Each week, I will also set a couple goals for myself and discuss my goals from last week and how they went/if they were met. Last week, my goals were to learn at least 50% of the names of my students and to become more comfortable in the classroom as I get to know my students and get the hang of teaching them. It’s hard to tell exactly, but I think I was able to learn 50% of the names of my students, or at least somewhere around there. I also became a lot more comfortable in the classroom as I got to know my teacher and students better. I was able to get a lot of practice teaching this week as well, with made me feel a lot more confident in my own teaching.
New goals:
- To learn 75% of my students names by next week.
- To have a good observation this week and to learn from the feedback I’m given.
Below, I will describe some of the things I did this past week and reflect on them according to the standards we must discuss this week for my college's program.
1. Knowledge: Describe what you learned this week about creating a learning environment that encouraged social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self motivation.
This week was my first week actually teaching. On Tuesday, there were a lot of notes that we had to work our way through, as we are reviewing what they learned last year in Spanish. Unfortunately, the time we have to take to review is, by nature, duller than it is to learn new concepts in Spanish. While teaching my first period class, I could just feel how boring the class was and asleep we all seemed. When my teacher asked me how I thought the class period went, I told her it felt “awful”. Then, she helped me come up with some more exciting ways to explain the material and suggested that I use the students in some of my examples. Her advice helped out a lot! I took an active approach to the lesson and it went much smoother for the next four class periods I taught the lesson.
One way students are self-motivated in my class is when they start to recall all the information we are reviewing. At first, they are slightly overwhelmed, but it is evident that they are now starting to feel more comfortable with what they learned last year and are being motivated by that. My role in this is to use examples to explain and to check with them as I go to make sure they are understanding what we are reviewing.
2. Performance: What strategies did you use to create a smoothly functioning learning community in which students assumed responsibility for themselves and one another, participated in decision-making, and worked collaboratively and independently? How did you help your students develop the motivation to achieve?
One thing I did to create a smoothly functioning learning community was reflect on and perfect my lesson as the day went on. Once I knew what students were going to struggle with the first time around, I was able to change my lesson to help students or to explain better. I also changed the way I taught if I noticed the students weren’t very engaged. Through this, students have the choice whether they are going to take notes or not in order to take responsibility of their own learning. I find that almost all of my students are taking notes, because they know how helpful they are going to be once we get to the quizzes and tests.
At the end of each class period, I try to give the students a few minutes to work on their homework as well. This way, if they have any questions, they can ask them while they are starting their work. This allows them to take responsibility of their work and stay on task. Some students, however, tend to just put it away and work on nothing.
3. Performance: What approaches did you use to promote social interaction between students with disabilities and students without disabilities?
In the Spanish program at Lincoln Hall, we don’t have many students with disabilities, so I haven’t had to deal with too many issues with this up to this point. We do, however, have a student who wears a microphone in her ear and I wear one around my neck when she’s in my room in order for her to hear better. I haven’t run into anyone giver her a hard time about it or learning her out because of it, but I am aware.
Even though I don’t know of any students with disabilities in my classes that could be left out because of them, I try to make sure that each student is being treated with respect. Bullying is something that the school, as well as myself, takes very seriously and will not stand by to let it happen. If I see it happening, I will discuss it with my cooperating teacher to deal with it according to their school policies.
4. Performance: What have you done, or will you do, to equip students to “own their learning and not be passive in the classroom”?
In order to equip students to own their learning, I try to get students excited to learn about Spanish. For example, in order to review what we have been learning this week, I tried something new. We listened to a Spanish song, in which they had to fill in the missing lyrics that associated with what we have been reviewing. This showed them how useful the different things we are learning are to Spanish as they came up a lot in the song. Hopefully, it also encouraged them to want to listen to other songs in Spanish and listen for the words they are learning and be excited because they know what it’s saying.
Soon, I would also like to start my students on a site called “Interpals” in which we pair up with a class in a Spanish-speaking country whom are trying to learning English. Each student then gets a language partner that they write back and forth to in their target language. This helps get students motivated to learn and makes them want to take ownership of their learning because it’s exciting. I will also encourage them to not only talk to their partner when I have them do it for class, but on their own as well.
For class, I am also reading a Classroom Confidential: 12 Secrets to Great Teaching by Schmidt. Each week, I will reflect on what I read. This week I read about "eptness." The opening line about eptness explains that although teachers “may not get to set the culture of their school, they do set the culture of thier classrooms.” (p. 24) I like the way Schmidt explains that the culture of the class, including behaviors, beliefs, conversation style, attitudes, and activities of the classroom are all going to be decided by the teacher. The culture we create in our classrooms can make the world of difference to our students, and thus, in their acceptance and motivation to learning. Students play a huge role in eptness as well, as they are “the ultimate resource” (p. 25).
Later in the chapter, Schmidt talks about 10 behaviors teachers should use. The three that stuck out to me were approximations, encouragement and feedback. Here is how I will use them in class:
Approximations: I really like how Schmidt explains approximations. Instead of looking for students to do something wrong, it is best to look for approximations of good behavior. When it is seen, let the child know what they have done right and thank them for it. I saw my cooperating teacher do this well last semester, and I aspire to get better at doing so as well. I feel as if students will respond better to this as well.
Encouragement: Encouraging students is a very important tool as it help motivate them. As a teacher, I want to give students courage to try new things, continue to succeed in when they know, and to follow instructions through encouragement. It is essential to note exactly what you are giving a student praise for doing so they understand what they have done right and want to continue doing so.
Feedback: Feedback is another important classroom behavior to use. Feedback should be positive in order to appreciate their efforts and should incorporate their own words so they know they have done a good job. As a teacher, I want to provide students with feedback so they know what they have done a good job on and that I am proud of them.
For class, I am also reading a Classroom Confidential: 12 Secrets to Great Teaching by Schmidt. Each week, I will reflect on what I read. This week I read about "eptness." The opening line about eptness explains that although teachers “may not get to set the culture of their school, they do set the culture of thier classrooms.” (p. 24) I like the way Schmidt explains that the culture of the class, including behaviors, beliefs, conversation style, attitudes, and activities of the classroom are all going to be decided by the teacher. The culture we create in our classrooms can make the world of difference to our students, and thus, in their acceptance and motivation to learning. Students play a huge role in eptness as well, as they are “the ultimate resource” (p. 25).
Later in the chapter, Schmidt talks about 10 behaviors teachers should use. The three that stuck out to me were approximations, encouragement and feedback. Here is how I will use them in class:
Approximations: I really like how Schmidt explains approximations. Instead of looking for students to do something wrong, it is best to look for approximations of good behavior. When it is seen, let the child know what they have done right and thank them for it. I saw my cooperating teacher do this well last semester, and I aspire to get better at doing so as well. I feel as if students will respond better to this as well.
Encouragement: Encouraging students is a very important tool as it help motivate them. As a teacher, I want to give students courage to try new things, continue to succeed in when they know, and to follow instructions through encouragement. It is essential to note exactly what you are giving a student praise for doing so they understand what they have done right and want to continue doing so.
Feedback: Feedback is another important classroom behavior to use. Feedback should be positive in order to appreciate their efforts and should incorporate their own words so they know they have done a good job. As a teacher, I want to provide students with feedback so they know what they have done a good job on and that I am proud of them.
Nice job
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