Culmitating Reflection ED 321

As a teacher, I understand I will be constantly learning about how to be a better educator. I will need to assess my performance and think about what works and what needs to improve in order to better serve my students. Every teaching experience I have had in different shools have helped me to grow and to see what I need to do to be a successful teacher. In ED 321, I have improved my planning/preparation skills. Last semester, in ED 215r, I relied a lot on my professor. I used to asked her a lot of questions during the process of planning my three lessons. I needed a big amount of coaching and support probably because I was not comfortable with the content I had to teach, for example phonics ans stretching words. This semester I planned all the lessons by myself without any help from my instructor. I know if I would have asked her she would be more than happy to help me, but I needed to know that I was capable of doing it by myself. I think I did a good job planning my lessons this semester. There was only one lesson I wish I would not have taught to my students. I do not think my 1, 2, 3 lesson was engaging enough for 8th graders who were tired of reading something they were not interesting on. I need to continue working in wording the objectives of my lesson and link them to assessment. I need to be able to be clear on what I want the students to learn and how am I going to know if they achieve the goal. The lesson objectives and assessment are super important to teaching; they help teachers to know what needs to be done in order for students to learn and thrive in their education.

During this semester I have shown growth on Wisconsin Teaching Standards 2 and 6 and in Alverno Education Abilities of diagnosis and communication. WST 2 and AEA Diagnosis To demonstrate my growth in WTS 2, I learned more about 8th graders and how they feel about school and life by doing an ethnography of a student. I think that was the best way to understand a small part of who 8th graders are. Also, in this semester I was able to understand more about discipline in the classroom and how their misbehaviors should be opportunities of learning and not opportunities to punish. I showed AEA diagnosis when the I observed disciplinary behaviors in my classroom, assessed the situation and use my knowledge of love and logic to redirect the students behavior. WST 6 and AEA Communication I showed growth in WTS 6 because I was able to feel more comfortable speakin in English. I have accepted that I am not the best English speaker. I have realized that instead of looking at it as a weakness, I need to look at it as a strength. Now, I think I am a role model for students because despite the short time I have spoken English I am able to communicate and to teach to native speakers. I demonstraded AEA of communitacion by communicating effectively, verbally and physically, with my students. I am sure they understood what I was trying to teach by making my lessons engaging and using materials they usually do not see in the classroom every day, for example, peanut butter and jelly. I recognize I have to continue working on the following Wisconsin Teaching Standards and Alverno Education Abilities integrative interaction and conceptutalization:

Wisconsin Teaching Standard 8 I want to be able to create and use effective informal and formal assessement methods to better collect information about the students understanding of the lesson objectives. Wisconsin Wisconsin Teaching Standard 10 I want to spend more time talking and learnigh from my CT. I want to be able know more about my CTs education philosophy, their experiences in teaching, their insights on the school and classroom environments, etc. I want to be able to have a closer relationship with her/him. Alverno Education Ability: Integrative Interaction I want to learn more about giving effective feedback to students. I want to stop using words such as good job and personalized the feedback I give to each student. Alverno Education Ability: Conceptualization I want to be able to understand better the content I am teaching to students in order for them to learn the right material. I want to feel confident in knowing I understand the content. I want to show more command of subject matter.