Educators
should continually reflect on their practice to extend their knowledge, improve
their teaching, and refine their evolving philosophies of education. They should stay abreast of developments in
the profession, and be able to think critically about various teaching
practices. Educators should continually
strengthen their knowledge of subject matter through scholarly study,
professional reading, and discussion with colleagues. They should deepen their understanding of
children’s learning and development through classroom-based action
research. Educators should be open to
change and innovation, continually engaging in the process of professional
growth.
Educators
need to have the ability to reflect on their own work. Reflection enables educators
to improve their teaching by looking back and deciding what they believe worked
for their students and what did not. From there, educators can decide what they
need to do in order to meet the needs of their students. Once that decision is
made, teachers can participate in various career building activities to improve
their teaching. If they take the time to do professional reading, and converse
with colleagues, it will improve their knowledge of subject matter and new
educational strategies. In addition, educators should also do classroom-based
research in order to fully understand child learning and development. Through
reflection and research, educators can learn about themselves, their students,
and about their professional career. Most importantly, reflection offers
teachers the opportunity to grow and learn like their students.
As
a prospective elementary educator, reflection is important to me. In most of my
education courses at Wheelock I have been expected to complete reading and
teaching reflections. Although this was an expectation of me as a student, it
was also one the greatest things that could have been assigned, because I was
taught the benefits of writing down my thoughts. Reflecting helped me organize
my ideas and solve issues that may have risen during my practicum or while
reading for class. I believe reflections are a strategy that educators should
use in order to voice their beliefs and ideas. They should also be used to
write down some event that happened, such as a lesson that didn’t go exactly to
plan, in order to find a solution to the problem. Another benefit of reflection
is that people are able to write down an idea or event that they may not
remember in the future. Looking back at my writing has allowed me to see how
much I have grown as a student and professional, as well as some concepts I should
continue to work on in order to extend my knowledge.
My
pre-practicum took place at the Manning School in Jamaica Plain. I was in an
inclusive third grade classroom with two main teachers. For my pre-practicum I
was expected to perform three lessons that my Wheelock College Supervisor would
observe. I planned for my last lesson to be a full class lesson on the lives of
Pilgrims. As I began writing my lesson plan I realized that I was not exactly
sure what I wanted my students to learn about the Pilgrims. It had been awhile
since I had learned about the Pilgrims, so in order to plan for the lesson I
knew I would need to do some research. I started researching online, but none
of the information I found appealed to me. After reflecting about my failed
attempt of creating a lesson, I went to my supervising practitioner to see if
she had any books that I could read to the students to teach them about the
lives of the Pilgrims. She suggested that I use the classroom library. After
looking at various books such as, Samuel Eaton's Day: A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Boy and Sarah Morton’s
Day: A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Girl, which were both
written by Kate Waters, I realized that there were points from each book that I
wanted to include in my lesson. I eventually created a book that I read to the
class based on both books that I found in the classroom (Artifact 6A). Although
I began my lesson plan without knowing what I wanted my essential questions or
learning goals to be, I was able to reflect on what I already knew in order to
find out what I needed to know more about. By researching I was able to extend
my knowledge in order to complete the lesson.
In
my seminar class in the fall, one of the assignments was to post lesson plans
on Blogger. Once we posted the lesson, we were expected to reflect on how the
lesson went. I found this activity to be extremely helpful throughout my
practicum experience because it allowed me to look back to the lesson and
really try to pull it apart to see if the class met the set goals. It also
enabled me to see if there were teaching or planning strategies that I needed
to improve upon. I posted two lesson reflections on November 6th,
2011, that prove that I reflected on my practice in hopes of improving my
teaching. Artifact 6B and 6C are the lesson reflections that I posted.
In
the first reflection I noted that the many of the students did not completely
understand what the expectations were for the lesson. At the end of my
reflection I decided that I would go over the same lesson, which was about the
characteristics of a paragraph, so that all the students would be able to form one
correctly. In the second lesson reflection, I pondered why the majority of my
students were not engaged in the math lesson. I believed this was because I did
not give students who already understood the lesson more challenging work. To
improve my teaching, I decided that from then on I would design extensions and
more challenging work for the students that understood the mathematical
concept.
During the spring of 2011, I wrote my educational
philosophy (Artifact 6D). At that time I had completed both of my field
placements and I was in the midst of my pre-practicum. One main idea that I
discussed was having the ability to create a multicultural environment that
would be welcoming to all students. My goal was to set up a supportive environment
where students are able to recognize and accept cultures other than their own.
I also added that I wanted to create a classroom where there are opportunities
for student-directed learning. In addition to multiculturalism and
student-directed learning, I also stated that I have a holistic approach to
teaching. These three ideas that I included in my educational philosophy were a
good basis for me to start with. If I were to rewrite my philosophy now, I
would include many of the same ideas, but with a greater focus on
student-directed learning. I believe that it is important for the student to
develop his own ideas through observation and experimentation. When a student
is able to create his own idea and figure out a problem on his own, the child
will feel a great sense of satisfaction.
Being able to create a philosophy also correlates with
keeping up with developments in the profession. As a student studying to be an
educator, it is my responsibility to educate myself about new practices of
teaching in order to evolve my thinking. One way I began this process was by
completing an assignment for my course in Introduction to Elementary Teaching.
For this assignment, I researched the history of Native American schooling and
some modern perspectives (Artifact 6E). While researching I read a variety of
articles and books about Native American schooling and how Native American
perspectives can be incorporated into schools. Through this process, I was able
to think critically about these new teaching practices, as well as gain more
knowledge to support my philosophy of creating a multicultural environment for
my students.
Another way to learn new teaching practices is through
conversation with colleagues. In my seminar and special needs courses that
coincided with my practicum, my peers and I discussed events and issues that
were arising in our classrooms. We conversed about strategies that work in our
classrooms and gave each other insight when someone was experiencing an issue
that they did not know how to resolve. One of my peers introduced the rest of
us to an outline that she made for morning meetings. She told us that having a
rubric which she used to plan, helped her organize her thoughts and objectives
for the meeting. I thought about using her rubric (Artifact 6F), and
implemented it the following week. I found the morning meeting organizer to be
extremely helpful for my planning of morning meetings.
During my practicum I was assigned a project in which I
would complete a focus child study. Although this was not a complete
classroom-based research project, I did observe one child from my classroom across
all developmental domains (physical, social/emotional, language/literacy, and
cognitive). I observed him because he is an English language learner that
needed some extra help due to his lack of literacy skills in English. In the
first part of the project (Artifact 6G), I completed three to four observations
under each developmental domain. I used these observations to learn more about
the student and the way he learns. By completing this project, I was able to
see what kind of activities should be implemented in order to support his
learning needs. What I found was that many of the tools he needed in order to
learn, such as visuals, aided many of the other students in the classroom as
well.
It is vital that teachers are open to change because the
field of education is always evolving. It is also
important that educators are able to take criticism from their colleagues and
supervisors in order to grow professionally. In the text Positive Discipline, the authors ask,
Have
you ever noticed how easy it is to solve someone else’s problem? The reason is
obvious. We can bring objectivity and perspective to the problems of others
when we are not emotionally involved. Have you also noticed that teachers work
in isolation and don’t like to admit to other teachers that they are having a
problem for fear of being judged as inadequate? (Nelsen, et al., 2000, p. 217).
When teachers are able
to take advice and grow professionally, it benefits the learning of their
students. During my practicum, my Wheelock College Supervisor came to my
classroom to observe me on five different occasions. She wrote reports for each
observation and listed things that I did well, and gave me recommendations on
what I needed to improve. As a student teacher, I was able to take the advice
from my Wheelock College Supervisor although I was not happy when she was so
blunt about the mistakes I was making. Artifact 6H shows the observation report
from my lesson on November 14th, 2011. At the end of the report my
supervisor stated, “Begin to refine management strategies, in particular the
strategy of creating/posting/referring to class set of behavior expectations.”
I took the recommendation seriously, because I believe in order for students to
learn and be focused the teacher needs to show presence within the classroom. What
I learned from this situation was to use my supervisor’s advice in order to
grow in the professional field of education. Although I struggled with my
confidence in the classroom most of the semester, by the end I learned how to
show my presence.
On
her final visit to my classroom, my supervisor voiced how much my confidence
had improved from her first visit. In her final write-up (Artifact 6I) she
wrote, “Ms. Pihl is to be commended for her openness to help and coaching. Her
management of student behavior is strengthening,” and, “Increased management of
behavior. It is good to see you exerting more force in your request for certain
behaviors.” With the ability to listen to constructive criticism, I was able
challenge myself by changing my presence in the class. It was hard for me at
first, but with plenty of practice I was able to engage in the process of
professional growth.
As
a prospective elementary educator I believe that it is my professional
responsibility to continue to reflect on my practice to extend my knowledge of
subject matter and developments of the profession. To do this, it will be
important to be open to change, perform classroom-based research, and to
converse with colleagues. Although I have not finished a complete
classroom-based research project, I do believe that it is an area in which all
educators should have experience in. I look forward to completing research in
my future classroom to deepen my understanding of my student learning.
I
have reflected on my work as a student teacher. Through reflection I have
accomplished many things and also recognized what I needed to improve upon in
order to develop my skills as an educator. It will be important for me to stay involved
in research and new developments in the field so that I can experiment with
innovative strategies in hopes that they will increase student understanding.
When educators reflect on their practice, they are able to recognize the need
for improvement, and how they can succeed at it.
References
Nelsen, J., Lott, L.,
& Glen, S. H. (200). Positive discipline in the classroom. (3 ed.).
New York, NY: Random House.
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