My Updated Philosophy of Teaching
After having experienced what it is to be in the classroom, I can honestly say I never knew how different the children could be. Some can read two grade levels above their own and others read one or two grade levels below. I believe this explains how important differentiation is in the classroom in order to meet the needs of all students. As a teacher, you must learn to adapt quickly and know that things might not always go as planned. Sometimes students may take longer than you thought on an assignment and other times they will breeze through it. You must be flexible and it is always good to have a backup plan. It is essential to have manipulatives in the classroom for those that are kinesthetic. In general, it is crucial to makes sure your teaching and your materials meet the needs of all the learners in the classroom. Keeping track of time and making sure to be productive of your time is something to always keep in mind. Instructional time can easily be lost so make sure that you always stay on top of your schedule. Kids can be talkative and ask many questions that can get you off track but it is your job to keep everything moving throughout the day. Using a timer is helpful to keep students aware of the time they have when working on assignments or group work.
I realized how different the children are by observing them whenever I was in the classroom. I would look at their writing and hear them read and noticed how they were all at different levels. There was one day in particular that I realized how long it could take the students to do an assignment that you thought might take only fifteen or twenty minutes. This goes with what I said about being flexible and always having a backup plan in case the students end up finishing faster than you thought they would. It is always better to underplan than to overplan. The day I was helping a group of students out with their math work was when it hit me how important manipulatives could be to some students. As I was helping them with their problem, one of the students asked me if she could go get the blocks. When I saw her using them, I saw how much it facilitated her learning. One day after I read a story to my students, I had them do a follow-up activity. They were very talkative and so my CT suggested I use a timer and tell them they have five minutes. This really helped because once I started the timer they began to work more diligently and quietly.
In my opinion, two of the most important things a teacher must have for his or her students is patience and love. It is important, of course, to have the necessary skills to be an effective teacher, but those are improved and perfected over time and with experience. Before children can learn from you, they must trust you and look up to you. They must know that you care about them and their future and are there to help them every step of the way. After all, who better to learn from than your role model/superhero?
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Final FEAPS Goal Progress Reflection
Name: Jessica Garcia
CT Name/classroom grade level: Mrs. C / 2nd
Internship level: 2
My goal is: for my instruction to be clearer in my lessons and better adapted to my students so that they are able to understand and be successful.
FEAP(s) #(s): 1c. Designs instruction for students to achieve mastery.
Why did you select this goal?
I selected this goal because I feel that one of the things that affects whether our students are successful in the classroom is instruction. It is our job as teachers to spend ample time planning so that the instruction we give students during a lesson is explicit and coherent. “Coherent instruction is teaching that connects” (Baker, Dreher & Guthrie, 2000). We need to have knowledge over the content and our students to be able to make connections. It is these connections that will make the content understandable to the students and that will help meet their needs. Not only will good instruction help students achieve mastery, but it will make them more engaged. “Coherence of instruction fosters engagement because engaged reading is a process of linking” (Baker, Dreher & Guthrie, 2000).
Describe several ways you grew in each of these areas. How do you know you made progress? Provide specific evidence (refer to videos, observation notes, student work, photos, field notes, etc.) to back up these claims of growth.
One way I grew in this area is by getting to know my students better. A part of designing good instruction is knowing your students. You have to know who your learners are and the needs they might have during a lesson. In my last lesson, I demonstrated knowledge of my students and my CT mentioned this in her observation notes. For one of the activities I had four students form a compass rose for the class. Each student held a paper labeled with a capital N, S, E, or W. For this activity I picked specific students. I picked two girls that were usually very quiet during Social Studies and did not participate much, a boy that is usually off task and is always moving around, and a boy that loves participating.
Another way I grew in this area was by learning to take more things into consideration when planning. For example, I had to do more background research on the topics, find visuals, and think about how I would introduce the topic and engage them. There is one lesson that comes to mind where I did all of these things and it proved to be successful. It was a Social Studies lesson on the contributions of African Americans. The standard was SS.2.C.2.5: Evaluate the contributions of various African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, veterans, and women. I introduced the lesson by telling them how it was Black History month and recalled the African Americans we had previously learned about such as Ruby Bridges, Jackie Robinson, and Harriet Tubman. I had them do a turn and talk and discuss how they would have felt living in a time as one of those people and experiencing racism. I made a poster with pictures of Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks, and Mary McLeod Bethune. Lastly, I had them work in groups for the summative assessment and gave each student in the group a different role.
Where do you go from here? What are your future goals as you move toward your final internship?
From here I hope to continue improving. Although I have learned a plethora of things this semester, I have much more to learn and much more I can improve on. Now that I am better at designing instruction, I plan to improve on a couple of things. One of these things is assessment. This includes both formative assessment and summative assessment. Out of both I need to work more on creating and/or finding good summative assessments. In my past couple of lessons I did not give a rubric for the project or put up the expectations for it on the overhead or somewhere the students could refer back to it. I merely said it out loud but I need to take into consideration that some may not have heard me and that some students are just visual and need to see the directions. Aside from being unclear though, my summative assessments need to be more differentiated. Another thing is that sometimes I expect the students to do so much application on the summative assessment after we haven’t spent more than thirty minutes on the lesson. My future goals as I move toward my final internship are to keep improving my instruction, to become better at differentiating lessons, and to design and/or find good summative assessments for my students to do at the end of a lesson. I am happy to be spending more time in the classroom next semester and cannot wait to learn more things that will help me become a successful teacher.
References
Baker, L., Dreher, M., & Guthrie, J. (2000). Engaging young readers. New York: Guilford Press.
FEAPS Goal Progress Reflection
Name: _____________Jessica Garcia____________________
CT Name/classroom grade level: ______Mrs. C /2nd_________
Internship level (underline one): I 2 3 4
My goal is: ______for my instruction to be clearer in my lessons and better adapted to my students so that they are able to understand and be successful._______
FEAP(s) #(s) _____1c. Designs instruction for students to achieve mastery.______
What data/resources have you used/collected to help your reach your goal?
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I have collected student data and have CT and US notes from my observations that I can use to help me reach my goal.
Do you see yourself having difficulty reaching your goal by the end of the semester? Why or why not? Explain.
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Yes, I do see myself having difficulty reaching my goal by the end of the semester. I think it takes a great deal of practice teaching lessons to be able to design my instruction for them to achieve mastery. This is difficult because I need to take differentiation and pacing into consideration. I believe that my instruction will improve by the end of the semester but I know that I will need much more practice before it is at the level I want it to be at.
How can your US help you reach your goal?
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There are a couple of things my US might be able to do to help me reach my goal. One would be to give me tips on ways that she has found that work for successfully designing instruction to meet all needs. A second one would be to provide me with some resources on designing instruction. For example, this could be an example of a detailed lesson plan that allows me to see what the teacher does to provide instruction that makes all of the students successful.
Why is this goal important to you?
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This goal is important to me because I know that it is something I will need to be able to do in the future to be a successful teacher. I have noticed that in my last two observations, one CT and one US, one of the things I lacked in was giving clear instruction. Therefore, for my next observations I will be more aware of this and will try to improve it.
Goal Setting
Mrs. C
2nd Grade
Internship Level II
My goal is for my instruction to be clearer in my lessons and better adapted to my students so that they are able to understand and be successful.
FEAP#: 1c. Designs instruction for students to achieve mastery.
I will collect evidence of this goal through student work, student data, and CT/US Observation notes.
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Part One: My Philosophy of Teaching
I believe the goal of education is to help students grow and to help them be successful in the future. If I was forced to choose, I would have to say that the three most important things I want students to learn in my classroom are respect, responsibility, and discipline. Students learn in a variety of ways, because each student is different in his or her own way. This is where we come in as teachers and modify or differentiate lessons in order to meet the needs of all students. We can verify if they are learning through tests, projects, and assessments. My expectations for students are that they set goals and enjoy learning. I want them to help each other and to always believe in their self. My hopes are that they are excited for each day and always learn something new. Five years after students have left my classroom, I want them to be able to say that they learned a great deal in my class and enjoyed every minute of it. I want them to be able to say that I was always there to help them when they needed it and that if they were struggling, I never gave up on them. The context of where you teach most definitely influences how you teach. For example, if you are teaching at a school with low resources, you may not have the materials you need and this will affect your teaching in a negative manner. A good teacher will make use of what she or he has available, but it is always an advantage to have a plethora of supplies. In order to tell if I have taught a really good lesson, I would look to my students for feedback. If the students were engaged this would tell me it was a good lesson and the opposite would tell me it was a poor lesson.