Week 2 Reflection

I completed my first full week of school, which proved to feel a lot longer than a week! As busy and tiring as it was, I feel as though I’ve accomplished a great deal and have already learned a multitude at my placement. One of my goals for the week was to learn the students’ names, which I think I have almost accomplished, and I am hoping that the 3 day weekend does not erase my memory!

As teaching always is, the week was unpredictable, with my host teacher needing to leave town for family reasons for a day and a half. This gave me the opportunity to step up and lead all classes while she was gone. I was able to teach 3 Geometry classes (2 different lessons), Probability and Statistics, and Algebra Support. I had the opportunity to have a wonderful substitute, a retired teacher from MHS, help me in the classroom and give me positive feedback and advice for future lessons. This experienced and effective teacher was the first to observe my teaching for the year and gave me extremely supportive feedback. She helped bring my attention to small parts of a lesson that make a big difference, such as telling students where to place answers on worksheets, making eye contact with students as a classroom management strategy, and not asking questions that allow students to respond with negativity (ex: “Do you want to do another example?”). I tried to execute her advice when teaching the next class and found her advice to help the classroom flow and environment.

Along with her advice, she gave me compliments about specifics in my lessons and about my overall presentations. She expressed that she would recommend me for a job and would think I was at the end of my placement, as opposed to the very beginning. She specifically complimented my ability to relate familiar terms with unfamiliar ones and work with the IntelliBoard. This positive feedback helped me to distinguish elements of my teaching that should be frequently incorporated in other lessons.

Overall, I was extremely pleased with how the week went. Students were very well behaved throughout my teaching and responded well to me. In my Probability and Statistics class, I created a PowerPoint presentation on the key concepts and definitions, which was probably my favorite lesson. I realized that my psychology minor is going to play an imperative roll in teaching this course, and I enjoyed calling on prior knowledge from my courses to give the students sound information and examples to illustrate the concepts.

Another experience this week was attending Open House. My host teacher was not certain if she would be able to attend, so I prepared a PowerPoint of information from her syllabus to give a general overview for the parents. Creating this PowerPoint came from the excellent advice of Mrs. Muniz and helped me to be fully prepared for the evening. My host teacher was able to attend and was appreciative of the presentation that she can hopefully use in future years. Meeting the parents of students at Open House helped me to learn more about them and to better connect with them.

Due to the fact that Open House was from 5-7pm and school lets out around 3:00, I decided to stay at school and utilize the resources of other faculty members. I was able to meet with another faculty member, Mrs. Knaggs, to discuss statistics. Mrs. Knaggs has a vast knowledge of Statistics and teaches the AP course at MHS. Her willingness to help during that time and invitation to stop by for help anytime helped to illustrate how other faculty members at my PDS affect my learning and are an invaluable resource. I was also able to stop by my former host teacher’s room, Ms. Shaffer, to discuss my placement thus far, seek her advice with any questions, and just catch up. I am beyond lucky to have her guidance and support and am still so thankful for my placement with her! (Thanks again, Mrs. Muniz!!)

Overall, my week was a success. I got experience with teaching and open house, and was able to get better acquainted with my students and faculty members. I have also greatly enjoyed getting to better know my fellow interns and spending time eating lunch and “bonding” with them. Next week, I will begin to teach the 3 Geometry classes, which are the classes I will soon begin to conduct my research. Additionally, I will help teach statistics and will hopefully conduct a lab. I am looking forward to this week and all the wonderful surprises I’m sure will arise!

Let’s Go Mountaineers!

-Elaine