Reflection Week 9

How I know I am doing a good job? I feel like the answer to this question is evident in
assessments and assignments I keep track of. Do my students show growth? Are they
consistently meeting my objectives and standards? Formative and summative assessments are so
important for learning, because it really gives me the time to reflect on the concepts Im teaching
and how students are performing. If the class as a whole is not doing well on my assessments,
then I am not doing well as a teacher and I need to revisit the concepts and reteach them in a
different way. If one one of two students are having trouble, then I can adapt the lesson to
incorporate different supportstill reaching the others students but enhancing the lesson to meet
the needs of all of the students. For example, I taught a lesson about how mud was destroying the
Great Barrier Reef to 6th grade students. We read about the mud, watched a video about the mud
to visualize the cause, and made posters about the issue of mud covering the reef in small groups.
But when I asked my students what was hurting the Great Barrier Reef, they parroted back
Climate change, which isnt incorrect entirely, but actually wasnt mentioned in our article or
video at all. So, I wet back and we made a T-chart of issue and who is causing (a reverse cause
and effect T-chart). We used this T-chart for discussions and t write an action plan, steps to
cleaning the Great Barrier Reef. Then, when I asked my students what was harming the Great
Barrier Reef, they had a spot on response. Part of this issue was that I was just using different
forms of literal comprehension, memorizing and visualizing knowledge. I wasnt asking students
to DO anything with it. But when we started to make inferences and use critical thinking to build
solutions, the students interacted with the concept and the text in a more authentic manner.
 Free Response: Keeping Students on Track

One of the hardest parts of teaching for me is the pacing aspect. I want students to learn
so much and I want to move through all of the material, but this is just not a realistic goal for all
students. I have been spending more time developing the transferable skills behind the content
knowledge (in Social Studies) instead of just moving through the chapters and regurgitating
knowledge. This has helped my students interact with the material more deeply and has provided
some great opportunities for role play, project-based learning, and other student interest tasks.
Unfortunately, I have backed off too far! At this point as we are ending the Quarter (Q1), none of
my middle school classes are ready for a mid-term assessments, because we did not cover all
of the material that is typical of the units. I have to postpone my midterms for the week after Q1
ends and this has skewed Mr. Terrys typical pacing. Finding a balance has been quite the
challenge. I need to let students have the time to learn, but I also need to think about my
summative assessments and when to move on to new units. After this Habitat Preservation unit
in grade 6, I need to transition into Water Resources or Food Conservationdepending on the
hydroponics in the high schooland I am feeling a little overwhelmed! I will my teaching
practice focused on student centered learning, however, and will work to scaffold student
abilities to quicken their pace during the next units content.