students properly labeled the skit.
The next time I teach a lesson that involves the topic of profit, I will include this skit immediately. Students like to be active learners and this was a perfect opportunity that allowed the kids to understand the concept.
If a problem similar to this happens in my first year of teaching, I would turn to my team and mentor teacher for help. My team and mentor may have had similar problems in the past, so they may know how to help me. If they have not experienced the same problem, we could brainstorm ideas together and develop a possible solution. The concept cannot be overlooked. It needs to be discussed again, so the students can grow academically.
I am happy that my “bump in the road” happened because it really made see how important re-teaching can be. At the end of the lesson, the students were able to properly answer the quick questions and provide their own examples because of the re-teaching lesson.
Kimmy,
DeleteI think the idea of getting the students hands-on involved is great! I think this would be a great example of not only your reflection and flexible teaching but also on your use of active engagement. I agree that hands-on first usually makes things go smoother. For example, when I started a unit of fractions, I tried to only have my students use manipulatives rather than try to discuss the abstract concept of fractions. Then, some of my students were ready to think abstractly, but I still had a group use manipulatives to work through problems. By the end of the unit, almost all students could work through the more complex problems like multiplying fractions without the help of manipulatives.
Kimmy, I love how you say you're happy that your "bump in the road" happened. That such a good point to make. I feel that we have to make mistakes in the classroom to learn from them. Having these "bumps in the road" help us become better teachers. I also thinks its important to share with students when we run into problems because it's important they see everyone makes mistakes and its ok! Plus just having an optimistic view on the problems we run into as teachers is a great quality to have.
DeleteKimmy, I also really love how you said you were happy that your "bump in the road" happened. I feel to better ourselves as teachers and professionals we need to face those bumps in the road. We need to see that not everything will always go perfectly and smoothly and we need to be able to have ideas and experiences to fall back on, in order to face those bumps in the road. I really like how you incorporated active, hands-on learning for your students. I know from my experiences with my second graders they really like to be active in their learning and really involved, rather than just completing a worksheet or always sitting at their desks.
DeleteShayna, I like how you pointed out that it's important to share with our students when we run into problems. I completely agree with you that we should do this. I believe that it will help our students to see that everyone makes mistakes and how we can work to solve or fix those mistakes. It's a way to show and kind of teach a life lesson, without it being focused on something the students did.
I have certainly learned that a perfect lesson on paper does not always go as planned. During a lesson, if I notice that my students are not understanding an important concept then I will think on my feet and either try to reteach the same concept through a different method or plan to continue the same lesson another day, providing more time for the concept to be grasped. If I can figure out what is causing the bump in the road, such as student behavior or a distraction, then I can quickly rectify the situation in order to move on. I found myself doing this during science experiments when the exciting and new science materials created a distraction. I found that I had to give the students time to explore the new materials and then review the rules with the class before moving on. Once students were reminded to keep all of the materials on the tray it was easier to move forward.
ReplyDeleteI have also experienced interruptions that are simply out of the control of the teacher, such as fire drills in the middle of lessons or snow days. I found myself turning to my cooperating teacher most to double check about how to reschedule lesson time that was missed. When I experienced a bump in the road during a lesson I would later talk about it with my cooperating teacher about how I chose to handle it and ask for advice based on her previous experiences. If necessary, we would come up with a solution together. I believe that working with other teachers and sharing ideas provides positive benefits. I know that when I am new to teaching and have my own classroom I will have a mentor in the building and handle the situation similarly.
I agree with the science materials becoming a distraction! I taught science to all the fourth graders at my school because they switch class and I found that the students were always wanting to keep touching the materials that were in front of them. It made for times when the lessons would become choppy because I was constantly reminding the students to put their hands down and stopping touching everything. I find that time to explore and reminding them of the expectations helps tremendously also. By stating expectations in the beginning, students are aware of what they should be doing throughout the lesson.
DeleteWe have definitely experienced many bumps that were out of our control such as snow days! I have also been double checking with my cooperating teacher on how to fix these interruptions. One thing that has helped a lot is asking for the reasoning behind different changes. This has helped me learn how to rearrange a schedule and given me the opportunity to see the priorities in the classroom.
DeleteAly that happened to me too with the science materials! For me, it was more during lessons though. I had students misusing the materials, like blowing things with their straws. I made sure to include clear behavior guidelines the next time I taught a hands on science lesson.
DeleteTeaching is going to involve many bumps in the road. There are so many aspects of our environment that we cannot control. Students can be absent for critical instruction or assessment. New students can show up unannounced introducing a whole new set of behavioral issues. Weather can cause inconsistent learning patterns, as we are all familiar. Overall, my student teaching experience has been very smooth. I can think of one specific time that there was a "Bump in the road." At the conclusion of a unit of imaginative narratives, I was going to have my students type their final drafts before I sent them to another class to give my students critical feedback. However, we got to the computer lab for our allotted 45 minutes, and I made the discovery that my fourth graders did not have typing skills. As a fourth grader, I had computer skills class and was capable of typing independently. Other schools that I worked in have had similar courses in teaching students to type. So, I made the assumption that my students had that same experience level. I was very wrong. After about five minutes, I realized we were going to need much more time so I arranged to reserve the lab for an extended period of time. I assisted my students who needed help learning where special keys such as quotation marks were located. By the end of our time, several students were not finished. I improvised and printed the version they had completed and had them hand write the rest of their final copy. Afterwards, I asked my cooperating teacher if she knew that they could not type. She did, but she wanted me to have the experience of something not going well because she felt it was a valuable one. Ultimately, I learned my lesson to not assume background knowledge or skills before confirming that they in fact exist.
ReplyDeleteIn other situations where I have had bumps in the road, I have tried to utilize not only my cooperating teachers but also the other teachers in our grade. I try to maintain relationships with all the professionals I interact with so I find it helpful to bounce ideas off of other teachers as well. As a first year teacher, I hope to still build relationships so that I have a team of people to refer to when I need advice.
That is definitely a "bump in the road" and it seems like you were really able to adapt your lesson so that everyone succeeded in the end. It is actually really good that your teacher did not tell you in advance about the students being inexperienced with typing. Even though it was probably stressful when you found out, it's important to know how to act under pressure when situations like that occur. I bet you also found out that you need to really think on you feet as a teacher.
DeleteAs with anything in life, things are going to happen throughout your day that are not expected. As a teacher, it is especially important to be able to be flexible and always adjust to your students. With all of the snow days during our first placement, it was very important to keep the students on as much of a schedule as possible. Also, it was very crucial to fit in the things that NEEDED to be done. However, you cannot move on from a topic in teaching just because it needs to get done. A lot of the times, you will have to spend more time on something that you expected because the students did not grasp it as well as you may have predicted. I found this through my math lessons especially. In my classroom ,there were 3 gifted children, 4 children with special needs, 3 other students who were below level, and then 12 students that were "typical." Because of the vast range of skills in my classroom, not every child learned the same way or at the same pace. I found this very early on with my Math lessons. During my informal formative assessments (participation observations) and my formal formative assessments which were either summarizers or questions on a notecard, it was clear to me that not all of my students were succeeding the way that I had hoped. After reflecting on my teaching and my approach, I realized that something needed to be done. I started to put the children into different groups based on their needs, learning styles, and relationships in the classroom. Each group had different tasks for the day in Math that required different techniques. I worked specifically with one group, while still walking around the room and checking in with my other groups. I found that this intervention worked wonders! It really allowed me to see the different skills that each student had and also their areas of struggle. Then with the snow days, it was a little harder to fit this in because it took more time than just a sit down lesson. However, I made sure to always make it work by rearranging other subject areas that needed less time. The centers worked great for the kids and they really responded to the more interactive learning process. I could tell this by the way the students acted during the lesson. They were more engaged and worked together with their other group mates to address issues and problems. Also, the results of the formative assessments were much more successful! The students did very well on their final assessment and I was so pleased! If I would have just kept "pushing through" the sit down lessons and neglecting to reflect on my approach, the students would have struggled and I would have just been going through the motions.
ReplyDeleteThe ladies that I was on a "team" with, which were the 3 other second grade teachers, were always very helpful during my time at West Hanover. We would have discussions about what was working well in our classrooms during certain lessons and what the students were having trouble with. This helped because there was always so many ideas being floated around and thrown off of each other. Something that I may have not thought to try helped me in my classroom with my struggling kids. Also, my cooperating teacher was amazing. We had long discussions about my teaching and the students response. She always helped me figure out how to solve an issue and I made sure to always be reflective and write down what she said to me.
Teaching can be a challenge for sure! However, when you are reflective, keep accurate records, and maintain a balance between all subject areas, it is a lot less stressful and makes things a whole lot easier when you do come to another "bump in the road!"
I like the idea of not moving on just because the schedule says so. If don't get the concept when the teacher is teaching, they will never get it.
DeleteFor my student teaching placement, I considered myself extremely lucky. Because I was in a kindergarten classroom I had an AM class and a PM class. Because of this all of my lessons were taught twice each day. I would teach my PM class exactly what I taught my AM class. Because of this, this gave me the opportunity to change things that went wrong and make my lessons better for my PM students. I know for most cases, this is not how it works with education. You usually only get one chance to teach the lesson and if it doesn’t work you need to think on your feet to make things better. Within my experience, the onetime things didn’t go right was when trying to get the students to complete a multiple step activity. My students are 5 and 6 year olds that have extremely short attention spans. When it comes to completing a multi-step activity it is hard for them to stay focused. Within this you need a lot of classroom management skills to keep your students on the same page. What I learned for next time, having a visual to use as an example is extremely important. I also didn’t know that my students did not know how to trace objects so that caused a lot of problems. Understanding students’ abilities is needed. My teacher explained that she runs into these same problems often in the classroom. Keeping the students focused is extremely hard. For the next time I completed an activity like this, I created a power point that showed pictures of what step they were on and what was expected of them. That way students can look at the front board to make sure they are doing the right thing. I also used different types of classroom management skills that I developed over the couple weeks. Like I said, being able to teach my lessons twice a day was extremely helpful. This gave me opportunities to change the things I needed to fix and do better the next time. I also felt bad though because my PM students would also get the better lesson than my AM students.
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ReplyDeleteAs many have already stated, when you are teaching you should always expect the unexpected. Things will occur that are completely out of your control and you need to be able to think on your feet and change things when you see that they need to be changed. During my student teaching experience, one bump in the road that I encountered was partly a result of the weather that we have been having this winter. My students would always have lots of energy, especially in the afternoon because we were not able to go outside for recess. This caused some unwanted behavior in the classroom during instruction. To help address this behavior, I would have my students take brain breaks when I could see that they were getting antsy and chatty. I also used our calling sticks occasionally during these breaks to allow the students to pick the movement activity we did at that time. The students really enjoyed these little breaks in the instruction and they also enjoyed being able to pick what we did for part of that small break. I also made my expectations clear, as to what the students were supposed to do during the break and once the break was over, so that the unwanted behaviors did not increase from the excitement of the break.
ReplyDeleteI also think that reflecting on your own teaching can really help to address possible bumps in the road. For example, I was teaching a lesson on pictographs after I taught them about bar graphs. The students seemed to do pretty well with the whole group activity. However, once I let them work with partners or individually on a different pictograph, I could see that they did not have as good of an understanding of the concept as I thought they did. Unfortunately, math time was over so I was not able to fix the bump in the road right then and there. However, based on seeing how my students did I was able to make the decision that we needed to spend an extra day on pictographs before moving on to line plots, to ensure that my students had the proper understanding. I really feel like this extra day helped my students a lot because near the end of math the next day, the good majority of my students had a very good understanding of pictographs.
During my student teaching, I turn to my cooperating teacher as well as the other teachers on our second grade team for advice. We always bounce ideas off of each other and ask each other for advice on how to handle certain situations or how to teach a certain concept or lesson. I think having a strong relationship with your cooperating teacher and the other teachers in your grade level is very beneficial when it comes to needing advice. In my first year of teaching, I would turn to my coach or mentor, as well as the other teachers in my grade level for advice or help with something.
From student teaching so far, I would say that the lessons that did not go as smoothly planned, or the days where I felt that I made a lot of mistakes, were the ones from which I learned the most. One of my biggest problems was connected to classroom management. I faced this problem early on, when I felt that not all of the students were listening to me when I was giving directions, and I felt that I was not given the same respect as my cooperating teacher. To fix this “bump in the road”, I spoke to my cooperating teacher and researched online some ways to capture student attention. One of the most helpful things I found was to hold these students accountable. My cooperating teacher explained the importance of making an expectation and then not moving on until that expectation was met. I would also give positive and negative dojos while I waiting. By beginning to really hold the students accountable, I felt that I had their respect and they were much more engaged in the material I was teaching.
ReplyDeleteAnother bump in the road came when I was teaching a lesson about introduction and conclusion paragraphs. I emphasized the importance of capturing the readers’ attention and summarizing the main idea, in addition to describing the details. I modeled an example for the students and then did a guided practice; however, I found that when the students went to write an independent piece, they used creative means to capture the reader’s attention, but then just described details, instead of summarizing the main idea. To fix this problem, I retaught the concept by creating a whole new worksheet that outlined each necessary piece of the introduction and conclusive paragraphs. By spelling each part out in a more clear way, the students understood the requirements and their pieces were much stronger!
I am fortunate in the sense that I got to work with three great teachers at Fulton Elementary. I got different perspectives on feedback and was often guided through my own reflective process at the end of my lessons. Each person told me what they believed my strengths to be, what they felt I should work on, and things they would have done differently.
ReplyDeleteIn one particular instance, a math lesson went wrong. Even though I had thoughtfully planned the lesson and knew my students well, it still flopped. I introduced the concept of data and graphing, with students very engaged, showed them my pictograph I had made of all the birthdays of the 4th grade students, explained the key and all of the things that I needed to before allowing them to analyze and represent the data themselves, but I had a cut class. Half of the class finished way too early and half of the class still had no clue of what they were doing. So, at the end of the lesson, I had to really stop and think about where the lesson started going south and about the changes I should have made while teaching. I strategized with the 4th grade math teacher and we figured that it would have been more beneficial to teach in centers after bringing students in from the pictograph, that way we can ensure students are on task, and give the struggling students small group attention. Instead of just letting it go at that, the teacher I was working with asked me to make the changes to the lesson, and teach her next class. Although it was unexpected and made me a bit nervous, I taught the class with the changes and it went much better. Then, after that lesson, I thought of even more changes that I could have made to maximize student benefit.
In teaching, I think bumps in the roads are a normal thing. Not every students is always going to understand what you are teaching, they won't always act appropriately the whole time, and you may not deliver the concept the best that you can every time; but the most important thing is that you learn from it. I have found that by reflecting after your lessons, or at the end of the day, you realize things that you could have done differently that will help the students learn better, or that will help make that lesson go perfectly, or as close to perfect as it could get.
ReplyDeleteOne bump in the road that sticks out to me is when I was teaching a fractions lesson to my 4th graders. The students were having a hard time understanding the concept of adding fractions that did not have like denominators. They kept asking how I know what number to change it to, and I did know how to explain it in a way that they would understand. To me, it was just automatic, but they needed more guidance. I was getting frustrated, and I felt like time couldn't have gone any slower. Once the lesson was done, I looked back as to what I did, and what I said, and I figured that maybe I could have explained in a better way, or could have went out of order of the Everyday Math program and taught common denominators first like I would have liked to have done in the first place.
When this bump in the road happened, I immediately talked to my co-op and the learning support teacher that was assisting some students to see if what I was saying made sense, and if I could have done anything differently. I find that going to someone like a mentor teacher, or other professional helps tremendously. They have taught those lessons so many times and are more experienced with how to adjust the lessons to all the students.
Although I found this lesson extremely frustrating, it helped me become a better teacher and I am thankful for that. It has allowed me to not expect everything to go perfect, and sometimes you just have to go with the flow and change what you are doing. Bumps in the road are going to happen and can help, if you reflect on both the positives and the negatives. Reflection is the key component in taking the bumps in the road and turning them into something positive and a learning experience.
While planning for success is important, it is also important to plan for failure. I have been very lucky over the last eight weeks to have a fantastic group of students. These students were confident in themselves and would easily raise their hands and say “Ms. Hansberry, I don’t get it.” This made my formative assessments much easier. I could tell immediately when they were lost and quickly explained again. Planning these extra explanations helped my stress level when a lesson did not go as planned. Before moving on in any lesson, I would do a quick formative assessment. Whether it was a thumbs up thumbs down for understanding, a sample problem on their white boards, or voting in the correct answer on the SmartBoard, I always checked with the students before moving on. When someone was not understanding the lesson, I would pull my backup explanation and attempt to explain again. If students still needed additional support, I would work with them during independent class time using manipulatives or additional materials.
ReplyDeletePlanning for these “bumps in the road” have helped make the issues become minuscule. However, even when planning for misunderstanding there are still times when the backup plan doesn’t work either. I always reflect on my lessons to see what went well and what to change for next time. When reflecting on these lessons, I always turn to my cooperating teacher and my supervisor for their opinions and advice. I attempt to always use constructive criticism to improve my teaching. I see any type of advice or criticism as a benefit to help me improve my teaching.
In my Kindergarten classroom I learned to roll with the punches because many times lessons did not go exactly as I had envisioned them to go; i.e. a concept was missed by some students, I forgot to include something, etc. The great thing about having an AM and a PM class was that I got to reflect halfway through my day and make adjustments as needed. I spent a lot of my time reflecting on my lessons and on students comprehension of the content presented. Reflected daily helped me to pace out my lessons and adjust things when needed. While I was teaching the subtraction unit I planned out, one of this years snow storms hit and we were out of school for two days. This definitely was challenging because I had just introduced the concept to students and with the time off that new material was lost. Reflecting on the material and formatively assessing my students' understanding allowed me to add in activities as stretch the unit as needed. I ended up adding two more days of introducing the concept and really breaking down what subtraction is and means and it showed because the students did really well on their unit assessment.
ReplyDeleteWhile you always want your students to succeed, it is important to remember that there will be struggles on the way. A good teacher should always plan for failure. I have been very fortunate to have a class full of students who are eager to learn and when they don’t understand they ask questions right away. This made my formative assessment go over very smoothly. In my lessons, I planned for students not understanding the concept, which helped me when this situation came up. Every time I taught a lesson, before moving on I would check for quick understanding from my students; normally this was something as simple as asking them to give me a thumbs up or a thumbs down. If a few students were struggling, I would try and go over what they weren’t too sure about. At the end of every lesson, I always try and write down a few quick notes about how it went and what I could have done better. Then after school, I look over those notes and add more things that I may have thought of throughout the day. This has really helped me improve my teaching skills and become better at handling situations. I have also talked to me co-op as well as supervisor for some extra advice if I am struggling with a certain topic when teaching. They have given me many suggestions which have helped a lot during the process. I have realized that being prepared has been the biggest help!
ReplyDeleteThings will go wrong in your classroom. it is a matter of fact. Good teachers may panic and not know what to do, but great teachers will always have a back up plan. The second time I was observed, my lesson ended shortly. We had an hour block for writing, my lesson was 40 minutes, and I thought m teacher would take up the last 20. Our lack of communication put me in a tough spot: I had to fill 20 minutes of time with something meaningful. I though quickly on my feet and thought of an enrichment activity that I could have the students do. I told the students that I made a mistake. (Later my supervisor said that it was okay that I made mistakes, it was all part of the process, and that telling my students about my mistake made them realize that it was okay to make mistakes.) I also did a read-aloud for the last 5 minutes.
ReplyDeleteI then realized the importance of communication and self-reflection. I now double-check my schedule and lessons before hand, so the school day can go as smooth as possible.
These things will happen frequently, it is important to plan ahead and always have some back-up lessons or activities to use at a moment's notice.
My co-op said the same thing about making mistakes! I made a mistake in our number pattern notebook, but it turned into a teachable moment. I was able to admit my mistake to the kids, but it also showed how you have to check every number in the pattern for it to be right.
DeleteI've found that whatever mistake I make, I can use to make the lesson better. For social studies we've been trying out literature circles. The first time we did the lesson the section was about Native Americans, something all my students had background knowledge in. The second section though was on Early Settlers. It had words like Europeans, colony, colonists; words my students had never encountered before. They had such little background knowledge that they couldn't accomplish their lit. circle jobs. My co-op and myself decided we need to take a "Colony 101" day to look at the all the words and questions the kids had so that they could understand all the lessons about settlers and colonies that were coming up. It helped so much and my kids really understood the content.
ReplyDeleteWhen an experiment/ activity didn’t work as you expected?
ReplyDeleteI chose to answer this question because I could best relate to it. While teaching a second grade science unit, I taught a lesson involving an experiment with a homemade barometer. When I squeezed on the plastic bag attached to the barometer, the level of the water was supposed to move, but it did not move at all. It was hard to teach air pressure without a working barometer. I told them what was supposed to happen and how it was supposed to work and we watched a video that I had planned on showing. The lesson continued to flow, but the kids were upset our experiment didn't work out. After the lesson, I got the opportunity to talk to my supervisor. He has a science background, so he was telling me that a lot of good can still come from a failed experiment. During my lesson, I made sure to talk about what should have happened, but my supervisor suggested that next time I talk about why it didn't work. Not all science experiments are going to work, but it is important to talk about why.
I agree with you Lauren. I have had failed attempts on getting the skill across to my students and not only do I learn from it, but so do my students. For example, I taught my students frame and arrows and I failed miserably at getting the skill across to my students. I discussed my mistake with the class and corrected my mistakes and kind of washed out the mistakes. It is important to learn from your mistakes.
DeleteI have had many times where my lessons did not go as well as I thought they would have. I am usually hard on myself for not getting everything done. I have come to realize that not everything will get done and its okay to move things to the next day. In my general ed. classroom I had many lessons that never got finished and I just got over the fact that the students got them done in one day. Some days there would be students who would get the skill quickly and others who did not. Some of the students were really got into the skill and wanted me to teach more. Even though I wanted to teach them more of the skill there was not enough time. Time constraints limited me to what I am teaching my students. There were also times where my students looked at me with deer in headlights. I reflected on my lesson and figured out how to reteach the skill. Sometimes reteaching the skill got through to them and others did not. I found making my lessons interactive made the skill more permanent in their heads. Making lessons hands on and minds on keeps the students engaged and gets the skill through faster. My co-op was always encouraging me to not worry and just revamp the lesson. It was nice to hear my co-op encourage me to continue to work on my lesson.
ReplyDeleteI feel as though most lessons don’t go as planned, but sometimes that’s for the best. As a teacher, I have to adapt to any situation and be very flexible. You cannot plan how students are going to act, how well they’ll understand the concept, or what could possibly go wrong.
ReplyDeleteI have been teaching my second grade students how to count coins using Touch Money. They are supposed to draw dots on the coins and count by fives as they touch the dots. I finally felt like they were able to count different amounts of coins so I gave them a quick formative assessment that looked very similar to worksheets we had been working on. The average grade was a 3 out of 7. I had plans to move on to subtraction the next day, but instead I had to change my plans so that the students could continue working on counting coins. I want my students to fully understand a concept before I can move on.