Reflecting on Student Teaching, preparing for my career

I learned a great deal from my Kindergarten students this year.  Foremost, I learned that each student has their own particular journey in education, and it is exciting for me to discover what my best possible role in their story will be.  Teaching is an endless challenge.  As much as I improve, there will always be more I can do.  In terms of organization, I thought I would never get better at getting papers together and knowing what needed to be gotten ready next, but by the end of the semester I realized I was in the flow, and I knew my organizational skills had grown.

Total commitment to the job means being a team member who gives their all while always listening.  In learning to work with my cooperating teacher, I grew as a person.  Helping make each day a celebration, I really enjoyed developing my ability to collaborate.

As insightful as I am, there are always new students with new stories who have unique and unexpected needs.  As I taught my kindergarten students about dinosaurs, I learned so much about dinosaurs that I never knew.  This will always be my goal, to be a fellow learner with my students.  If they are interested in something, I can expect nothing less of myself than to be interested as well, just as I expect them to be interested in what I am so excited to present.  Our relationship centers around the discovery of everything in the world, how open and exciting!  Learning is the development of the mind into both an archive, and a workshop.  As much as I am looking forward to exploring what there is to know, I am thrilled to have the chance to be giving students opportunities to craft knowledge in ways that excite them.
  

There is nothing more important to me, as a professional, than having the best possible relationship with every one of my students.  The best possible relationship begins with very high expectations, and carries on with a lot of heart.  It means taking the extra time to make curriculum meaningful.  Above all, it means constantly reflecting on what the child demonstrates as a person and as a student, and applying myself to support their growth as a whole child.

I think of myself as someone who can look past the barriers that stand in the way of success for so many students in school.  Problems exist for us to solve them, and so often the first step might be changing our thinking.  We face big challenges as a society, and individuals are constantly challenged by life, the role of a teacher is to give vision to those in their charge, to be the guide, to bring out the best in people.  I am ready to begin.

Midterms

Midterm assessment.pdf

Video Critique #2

1. Demonstrates knowledge of the disciplines and subject matter related to curriculum.

1. Presents content in way students can understand. I was able to get the idea across.
2. Answers questions appropriately and correctly, and directs learners to suitable sources. The questions were easy to answer, I did let students know where and how I found this information.

2. Designs interdisciplinary and discrete subject area instruction to achieve curriculum goals.

1. Establishes clear and useful objectives. Could have let students know they would be writing on it.
2. Seeks opportunities to integrate learning from various disciplines. Writing about the science and drawing pictures of the dinosaur we studied were good integrations.

3. Uses appropriate technologies and resources to enhance instruction and student performance.

1. Has knowledge of current technology and attempts to incorporate it in teaching. The smart board was used to present a slide show, and worked well to familiarize the students with the subject.
2. Matches appropriate technologies to lesson objectives. The slide show got students started and was a reference for their picture and writing, a better list of vocabulary words they might have wanted to use could have been included.
3. Instructs students in appropriate use of technology. During the lesson students asked to see a slide again, and I showed them how I was going back.

4. Selects and designs appropriate, authentic means of assessing student learning and progress.

1. Uses pre-assessments to determine students' background knowledge. The discussion on animals we already know from today that burrow worked well for this.
2. Encourages students to assess and monitor their own progress through self-reflection. Throughout I encouraged them to remember what parts of a sentence they should be using, capital letters to start, having what is written make sense, and punctuation at the end.
3. Gives choice of assignments toward meeting objectives.  Students were encouraged to do their best and that included the picture as well as the writing.  Although students were asked to write, one student with weak writing skills dictated her sentence to the teacher, and focused more on her picture.

5. Implements management strategies to promote a safe and positive learning environment.

5a Instructional Management

1. Prepares for each lesson. The lesson was well prepared.
2. Provides for a safe physical environment for students. The room was orderly.
3. Establishes a classroom environment that fosters student achievement. Everyone looked to feel encouraged and successful during this lesson.
4. Uses class time effectively. I stayed busy helping students with varying amounts of support and the class was busy working.
5. Builds connections to students’ prior knowledge. Worked up to dinosaur burrow using animals they have seen that burrow.
6. Incorporates student responses or questions to help direct curricular decisions. Instruction was almost a conversation at times between class and teacher.
7. Engages all students equitably in discussions and activities. I tried to call on al many students as I could and both boys and girls.  Gave more help to students who needed more support.

5b Behavior management

1. Defines and adheres to clear classroom policies and procedures. Made sure students were raising hands before calling on them.
2. Strives to develop attitudes and work habits that promote responsibility and respect for others. Encouraged everyone to do their best by praising students were working hard.
3. Engages and keeps students on-task. Students were all working, this was an interesting lesson.
4. Provides appropriate feedback for student behavior. Reminded students to raise hands.
5. Analyzes classroom problems and initiates appropriate solutions. One student was upset, I listened and found out that he wanted to keep working into rest time.

6. Engages students in learning activities that promote critical and creative thinking.

1. Uses varied questioning strategies. Good discussion on why animals burrow.
2. Uses ‘think’ time for student responses. I didn’t hand them the answers.
3. Helps students assess validity and reliability of information. Let them know about why the scientists thought what they found was a burrow.
4. Encourages students to use multiple strategies and techniques for problem solving. Good discussion on why animals burrow.
5. Helps students summarize and develop generalizations. This was a good activity for summarizing why an animal burrows, the relation to burrowing animals today was a way to generalize.

7. Designs and organizes learning environments to accommodate learners.

1. Helps students to accept responsibility for learning. The writing activity made them show what they had learned.
2. Uses a variety of materials, strategies, and activities to accommodate learning styles. For the student who couldn’t show what she learned in writing, and for other students whose writing was not strong, there could have been more focus on the big idea showing up in the picture, with a quick discussion of what should be included in the picture to get the idea of why an animal lives in the burrow across.
3. Establishes clear and useful objectives. Activity was straightforward.
4. Creatively connects lessons with student experience to make learning meaningful. Good discussion on what animals burrow today.
5. Designs developmentally appropriate lessons. Students were all able to accomplish the goals of the lesson with the amount of teacher support which could be provided.

8. Communicates clearly, accurately, and professionally to diverse audiences.

1. Communicates enthusiasm for learning and teaching. Clear enthusiasm.
2. Uses effective listening skills. Listed student contributions.
3. Speaks clearly and with appropriate voice inflection. Good use of voice.
4. Uses Standard English. Professional language.
5. Gives clear directions and explanations. Students all knew what they were supposed to be doing.

9. Reflects on professional responsibilities and demonstrates commitment to fairness and the ability of all to learn

1. Maintains a professional appearance. Dress and hygiene were professional.
2. Demonstrates fairness by meeting the educational needs of all students in a caring, non-discriminatory, and equitable manner. I tried hard to help everyone who needed help, and subtly give more help to those who needed it most.
3. Lesson plans and student interactions demonstrate the belief that all students can learn.  The lesson was set up so that everyone could be successful.

10. Goals from first taping: get students more active. I did not have my students up and active during this lesson, although that would have been fun it also would have taken more time.

Video Tape Critique #1

Upon reviewing my video tape:

1. What are my strengths?
I am doing my best to call on different students.  I am trying to make sure I have everyone engaged in the lesson.  I am interested and excited about what I am teaching.

2. In what ways do I need to improve my instructional delivery?
It might help keep more of the students with me if I integrated some movements or even a song, because I kept losing the same students' attention.

3. How will I improve my teaching effectiveness?
I will do more that has my Kindergarten students up and active.

Representative examples of Kindergarten student work.

The purpose of this assignment was to get students to practice their writing.  At first we talked about other burrowing creatures that live today, then I had students write about oryctodromeus.  I asked them, "In your writing, tell me why oryctodromeus lived in a burrow."

My goals for student teaching are to 
1) improve my organizational skills, 
2) learn to work more collaboratively with other educators, 
3) develop curriculum based off of student assessment and interest,
4) improve my classroom management skills, and
5) become more effective assisting multiple students during independent work time.

Music Teachers' Professional Development Reflection

MusicTeachersProfessionalDevelopment.pdf

Ability Oriented Essay

Working to better understand my own journey from 'disability thinking' to 'ability thinking' has been hugely beneficial to me as an educator.  I am excited to find every way possible to help children shine, and I want to have high expectations for all of my students.  This paper investigated the ways that my own thinking, and the broader societal philosophy surrounding disability, can change for the better.  The discoveries I made while writing this come back to me often as I endeavor to look beyond barriers and create an environment where every student can succeed.
RethinkingDisability.pdf by ian.t.wallace53

Short-Term Volunteer Experience

I greatly enjoyed volunteering as a challenge appraiser at the regional Destination Imagination competition.  Students created skits and devices which solved a challenge.  It was neat to see their solutions and fun to be able to give them feedback.

Long-term Volunteer Experience

As a volunteer with the Flagship after-school program at Hawthorn Elementary, I learned a great deal about making fun learning activities. During the Spring of 2014 I volunteered in the homework club and implemented my own program.

IanWallaceCV.pdf