Standard #9

Teachers are able to evaluate themselves.

                                                    Reflection on Community Helper Lesson

     On October 12th I taught my second lesson required for pre-student teaching. The lesson I taught was called �Community Helpers-EMTs� and I taught it in my PreK placement. This lesson required all the children in the class to participate in the lesson. Since there were only five students in the class, it allowed me to get all the children involved in the dramatic play part of the lesson. I think I had just as much fun teaching this lesson as the children did learning.

     I feel this lesson was successful due to how much fun the children and I had participating in this lesson. Another reason I feel it was successful was because the children met the objectives of lesson. I know this by the assessments I did of the children during and after the lesson. One of the objectives was to teach the children how to dial 9-1-1 on a phone when there is an emergency. I assessed the children by having them color in the numbers 9 and 1 on a worksheet that had a phone on it. I then had all children show me how they would call 9-1-1 on a phone found in the dramatic play center. I observed each child do it correctly.

     A third reason I felt this lesson was successful was because the children were able to identify what an EMT looked like because I had each child locate and color in the EMTs on a coloring page that was given to them . All children were able to do so. Also the children got to identify what an EMT looks like during the dramatic play part of the lesson in which the children got to dress up in my EMT uniform. One last reason I felt this lesson was successful was because the children at first were afraid of some of the EMT equipment I brought in, but once they played with it and became familiar with it they became more comfortable with it. I wanted the children to become familiar with some of the equipment EMTs use so that if they ever come in contact with an EMT, they will not be afraid of the equipment.

     Some things I would change about this lesson if I could do it again would be to actually have EMTs from the community come to the school with an ambulance. I then would have the EMTs use one of the children as a patient to show the children what happens when an EMT goes to work. Also I would have the children tour the inside of the ambulance so that they became more familiar and comfortable with the inside of an ambulance.

     I did change the order of how I presented the lesson. I first asked the students what they knew about EMTs in order to do a pre-assessment of the students� knowledge. I then read a book about EMTs to the children and again asked them what an EMT does. During this informal assessment of the students, I learned that some of the students gained knowledge about whom and what EMTs do. I then sang a song about how to dial 911 with the children and discussed with them when and how they should call 9-1-1. The students then did some coloring sheets about EMTs. Afterwards I showed them the EMT equipment, what it does, and demonstrated it on them. I then allowed the kids to have fun doing dramatic play with the EMT equipment with the reminding amount of time.

   One thing I learned about the children was not to under estimate such young children when it comes to learning multiply new concepts. After showing the children how all the different equipment worked, they were all using it like pros and knew what equipment did what. They were using it on each other and on the dolls found in the room. I did not think they would be able to understand how all the different equipment worked, but they did learn how to use it. by modeling what I showed them to do with the equipment.

     Lastly, I could have improved my time management during the lesson. I felt that the students had to sit for longer periods of time than what should be expected of children that age. Thus, the lesson could have been broken up into parts that alternated the sitting time and time for them to move around. The lesson could also have been improved if I made it just one component of a unit on community helpers.

                                                              Math Lesson Reflection

     On Monday, November 21st I taught my fourth lesson required for pre-student teaching. I taught this lesson in Mrs. Runde�s fourth grade class at Westview Elementary School. My math lesson was a math lesson on personal references for Metric Length. It was an hour long lesson. The objective of the lesson was to have students establish personal references for metric units of length.

     I felt the lesson was successful because all the objectives of the lesson were met. By the end of the lesson the students were able to tell me two things in the classroom that they would use as personal references for 1cm, 1dm, and 1 meter. Furthermore, I feel the lesson was successful due to one form of evaluation and assessment I did of the class. I had posed many questions to the class about what they would use to estimate the length, width, or height of certain objects in the classroom. Most of the students told me the correct unit of measurement they would use and why. I then told them to use their personal references for those units and give me an estimation of the length, width, or height of those objects. Most students� estimates were really close to the actual length, width, or height of those objects.

     If I were to do the lesson again I would change one thing. I would spend more time reviewing how to make conversions between units in the metric system. The students received just a brief introduction to it the Friday before I taught my lesson. Then when it came time to do my lesson they had to know how to do the conversions between the units in the metric system. Therefore, I did review it with them right after I went over the Math Message part of the lesson. Most of the students understood how to do the conversions after I reviewed it, but there were four students that still did not understand it. I know this through my formative assessment of the class. After I reviewed how to do metric conversions, I asked which students still did not understand how to do it. Four students raised their hands. I did a couple more examples for them, but I feel they still needed extra help understanding this concept. Due to time constraints I had to move on.

     After doing this math lesson I realized how hard it is to teach to such a diverse group of children. I learned it is really hard to keep every child in that class at them same level of understanding so that I can move on to the next part of the lesson. It always seems I am trying to catch up the couple of students who do not understand the objectives to the rest of the children who do understand what is going on, and what concept is being taught in the lesson. I also learned that the children really like to move around during a lesson and do something hands on instead of just sitting in their seats for an hour long math lesson. That is why I incorporated movement into my math lesson by having the children get out of their seats and find personal references in the classroom.

     Lastly, I would like to say that my classroom management was way better than my last math lesson. This is due to the children knowing what to expect from me in my classroom management and I knew what to expect from them. This lead to a successful lesson for me and the children because the children were able to learn the objective of the lesson. I also picked one way to call on the children and stuck with it. I defiantly felt more comfortable in front of the students this time due to the things I learned from failing at my last math lesson. I also planned this math lesson in greater detail.

Experience/Artifact Reflection for
Wisconsin Standard for Teacher Development and Licensure #9

Title of Experience/Artifact: Lesson Plan Reflections
Date Experience Completed: October & November 2005

Describe your educational experience/artifact:
     My artifact are two lesson reflections that I produced after teaching a Community Helper lesson to a group of PreK students and a math lesson to a group of fourth grade students. While teaching these lessons, the classroom teacher observed me and gave me feedback. I used their feedback and my own observation of the students during the lessons to reflect on my teaching.

ALIGNMENT:
Wisconsin Teacher Standard Alignment
     This experience best aligns with the Wisconsin Teacher Licensure Standard #9: Teachers are able to evaluate themselves. This artifact best aligns with teacher standard #9 because after teaching each lesson, I wrote a short reflection paper on how successful the lesson was and provided evidence to support whether or not the objectives were achieved. In both cases, the objectives were achieved, but the level of understanding varied for each student. Furthermore, this artifact best aligns with this standard because I used classroom observation and information about the students to evaluate the outcomes of each lesson as a basis for experimenting with, reflecting on, and revising my practices. I also drew upon professional colleagues, such as my cooperating teachers and professors who observed me teach the lessons, for constructive feedback about how the lessons went in order to grow professionally.

Also aligns with Wisconsin Standard for Teacher Development and Licensure
WSTDL #1 Teachers know the subject they are teaching.
WSTDL #2 Teachers know how children grow.
WSTDL #3 Teachers understand that children learn differently.
WSTDL #4 Teachers know how to teach.
WSTDL #5 Teachers know how to manage a classroom.
WSTDL #7 Teachers are able to plan different kinds of lessons.

UW-Platteville School of Education Knowledge, Skill, & Disposition Statement Alignment
     This experience best aligns with KS4.a. Reflects on Teaching. This artifact meets KS4.a. because the reflection papers required me to think back to the lessons that I taught and evaluate the effectiveness of each lesson. It also made me aware of specific elements of my teaching that contribute to my approach in instruction and how to predict my future success, or alternate approaches to my future instruction. In the lesson reflections I explained how some aspects of my lesson were successful and how other areas could be improved. Reflecting on these two lessons has showed me that I must assess my teaching ability after every lesson.

Also aligns with Knowledge, Skill, & Disposition Standards
KSD4.e. Grows and Develops Professionally

REFLECTION
     This experience has taught me that it is very important to evaluate my teaching and my lesson planning. My self-assessments must be daily and on going. I should never think that there is no room for improvement; thus, I must always learn to evaluate myself and grow professionally as an educator.
     As an educator I learned that I will have to constantly evaluate my teaching style. If a lesson flops, I need to reflect on what I did wrong and what changes I need to make in order to make the lesson more effective the next time. I need to constantly look for ways to improve as a teacher, so that my students can benefit from it. I can also learn from my mistakes and use them as a learning experience. When things go well in a lesson, I will reflect on why it worked and make sure that those components are part of my future lessons.