Week 13 Reflection

This week is the final week of inquiry implementation, but I will continue to collect data for a week post-implementation. During my first week of exercise implementation, I believed that video tape recordings would be the most useful and versatile data I collected over the weeks of exercise implementation, however, I found that my notes and reflections were equally or possibly more valuable in my research. Although my opinion of the classroom energy and involvement are not measurable, the changes and new results I notice are valuable to my research and reflects the individual attention I give my students. After looking at the data of comprehension test scores and energy rating charts, I notice that the data does not show consistent or great changes before and during the implementation of exercise. I reflected on these test scores and wondered what I can collect from these scores and any patterns I can find. I decided to turn to my notes about positive changes I am noticing after the implementation of exercise. One thing I noted was that morning work seemed to be completed more quickly on days that we exercised. I had warned students the first week of exercise implementation that we would not exercise if there was too much morning work to be completed, but never reiterated this requirement during the rest of the weeks of the implementation. I decided that I wanted to keep a numerical record of the percentage of morning work completed on days we did and did not exercise to support my noticing and provide quantitative data to show positive results linked to the implementation of exercise. I created a simple chart where I record the date and whether we exercised that day or not, how much work as assigned, and how much work was completed by 9:00 AM when we start morning routine. I have just started using this chart for this week and I'm already noticing a drastic change in the percentage of completed morning work comparing days we exercise and days we don't exercise.

Week 12 Reflection

This is the 12th week of my internship and the third week of my inquiry research implementation. Students are already in the routine of exercising three days a week, taking energy rating surveys, and myself leading instruction all day. Students really seemed to transition well. I'm feeling great about my instruction, because assessment scores for each subject are great and the class got a B average on their science test. For this chapter of science, I implemented a little more exercise through kinesthetic learning activities.  Students made up dance moves and presented them to show understanding of the different traits of animal groups in the vertebrate species. Also, during morning exercise activities, we moved like animals and shouted out whether animals we were moving like were vertebrates, invertebrates, and what animal group they belonged in. I wonder if the results on the final assessment test for this chapter are a result of exercise being implemented in the morning over an extended period of time or the exercise based lessons I've implemented during science instruction. I used a variety of instruction and assessment methods with this chapter, including having students observe and journal the different class pets in the room (turtles, hermit crabs, worms/vermicompost, iguana, and gecko), showing videos of different animal groups, and creating a movement demonstration of the animal group traits. All of these factors could be a contributor to why the students did so well with this lesson. They really showed understanding throughout the weeks of this instruction and paid close attention to every activity. It is hard to relate this attention, comprehension, and involvement with this lesson to my research implementation, because of all the other differing factors in this chapter's instruction compared to past science chapters taught this school year. However, my mentor teacher taught a science chapter a few weeks before my research implementation. In her lessons, she lead a hands-on activity, art based lessons, and open discussions. These varied instructional formats did not result in high scores from the overall class. Therefore, it is not as if past science lessons implemented only written or lecture format instruction. I like to think my exercise implementation has made some impact on keeping students alert and involved in regular instruction. I also think that by tying the science lesson done late in the day to the early morning exercise routine helped information to stick or become more memorable to some students who seem overexerted towards the end of the day.

Week 11 Reflection

     It is the 11th week into my internship experience and it is the second week of my inquiry research implementation. The students seem to be very receptive of the inclusion of exercise in their morning routine. Thus far, I have only had one student come dressed inappropriately. Students often greet me the mornings of work out days excited, asking what kind of exercise we will do today. I thought that by having different exercises each day, students would be more likely to participate because they wouldn't know if we were doing a kind of exercise they would not be interested in. It turned out, they were more eager in the mornings just to find out what we'd be doing, let alone excited to exercise each day. Throughout these two weeks of implementation, I have lead a variety of exercises. Some have a "girly" stereotype while others are typically considered "masculine" activities. I decided to implement a variety of exercises styles so that the students in my class would not feel that the exercise activities were dominated by a particular style or type of exercise like dance themed or sports themed. I expected that during the dance style exercises, many boys would not participate and during the sports themed exercises many girls would not participate, however, after implementing Zumba instruction and football drills instruction, I observed my video tapes of the activities and found that both sexes were equally likely to participate in either exercise. In fact, some boys were more active in Zumba than football drills and some girls were more active in football drills than Zumba. I wonder if students liked having a chance to participate in an exercise activity they are usually not given a chance to participate in. For example, football drills are done during football practice outside of school and it is uncommon for girls to be a part of a football team. Likewise, Zumba is an activity often done as "mommy and me" or girl dominated activity that boys would not have the opportunity to participate in without feeling surrounded by females. Also, I implemented some exercise activities that did not have a gender bias like warm up exercises and cardio. I felt the participation in these exercises was limited compared to Zumba and football drills. I believe one cause of this could be that these types of exercises are often done in the physical education classroom and therefore dull or routine to most students. After talking to other teachers in my school, I found that the physical education teacher does not typically implement activities that are considered male or female dominated. I assume the physical education teacher does this to not leave out any students in the activity, without realizing that students may be open to all types of exercise, especially at such a young age as they are eager to be active and have fun, whether it be a "girly" or "boyish" activity. As a result. I wonder if we the adults are to blame for these biases and judgments around different forms of exercise.

My Research Thus Far

I have been implementing exercise activities in the classroom for one wees now and collecting data for my research for over two weeks. Before starting my research, I believed that the most difficult part would be making time for exercise in my third graders' busy school schedules. Because my students are becoming more independent and working at a faster pace with each day, the exercise has not cut any activities and seems to be increasing their completion speed for other assignments. The students really seem to look forward to exercising every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and I've explained to them that if we can't get our other work completed, the exercising will end. It turns out that the most difficult part of my research is video taping two or three times a week. I thought this would be easy, I would just turn the camera on and do whatever I had planned, however, uploading and transferring videos takes a lot of time and can throw off my schedule if I haven't uploaded a video when I had planned to. Also, I have two memory cards and they fill up very quickly with videos. I have to upload the videos on the memory cards, before I can delete them to make room for new video recordings. Also, my flash drives are completely full after only three weeks of video taping and with four weeks left. I realize that this data collection was a high expectation of mine, but I find it to be my most useful source thus far and want to continue collecting this data.

Week 9 Reflection

     This week I started teaching science. I do not have much experience teaching science and was a little intimidated by this subject. I also feel like there are so many things to think about with science after the methods course I took, that I am worried I will forget an aspect or contributing factor that could really help my students to better understand the concept. As I planned my lessons for basic animal needs, I started to get excited about the lessons. I realized that science has so many resources, hands on opportunities, art integrated areas, and a great ability to connect to real life of my students. I plan a class discussion for many of my lessons as I really feel open discussion is beneficial for student confidence, student informal pre-assessment, and collaboration. After leading a class discussion on science with my students, I realized that they were very excited to share what they know about science. The students are confident in their random fact knowledge and observational abilities. I have not gotten as much out of my students in whole class discussion than I did from this science discussion. I'm not sure if they were so excited because the discussion was about animals, or because they are excited about science, however, a majority of my students are often trying to share random bits of information and findings throughout the day.
     So far, I have taught four science lessons and have already integrated art, technology, small group collaboration, open discussion, journaling, note taking, and hands on experience. It was surprisingly easy to include so many methods, tools, and assessment formats with science. After only one week of teaching science, my confidence in the subject has increased dramatically. I have realized that the only area I feel uneasy about teaching now is Mathematics. I believe the reason this is such a difficult area for me to teach is because math comes easy to me and therefore it is more difficult to explain. The lessons that I have to work harder to understand like social studies and science are easy to teach to students as I am teaching myself.
     I am starting my exercise inclusion for my inquiry topic next week and I may make changes to the schedule to include some exercise activities prior to science later in the day. I feel it would be easy to include exercise in science as it integrates with so many things fairly easily. I do not know if this would relate to the goal or main interest topic of my study. It might be a good idea to integrate exercise multiple times throughout the day rather than just once in the morning three times a week.

Week 8 Reflection

This week, I am teaching 75% of the day. In the past, I have taught techonological lessons a majority of the time and found that using computers, mimeo boards, videos, and computer game format activities involved my students most. This year, however, I have noticed that my students fall asleep during videos and do not pay attention when I am showing a powerpoint presentation. They are less likely to pay attention when techonology is involved unless it is hands on or inclusive technology use, like having students use the mimeo board. I assumed that with this generation, a majority of students would learn best through technology use and presentation. Now, I feel that so many teachers are using technology regularly to instruct students, it is becoming boring or repeatative to students. When I am teaching without any technology, students are more attentative. Also, I often have little problems or glitches with technology. For example, I often have to sync the mimeo board multiple times before the pen will click the correct area. Also, videos have so many codes and adds, we have to wait a few minutes before we can even start the instructional video. Students are losing attention and getting off subject when problems like this arise. There is less room for unplanned time when I am the instructional video or the white board and pen is being used in place of the mimeo board.
     Technology is great and I know numerous ways to use in the classroom, especially because my generation has always been familiar with the constantly changing technological tools. I feel that it may be overused in some circumstances and it's important for teachers to recognize when students are not responding well to these great new methods of instruction. Most of the students typically go home to tv, videos, computer games, etc. We need to change what students are exposed to throughout the day to get them interested in the information. Also, for the few lessons that I did plan using technology resources, the power was low, the internet went down, or the mimeo was uncooperative. As a teacher, it is more important for my generation to learn to teach with tools that are not technology related as we are already fairly familiar with technology and it's uses in the classroom. Although, teachers are often not allowing students to use technology in ways to show comprehension, gain technology skills, and assess in various formats. I would liketo implement teacher directed technology use for students to improve their abilities to use technology in ways besides games and videos. Teachers may find this difficult, because they themselves are still learning how to use technology in ways other than for instructional videos, games, and presentations. I would like to implement this type of instruction more throughout the remainder of my placement.

Week 7 Reflection

     East Dale's liaison observed my lesson and instruction this week. I created a lesson for estimating three digit numbers in memory game format that I thought would be fun and stimulate fluency and frequency in rounding. I have worked with students with rounding for the past week and felt this would be an easy review activity. I have never had a lesson fail so miserably. I anticipated this lesson to be fun and more of a refresher to show my liaison what the students have learned and how quickly they can use the skill. I was so shocked by my students' misunderstandings and difficulties that I had to make complete changes to the lesson and go away from my original plan that my liaison had already evaluated. When I met with my mentor teacher to discuss my strengths, weaknesses, and noticings, I was surprised by her reaction. She felt that the lesson went really well and that my adjustments only showed that I was an effective educator, because I could make changes quickly without it upsetting my whole lesson. Before the liaison had came into the classroom, I had a discussion with my students about my teacher coming in and grading me just like I grade them. I asked them to be respectful, ignore her presence, and be extra attentive during the lesson. Two students acted out during my instruction and had to be reprimanded in front of my liaison. I was so embarrassed by their behavior, but my liaison stated that she felt the class was very behaved and that I handled the slight misbehavior quickly and smoothly. I had thought that all the faults in my lesson would make me look like an ill--prepared teacher, however, my adjustments to the difficulties seemed to only strengthen my appearance as a teacher.
     My liaison asked my to state what I felt were my strengths in this lesson. In doing so, I was able to recognize the good that came from this activity and how I still showed my abilities while my thoughtful plans were lacking. She reminded me that although it is necessary to plan carefully and thoughtfully, we cannot expect every result and must be able to quickly respond to those unanticipated reactions. It is quite intimidating being observed by people who have much more experience and education on the subject than yourself, but I'm glad my liaison was able to help me find positive in one of my biggest fails thus far in my teaching experience.

Week 6 Reflection

     In small groups this week, my fellow interns and I showed each other videos of ourselves teacher and evaluated each others lessons, instruction, emotional support, and other areas of our teaching. I orginally thought that I would not like this activity, because I am always nervous when the eyes on me are not those of smaller, curious students. I also cannot stand to hear my own voice on recording. During my instruction, I was thinking of the video tape and stumbling over my words not wanting to mess up and wondering how annoying I would sound. The students were able to focus although I was not. I eventually pulled myself together and forgot that the camera was on me. My lesson went fairly well and I was as happy as possible with my product to show my peers. Once we were in small group, I heard other people talking about how nervous they were to show their videos. Some would say things like "Oh! I didn't even notice that kid jumping over there!" or "Just ignore this part, I was nervous and didn't make sense." I immediately felt at ease. As I watched my partner instructing her class, I realized that this activity is not as much for us to assist each others teaching and work together to better ourselves, it is also helping us to realize that good teachers are nervous. Good teachers realize that they can't know everything and that sometimes things don't go as planned. Good teachers do not feel superior to other or flawless. Good teachers are human and don't take life to seriously. As I listened to my peers discussing all the positive things their partners did and built them up to be positive role models, I noticed we all acknowledged are differences, potential, and passion. Good teachers are kind and supportive and maybe, if we are really great teachers, our students will also learn to be kind and supportive.
     I have video taped myself teaching a few more times after the small group analysis time and now feel more comfortable infront of the camera. I still make mistakes and wish I had practiced before I turned the camera on, but I know that my peers will not judge me and that they will see the good in what I am doing. I have more confidence during my video taping now, and I hope that will show in my videos used for my final portfolio.

Week 5 Reflection

     During my fifth week of my internship, I have tried to take on many responsibilities and observe the students and teacher with an open mind. I am trying to forget past assumptions and discoveries that may cloud my reflections and observations with this fresh start. Now that I am teaching more subjects and creating the lessons, I am finding it difficult to group my students and decide which students will work well together and which will clash. I also am unsure who the leaders of the classroom are and those that need to develop their leadership skills by taking on that role more often and being given more responsibilities. In the past, I was able to group my students effectively and quickly. I tried to think about why this class was so much more difficult to analyze for me than my past students. I quickly realized that one difference between this year and my past years was that I started later into the year after my mentor teacher in those past years. In those situations, my mentor teacher had already made conclusions and generalizations about the students. My past mentor teachers had already experimented with grouping and seen the characteristics of students put in those grouping situations. This time, I was using trial and error to better understand my students alongside my mentor teacher. Also, I was making conclusions and generalizations about the students on my own without my mentor teacher's influences.
     I also noted that my mentor teacher had discussed her future students with their past educators prior to starting the school year. Before she organized the seating in the classroom, my mentor teacher took note of the students with ADD, ADHD, Autism, and other learning disabilities. She also had heard stories about bullying problems and behavioral problems from the second grade teachers. This is how she started to understand her students. Although I believe it is necessary to communicate with your students' past teachers, it is also important to make your own opinions about your students without bias influences. I do not believe my teacher was pushed towards skewed views of her students because of this communication. I believe she keeps this information in the back of her mind to help her recognize any patterns or difficulties that are repeating throughout the grades and may need some special attention.
     Throughout the weeks of my internship, my views of my students have constantly changed. I feel myself getting closer to the students and accepting their differences and behaviors. I also feel myself being stricter on the students, because I know what they can achieve and I've seen good things from each of them. I am still trying different grouping and pairings and reflecting on the results. I have changed classroom seating a few times to fit my grouping based instruction and to test relationships between students. I think it's important to always start fresh with few expectations as a teacher each year, because each group of students will change and those early assumptions can limit or stress students. A classroom should be a place for various ways of unexpected growth, not fitting in already designated areas.

Week 4 Reflection

I have finished my lessons based on telling time and finding elapsed time. I decided to give a formal assessment format because there were so many aspects of time covered throughout the past weeks. The day before the assessment, I had a discussion about time and practice work to see where my students were in their understandings. I also gave them a few worksheets from the math workbook provided by the school to practice at home, but not for a recorded grade. The students needed so much help on their problems before the assessment. I was still reminding students what the start time was and to add minutes by five after numerous days of practice. I told my teacher of my concerns and she assured me that I had covered as much as I could and spent enough time on the topic.
The assessment I made for my students had 28 questions. It covered reading analog clocks, finding elapsed time, adding multiple times to a start time to find the end time and vice versa, drawing hands to show a given time, different ways of writing time (2:45 or quarter to three), and AM/PM. Although only one student received 100 on the test, the class had a high C average which was affected by an outlier and I was pleasantly surprised by. I realized that part of the reason students needed so much assistance yesterday is because I offered it. Also, I believed many students practiced the night before and recognized that they needed the extra practice. This shows me that they care about their test scores, or they have parents that do, and that a majority of my students likely get help from their guardians.
Another thing I would like to note from this week was a spur of the moment idea I had that I plan to use again. After handing out work or practice problems, students have difficulties paying attention to instruction. They want to finish their work and do not pay attention to the next subject being taught or the next activity being done. To prevent this, I had my students stand up and switch sides as the classroom desks are split into two large areas. The students loved being in a completely different seat and were not tempted to finish someone else's work. My mentor teacher noticed this and told me she would be using it as well. I believe this really resulted in much more energy and attention from the class as a whole.

Week 3 Reflection

During week 3 I taught my third grade students about telling time. I remember teaching this subject last year in the fall and found it equally difficult. I was surprised, however, by where I found the difficulties. The previous third grade class had difficulty with minutes. They would often forget to count by fives or be five minutes over or under, because they did not count accurately. They also had difficulty with elapsed time. My current placement classroom seemed very prepared in telling time and could read clocks quickly. Their problem was in telling time to the quarter, like for example saying 3:15 is quarter past three or 5:45 is quarter to six. This class also had difficulties with elapsed time. This reminded me that although I can anticipate reactions and misunderstandings from past experiences, every class is different even when they come from the same past educators. I realized that the past educators may have realized where struggles were and made lessons for the following class more directed towards that past struggle. This can result in other areas of understanding weakening. I had created a weeks worth of lessons based on the anticipation that my students would have been instructed the same way as the past class and would have similar strengths and weaknesses. I quickly recognized that I was wrong and made adjustments to my lessons, but it was a wake up call. I had always assumed that most older teachers stick to the same lessons if they seem to be "working" and the upper classes will have to fill the same "gaps" repetitively.
I had never before had lessons feel so unsatisfying as my time lessons during week 5. I asked my mentor teacher for advice, which she gave very willingly. She supplied endless amounts of materials and gave me following lesson suggestions. She also helped me with elapsed time in a simplified way that the students seemed to better understand. I was very appreciative of her support and explained that I had not expected such confusion and bewildered looks from the students. My mentor teacher explained that time is a cognitive understanding some students are just not capable of fully understanding yet. And I can see that in my students' eyes that some of them, it clicks. They understand time immediately and can solve any elapsed time problem with just a few moments of thinking. Others, were given multiple styles of instruction, walked out hours and minutes on a huge outdoor sidewalk clock, and were provided individual instruction by myself or my mentor teacher and still only got a 35% on the assessment. If this topic requires high cognitive understanding, why is it in the third grade curriculum? Who really decided third graders should be able to tell time, when most teachers I know can see that time is a difficult subject for these young minds. It frustrates me knowing that as a teacher I will be forced to teach students things that I know will be too difficult for some and will make them feel bad about themselves or helpless possibly. I never want my students to feel this way. I want my students to feel they have conquered everything I put in their path and feel confident about themselves. As a student, I always felt I already knew everything and my teacher just helped to me find it inside myself. I want my students to feel that way. I want confident, curious students and I worry the standards and tests will stop that out of them. I will do my best to give them the armor they need.

Week 2 of Internship

This week has been more of a struggle for me as an observer. I am anxious to teach and implement my own ideas in the classroom. I feel I know the students better and am not observing them individually as I was during my first week of teaching. The students seem to be getting into a routine, but are still showing lack of interest and focus in the classroom during most subjects, but especially the first two subjects of the day. I have discussed students' lack of interest and excessive time in completing work with my mentor teacher. We notice students not labeled ADD or ADHD with attention problems and feel that their inability to stay on task is more than expected from an average student. Therefore, we believe there may be students in the classroom that have attention disorders that have not been recognized or treated yet. I am really excited to start my inquiry research, but realize that I must teach without implementing my brain development and attention improving strategies until I have collected enough data to compare my results. The students have done some assessments this week on subjects that have been covered for two weeks. The language assessment was done informally with a scoot activity that was done quickly and simply. Some students did fairly well on the activity and I felt there was less tension and stress on this final assessment because it was done as a game rather than a written formal assessment. Some students did poorly on this final assessment, but they have done poorly with past work on the topic. This shows that the style of assessment cannot be directly linked to these low grades. I am collecting more resources and ideas for my exercise inquiry research based on the articles I found to support my research. One article discusses technological exercise activities and how they effect students with hyperactive and attention disorders. This is especially connected to my students as a large number of them have attention disorders. My placement has supplies for Wii Fit and I am interested in using this as an additional resource to differentiate the kind of exercise my students will experience during my research. I really want to implement new activities each time to keep students interested and eager to see what is planned for each day. I hope by having exercise in the morning and by changing the form of exercise frequently, my students will come to school more anxious and prepared as my research progresses.

Reflection of Week 1

        The past week was my first week of my Internship at East Dale Elementary. I am placed in an enclosed third grade classroom. I have always felt limited by the open concept classrooms at East Dale and now I am finally in a classroom with walls! For the first week, I have been assisting my teacher with lessons, grading papers, helping students, and making observations. I realize that third grade is a difficult year for students, because they are expected to be more independent in this grade level and have more responsibilities than they had in previous grades. 

        I have been making observations about the classroom and problems or difficulties that I notice in the classroom or with a large number of students. I want my inquiry topic to reflect my classroom's needs and make a positive impact on these students. I have been considering chapter two of Phillips and Carr as I have been narrowing down an area of interest for my inquiry topic. For my research topic, I want to take advantage of the enclosed classroom and the limitless possibilities I have in this setting. In the past, I had to consider time when other classes were outside of the cluster to do more active or possibly loud activities and had to limit the amount of time spent doing these kinds of activities. I had to be considerate of the other classes to keep from distracting their students which I feel limited my research and topics I was interested in studying. 

        Phillips and Carr state that action researchers should consider past courses when deciding on a topic, developing research techniques, and finding information about the topic. I remember last semester in my Classroom Management course, everyone had to find a case study and present them to the class. I was really interested in one case study where the teachers were very physically active and health conscience. The teachers implemented this healthy life style in the school and there was more exercise done regularly in the school than in most schools. The results showed that students were not behind compared to traditional public schools that spent more time covering typical information. 

        The students in my classroom spend an average of 40 minutes a day, two days a week in a Physical Education class and 30 minutes a day everyday in Teacher-led physical free time. The teacher led physical free time is not always spent being active, because students may spend the time doing what they want outside or will be playing nonphysical games indoors during bad weather. I also took note that the first three and a half hours of school are spent in desks on average. Therefore, students do not move around for a large portion of their day. 

        I have been discussing this exercise interest with my mentor teacher and she seems very receptive to the idea. I have been reflecting on this idea, my expectations, my goals, and how I will be recording the results. We have been considering when to implement this activity and the amount of time needed to collect enough data for measurable and dependable results. I have come up with a lot of ideas about this inquiry topic and am excited to present it to my small group facilitator. I also cannot wait to see how the kids react to morning exercise. 

        The first week at my professional development school has been mainly focused on students learning new routines and expectations. My mentor teacher and I have been reminding students of the routines regularly and the students are finally starting to catch on to them towards the end of the week. With each day, we must implement another part of the regular schedule and the specific procedures for them. For example, we have been practicing all the parts of Reasoning Minds each day. Reasoning Minds is a math computer program that is difficult for students with so many steps and responsibilities. We practice passing out journals, connecting headsets, and logging in. Students have also been taking reading comprehension tests to determine their levels for a reading program implemented in the school. All of these routines have put a strain on the students and the teachers. I am very glad to be in the classroom during this time of the year, because I had never realized before how much practice a classroom routine can take. 

        I have had time to talk to most of my students, but have yet to do a sort of "get to know you" activity. I plan on doing one soon, once I am leading lessons more so that I can really get to know my students better and create lessons that peak their interest. To be able to implement my exercise plan in the classroom, I will need to get to know my students and make them feel comfortable and with me and each other. 

        Overall, I love my classroom, my mentor teacher, and my students. I feel lucky to have the resources and colleges I have this year in my internship. I feel confident about this year and know that I will learn more this year than any other. I also feel more excited about my inquiry plans than I have in the past and know that my passion will show in my research. The best research is based off ones own interests and beliefs while reflecting the needs of the classroom. I cannot wait to start!

Inquiry Celebration Blog Post

    For the Inquiry Celebration at Lakeview Resort, I chose to sit in on two reading based sessions, because of my specialization in English. I also was glad that the sessions I observed were based on lower elementary levels, because I had intended on getting a second specialization in early childhood. I wanted to view different methods and findings about areas I would be focusing on in my career. Additionally, I teach preschool during my free time and over the summer. I wanted this inquiry to give me ideas of how to implement emergent literacy skills in my own instruction.
    Many of the methods discussed in these two sessions were repetitive, but the findings and ways of implementing them varied slightly. For example, both sessions had a presentation based on using sign language in the classroom. The difference, however, was that one preservice teacher was hoping this would help a selective mutism student and a learning disabled student with fine motor skills. The other preservice teacher was generally interested in the use of sign language wanted to use it as a way of monitoring behavior in the classroom and thought it would help keep noise to a minimum in her open concept classroom. These were subquestions to her interest in how sign language would help students with phonemic awareness and letter recognition.
    In a way, having the same methods observed and presented twice was helpful to see if there were differences in the data and more reliable data to reflect on. I am really interested in the use of sign language as a way to keep noise levels low in an open concept classroom that I too am currently placed in. Some of the inquiry topics I observed were somewhat reflective of methods we have already almost proven affective in methods classes. For example, one presenter used methods of gaging student understanding with fluency and letter recognition tests that many teachers have used for years and did not seem to have a goal or method that strayed from the norm of classroom instruction.
    Although I intended to take away ideas for my own instruction, I learned more about details I need to focus on and concerns to keep for when I develop and present my own inquiry topic. I realized that my goals and questions for my inquiry should all be central so that my data can all be connected and directly related to my questions. Some presenters had subquestions that were unrelated and would be very difficult to collect data about. I also realized that the inquiry topics should be something that there has not been much research on, a new idea or method that is not really covered in the current curriculum of the Benedum Program. Because many of the inquiry topics were things that are currently discussed by many teachers and researched frequently, I was uninterested in the presentation. I was interested in the sign language presentations, because it is not a widely used method and still being researched, because it is a fairly new idea.
    During the Inquiry Celebration, I realized that teachers, mentors, and preservice teachers pay attention and fill the rooms to spread ideas and interests. Many of the educators are already interested and practicing new ideas or methods in their own environment. They are coming to these inquiry presentations to learn new ideas and how they have worked out. We are the next generation of teachers. We come with fresh ideas, creativity, and a sense of wonderment over the possibilities of our future classroom. These seasoned educators and future educators observe to hear about our ideas, concerns, interests, and how we have implemented new ideas into today’s classroom. The point is to bring something fairly new and share your findings so that we may all continually grow and learn as teachers. We want to find ideas that can change  a struggling student, our classroom, or the school entirely. I am more prepared to chose an inquiry topic and what I should be sharing with my fellow educators to make the most of this celebration. Every educator should leave with at least one new idea blossoming in their mind, making them think, how can I start this in my class tomorrow, next week, next year. Making them want to try something new. The inquiry celebration is meant to share ideas, spread the word, and spark everyone’s reason for becoming a teacher.

Characteristics of Novice Teacher 2

 Throughout my experience in the Benedum Collaborative Program, I have created many lessons and attended many extracurricular activities to reach my goal of meeting all the characteristics of a novice teacher. In my last post I reflected on how I have been liberally educated and facilitated learning for all students. In this post, I will reflect on examples and artifacts of how I have in depth knowledge of content and am an effective communicator. These characteristics are very important for novice teachers and should be demonstrated with a variety of artifacts and examples, because they are characteristics that should be practiced often.

Having in depth knowledge of content is extremely important to be an effective instructor. If teachers are not sure of what they know, the students will be confused at the teacher's own second guessing and not give the teacher their full attention. A novice teacher should also be an expert of content so that incorrect information is not being taught to students and causing them future problems either later in the year or later in life. Additionally, when a novice teacher is well educated in a content area, they are able to teach that content in a variety of effective ways and are able to differentiate instruction to keep students' interest.

To show that I have in depth knowledge of content, I can include my English Unit Plan from 461, or my reading and writing mini-lesson plans for my C&I course. These lesson plan units are thorough and differentiated. They use a variety of strategies and show that I am confident and educated in English language instruction. These artifacts also show that I can create thorough lessons that cover the introduction of an understanding or skill, the further development, and conclusive instruction. Not only do I have in depth knowledge about content, I am also passionate about the content I will teach. I am excited to teach students the things I feel so passionately about and that will show in my instruction and included artifacts.

Additionally, novice teachers should be effective communicators in a variety of ways. Novice teachers should communicate well with their students, parents, school faculty, the community, their fellow grade cluster teachers, and anyone else connected to the classroom. Without good communication, there is a barrier between people and there is more likely to be confusion. When information is clearly communicated, the system functions properly and students are likely to be more successful. For example, when parents know what is expected of their students or what homework has been assigned, they are more likely to ensure their children complete and understand the work. Also, when teachers in the same grade communicate often, they are likely to reflect on each other's concerns and wonderings. They are also able to share ideas and lessons to gives students more varied instructional plans.

The artifacts I could use to show this characteristic of a novice teacher would be my parent letters I have written and received from parents of my current placement. This shows that I let the parents know about myself, my goals, and how I will be working with their children. I could also use the emails between myself and my mentor teacher. We communicate very regularly and share ideas. It helps to keep up on schedule and prepared for the days that I will be in my placement, because I am not there everyday. These artifacts show that I make an effort to keep in touch with people that are involved in the education of the students in my placement. It also shows that without communication, my lessons or expectations would certainly not go as planned and time would be wasted.

I chose to reflect on these two characteristics of a novice teacher, because I am certain that I meet these characteristics and I feel they are very valuable aspects of a novice teacher. This characteristics focus on the moral of the teacher and can show what kind of instruction could be implemented in the classroom. Without effective communication and in depth knowledge of content, the teacher would not reach the students in the best possible way and learning would be slowed or halted possibly.

2nd Post of Characteristics of a Novice Teacher

      Throughout my experience in the Benedum Collaborative Program, I have created many lessons and attended many extracurricular activities to reach my goal of meeting all the characteristics of a novice teacher. In my last post I reflected on how I have been liberally educated and facilitated learning for all students. In this post, I will reflect on examples and artifacts of how I have in depth knowledge of content and am an effective communicator. These characteristics are very important for novice teachers and should be demonstrated with a variety of artifacts and examples, because they are characteristics that should be practiced often.

Having in depth knowledge of content is extremely important to be an effective instructor. If teachers are not sure of what they know, the students will be confused at the teacher's own second guessing and not give the teacher their full attention. A novice teacher should also be an expert of content so that incorrect information is not being taught to students and causing them future problems either later in the year or later in life. Additionally, when a novice teacher is well educated in a content area, they are able to teach that content in a variety of effective ways and are able to differentiate instruction to keep students' interest.

To show that I have in depth knowledge of content, I can include my English Unit Plan from 461, or my reading and writing mini-lesson plans for my C&I course. These lesson plan units are thorough and differentiated. They use a variety of strategies and show that I am confident and educated in English language instruction. These artifacts also show that I can create thorough lessons that cover the introduction of an understanding or skill, the further development, and conclusive instruction. Not only do I have in depth knowledge about content, I am also passionate about the content I will teach. I am excited to teach students the things I feel so passionately about and that will show in my instruction and included artifacts.

Additionally, novice teachers should be effective communicators in a variety of ways. Novice teachers should communicate well with their students, parents, school faculty, the community, their fellow grade cluster teachers, and anyone else connected to the classroom. Without good communication, there is a barrier between people and there is more likely to be confusion. When information is clearly communicated, the system functions properly and students are likely to be more successful. For example, when parents know what is expected of their students or what homework has been assigned, they are more likely to ensure their children complete and understand the work. Also, when teachers in the same grade communicate often, they are likely to reflect on each other's concerns and wonderings. They are also able to share ideas and lessons to gives students more varied instructional plans.

The artifacts I could use to show this characteristic of a novice teacher would be my parent letters I have written and received from parents of my current placement. This shows that I let the parents know about myself, my goals, and how I will be working with their children. I could also use the emails between myself and my mentor teacher. We communicate very regularly and share ideas. It helps to keep up on schedule and prepared for the days that I will be in my placement, because I am not there everyday. These artifacts show that I make an effort to keep in touch with people that are involved in the education of the students in my placement. It also shows that without communication, my lessons or expectations would certainly not go as planned and time would be wasted.

I chose to reflect on these two characteristics of a novice teacher, because I am certain that I meet these characteristics and I feel they are very valuable aspects of a novice teacher. This characteristics focus on the moral of the teacher and can show what kind of instruction could be implemented in the classroom. Without effective communication and in depth knowledge of content, the teacher would not reach the students in the best possible way and learning would be slowed or halted possibly.

2 Characteristics of Novice Teacher

        There are many aspects that make up an ideal novice teacher. A novice teacher is a new teacher that has been educated thoroughly on many aspects of education and is practicing these ideal, diverse, moral, and creative teaching methods. Two of the characteristics of a novice teacher I have chose to focus on are that teachers will facilitate learning for all students and be liberally educated.

        We believe the novice teacher should be a facilitator of learning for all students. This aspect of a novice teacher calls for new teachers to reach students of all levels and abilities. Novice teachers must use strategies, methods, materials, etc. that are differentiated to meet all the needs of students. No matter what school or area a teacher is placed, all teachers will have students of different ability levels, styles of learning, interests, etc. It is important that we notice these differences and create lessons that will meet our students’ diverse needs. If we create lessons with only one student’s abilities in mind, we will fail to reach the majority of the class and only waste time and cause disinterest. 

        To show my ability and experience with this characteristic of a novice teacher, I will include some of my differentiated lessons plans. Throughout my experience in the program I have taught students with different learning abilities. For each of the lessons I created for my PDS, I adjusted and differentiated lessons for gifted students, low ability level students, students with low reading levels, students with ADD/ADHD, and students  with Asperger’s Syndrome. These lessons have multiple aspects that are differentiated for students, because my classes contain multiple students with varied needs and abilities. I do not only have two types of learners in my classroom so my lessons are not differentiated in only one way. These lessons represent my ability and experience with facilitating learning for all students by being differentiated in multiple ways to show that I want to reach all students as stated in the characteristic. The lesson I have included is an English Canonical text lesson that is differentiated for students with low reading levels and then additionally adjusted for the needs of one student with Asperger’s Syndrome. 

        We believe that the novice teacher should be liberally educated. The definition of “Liberally” is favoring proposals for reform, open to new ideas for progress, and tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others; broad-minded. It can also be defined as generous in amount. I believe that this characteristic of a novice teacher expects teachers to have experience with and know about all topics of instruction. Although no teacher will be a master expert in every school topic, it’s important for teachers to make themselves very familiar with the content prior to teaching it. I believe that with the knowledge and experience of many content areas, comes also the responsibility of novice to teachers to present the material in new and engaging ways. There are many sides to this knowledge and instruction. By reflecting on the first definition of liberally, I believe that not only should teachers know what they are teaching, they should think outside the box and teach students in differentiated ways that reach each student best. What good is knowing all about something or everything if you’re going to teach it in a boring, lecture style method that will not interest or retain a majority of students? Ultimately, this characteristic must consider both sides of liberally by including the knowledge for content and the openness to new ideas for progress. 

        For this characteristic of a novice teacher, I have decided to include my CHPR unit lesson plans. I believe this is a representation of my wide span of content knowledge and the practice of new ideas for progress. CHPR is a class for health education which I had no experience with when I started the course. I learned much about an area of study that I had not considered. For this unit plan, I created 12 lessons plans around one main area of health and created lessons with varied methods of instruction and ways of assessment. The unit plan contains multiple lessons that use technology, several art integrated lessons, a culturally diverse lesson, and only 2 lessons with typical testing style assessment to show how broad-minded my methods of instruction in the lesson plans are. I think this assignment shows that I have met both sides of being liberally educated by learning much about a different area of study than my expertise and that I used new ideas for progress with my variety of lessons.