School of Education Portfolio

University of Wisconsin Platteville

Artifact Reflection

Title of Experience/Artifact:
Date Experience Completed:

Taught Animal Walks to Neal Wilkins Elementary, Adapted

Journals.
2/23/11, 9/10/14

Describe your educational experience/artifact:

The education opportunity that I was given with was the tasks of teaching the Neal Wilkins
Elementary physical education class how to preform different types of animal walks. My
classmates and I were to choose five to ten different animal walks that we learned in class and
make a lesson plan and teach the children how to perform the walks. After teaching the children
we were to reflect on our teaching performance and how we thought we did.
The Second artifact I had was to Journal my experiences with the adapted physical education
class of Hempstead High School. This was a journal that reflected my understanding and
observation working with the students each week.
Wisconsin Teacher Standard Alignment

I believe that these artifacts best aligns with the standard of Reflection: The teacher is a reflective
practitioner who continually evaluates the effect of his or her choices and actions on pupils,
parents, professionals in the learning community and others and who actively seeks out
opportunities to grow professionally. These artifacts align with the reflection standard because
after teaching a lesson the teacher should reflect on how they thought they did. The reflection
standard requires the teacher to evaluate on how the class participated and if the class learned
what they were taught. Also the teacher should reflect on how the lesson went as a whole, or if
there was something that needed to be changed or something better that could have been done for
the next lesson. My artifacts demonstrate competency because it is exactly what the standard of
reflection is about. Without reflecting on a lesson taught to the class, how will the teacher
become better at giving a lesson if they dont reflect. The artifact on me reflecting about my
teaching illustrates my competence in the standard of reflection.

UW-Platteville School of Education Knowledge, Skills, Dispositions Alignment

I believe that these artifacts about my reflection on animal walks and Hempstead High School
best aligns with KS4.a. Reflects on Teaching: The candidate makes an accurate and thoughtful
reflection of his/her teaching effectiveness, is aware of specific elements of his/her teaching that
contributed to successful instruction, and can offer alternative teacher action to predict the future
successes of alternate approaches. The artifacts best aligns with KS4a. Reflects on Teaching
because, I believe it is very important to always reflect on what has been taught. Not only should
the teacher reflect on how the lesson went, but the teacher should also ask the students on how
they thought the lesson went and get feedback from them as well. Reflecting will help better the
teacher by learning what they need to work on or add more or less to the lesson. I believe that the
artifacts best demonstrates competency in KS4a. Reflection on Teaching because it is the
teachers job to perform their job correctly and that requires reflection every day. In order for the
lesson to go well and for the students to learn the best to their ability, the teacher should always
reflect on how the students learn and continue to reflect to show good competency.

Explain what you learned about teaching/learning from this experience:

I learned a lot of information about the standard and KSD I aligned with my artifacts. I learned
how important it is to use reflection when teaching and how it can be a positive impact for
teaching. For example, after teaching the class it was important that my group members and I
reflected with the students afterwards to see which animal walks they liked best and what other
animals would be fun to make a walk for. I learned how it contributes to the effectiveness of a
teachers teaching and you can learn a lot by taking the time and reflecting on a situation after a
lesson or a full day of teaching, reflection should always be involved in your planning. Without
reflection I feel you cant better your teaching and learning in physical education. But when you
take the time and effort to reflect it shows not only to yourself but to the students as well that you
want to make sure they learned what you wanted them to.
Explain what you learned about yourself as a prospective educator as a result of this
experience/artifact:

Overall I learned a lot about the importance of reflection and the different ways reflection can
benefit me when teaching. From being able to reflect after teaching Neal Wilkins Elementary, to
reflecting after an adapted physical education class. I will use reflection in my teaching all the
time and use it in a way that will help better my teaching skills and techniques. After reflecting
with the students in Neal Wilkins Elementary, I experienced how much reflection benefited my
group and I. We were able to come up with new ideas of how to make some animal walks more
fun for the students next time we teach. I have learned a lot about reflecting and I plan to take
what I have learned and use it when I become a physical education teacher. I also know the
importance of daily logging a journal about my reflection about the high school class. It is
important for me to do that so I can reflect how well I work with the students and what I could
do better for next class.