While reflecting on my time at Tomahawk Intermediate School I believe the most rewarding aspect of my Student Teaching experience was getting to know my students and watching them grow. For example; Focus Student A started off the school year very unsure of herself unwilling to stand up for herself in group discussions even if she was correct. Through positive reinforcement in small group and one on one she has become more comfortable with her classmates and more confident in her own abilities. For this reason, she is now willing to speak up in small group discussions and whole class discussions. As we all know the best way to teach your students is to get to know them and what they need in and out of the classroom. Focus Student A proved
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The team itself has a divide inside of it due to the introduction of guided math this year. There are those on the team that believe it is a great model for teaching math and there are others that prefer the previous model of leveled classes that switch among the teachers. Due to this divide within the unit there is animosity between some of the teachers. This animosity can make unit meetings and team planning unproductive. At Shepherd, we have been taught that collaboration with our peers or team is key in insure our students are receiving the most effective strategies available. Due to the current divide in the 5th grade unit at Tomahawk the sharing of strategies falls on deaf ears. While teachers may share ideas, some are not always receptive to those ideas. The animosity leads to quiet, short meetings with minimal input. With the lack of strategy sharing and minimal interaction these meetings are not beneficial to the growth of the 5th grade …show more content…
By allowing my students questions and understanding of the subjects to steer my teaching, it enabled me to incorporate kinesthetic learning on the fly or representing the food chain in a different manner for those that didn’t understand the original representation of the food chain. My student’s pre-tests on Unit Two showed that none of my students could draw and label a cycle of matter but by the end of my unit, 22 of my students could answer the same question with correctly. On the pre-test 23 of my students were unable to label and describe the flow of energy in a food cycle, but by the end of the unit all my students could label and describe the flow of energy in a food cycle. These results prove to me that my willingness to change my lesson based on the needs of my students is the best thing I could do as a teacher. I believe I could have integrated writing into more of lessons better. My 5th grade class does not have a regular schedule where writing is integrated within the curriculum. I think writing is as important as reading, math and science but finding time during the day to focus on this skill is difficult in an already packed schedule. By integrating writing across the curriculum my students would be able to practice the skills needed to succeed in
The team itself has a divide inside of it due to the introduction of guided math this year. There are those on the team that believe it is a great model for teaching math and there are others that prefer the previous model of leveled classes that switch among the teachers. Due to this divide within the unit there is animosity between some of the teachers. This animosity can make unit meetings and team planning unproductive. At Shepherd, we have been taught that collaboration with our peers or team is key in insure our students are receiving the most effective strategies available. Due to the current divide in the 5th grade unit at Tomahawk the sharing of strategies falls on deaf ears. While teachers may share ideas, some are not always receptive to those ideas. The animosity leads to quiet, short meetings with minimal input. With the lack of strategy sharing and minimal interaction these meetings are not beneficial to the growth of the 5th grade …show more content…
By allowing my students questions and understanding of the subjects to steer my teaching, it enabled me to incorporate kinesthetic learning on the fly or representing the food chain in a different manner for those that didn’t understand the original representation of the food chain. My student’s pre-tests on Unit Two showed that none of my students could draw and label a cycle of matter but by the end of my unit, 22 of my students could answer the same question with correctly. On the pre-test 23 of my students were unable to label and describe the flow of energy in a food cycle, but by the end of the unit all my students could label and describe the flow of energy in a food cycle. These results prove to me that my willingness to change my lesson based on the needs of my students is the best thing I could do as a teacher. I believe I could have integrated writing into more of lessons better. My 5th grade class does not have a regular schedule where writing is integrated within the curriculum. I think writing is as important as reading, math and science but finding time during the day to focus on this skill is difficult in an already packed schedule. By integrating writing across the curriculum my students would be able to practice the skills needed to succeed in