Final Reflection

EDUC 14IS

Matthew O’Kane
 I started my student teaching experience out at Loess Hills Elementary with Emily

Owings on January 16th. I was at the school for the first two months. I was in the main art room

at the school and taught classes ranging from Transitional Kindergarten to Fifth Grade. I also

taught the Compass Academy class which is for students with behavior disorders. I taught a

range of students with special needs, and learned to identify students with needs that we didn’t

learn about in our formal education, such as students in the foster care system. Identifying these

students helped me teach to them and adjust for their social ambiguities. I was also able to better

scaffold my lessons for transitional kindergarten and the lower grades. Appropriate language and

breaking down lessons (chunking) makes a huge difference in the classroom, but it also takes

practice. I then moved to North High School with Leah Brockway on March 15th. I was in the

dedicated clay room, where Mrs. Brockway taught 3D classes. During this semester I taught one

Adaptive Art I class, one Art I 3D class, three Art II 3D classes, and one combination Art III/IV

3D class. I taught a large amount of ELL students here and I also learned to identify students

with mental health issues or that needed more attention due to socioeconomic or social issues.

Identifying these students helped me better understand their home life and their distractions. It

helped explain why some of them may seem less invested in their education, and it helped me

make changes to my curriculum and the interactions I had with them to ensure they took pride in

their finished work.

The unit I taught in elementary was modeled after the second grade anchor standard

Personal Narratives. Every quarter, second grade classrooms focus on another anchor standard,

and I chose this opportunity to model my lessons specifically for the second grade classes I was

teaching so my lessons would be content heavy, interdisciplinary, and more importantly familiar

to the students. This worked perfectly with the students’ art as it established a strong theme that
was malleable enough to change from project to project. At the start of my practicum, I observed

for two days slowly adding non-teaching responsibilities like grading assignments, checking for

understanding with students, and assisting in other classroom responsibilities. Then I taught one

class as a warm up before teaching every class on Friday. I was anxious to begin teaching as I

had spent the prior month reading up on TAB and choice based learning after speaking with Mrs.

Owings. Due to my preparedness, I believe I was able to smoothly transition to teaching TAB

lessons, although my concept of choice was limited at the beginning. I worked well with children

in this age range and was able to scaffold my lessons well and keep them engaged. During my

first lesson, which was over Freedom Quilts for Black History Month, I was able to get students

excited about their projects and kept them engaged with formative assessment and by setting a

purpose during portions of the video we watched. During our textile lesson, I was able to better

scaffold projects to learners by embracing choice based learning and having several options

students could attempt. Student who were looking for a challenge could choose more

complicated or difficult medium to work with like sewing, weaving, knitting or crocheting.

One area which I grew greatly in, is scaffolding and adjusting my language for

transitional kindergarten and kindergarten. When I started my student teaching experience, I had

had very little experience working with kids that young, and I didn’t consider the effect that not

having developed social skills and academic habits would have on the overall success of a

lesson. Also, scaffolding content based on not only an intellectual basis but on an emotional

basis. My lesson on Freedom Quilts was content heavy and engaging, but when teaching it to

younger students I had to learn to explain aspects of the lesson like slavery, not just by defining

the words, but explaining what it meant and why it is wrong in a way that made emotional sense.

As I became more proficient at this, the younger students became more engaged in the lessons
and willing to share. Another aspect that I had to work on was chunking my lessons. I didn’t

have an issue with the first few lessons I taught, but when we reached my lesson on textiles,

younger students quickly forgot the steps or followed them out of order. This wasn’t as easy to

adjust for, because not every person teaches a lesson the same way, and early successes may not

last into the next class. My first approach was to explicitly teach the lesson and give one row of

students at a time a chance to get supplies and then come back to the carpet to hear the first

instructions. This method was a huge time waster and led to about half the class grabbing extra

or unneeded supplies and the other half still missing a step. My next approach was to have

everyone gather supplies and I moved the lesson to the tables. Unfortunately, some students

couldn’t see me or hear me well due to students facing different directions and some getting off

task with too many supplies in front of them. My final revision was to have students grab two

essential supplies after I explained the first step. As they were seated I again stated the first step.

Finally, I led the group showing another example of the first step. When everyone had completed

this, I moved on to the next step and so forth. Overall this method was time consuming, but

extremely successful.

In the future, If I happen upon another lesson that requires this level of explicit

instruction, I believe I will make a drawing or menu of the steps, I will make a video of the steps,

and I will prepare a small group demonstration that consists of me leading students into the art

making step by step. Students comfortable with the menu can take it to their seats and follow

along, while those who want to see a video of it and follow along will have that option. Finally

those students who need extra help can sit at the demonstration table and make theirs right along

with me. I’m not sure if this is the best approach, but trying similar methods in classes that have

more choices has resulted in more self-sufficient students who are able to demonstrate the
necessary skills. I believe as long as I’m willing to keep researching and trying things until I find

what works, I will find methods that work better than others.

Differentiation in a choice based classroom is much more natural than explicitly taught

classrooms. Typically, in choice based lessons a theme or concept is the basis for the project but

the artifacts students construct can be made out of many different medium using many different

methods. This allows students to gravitate towards a media or technique that meets their mastery

or their needs. I have had students with autism that were only comfortable with one material, and

allowing them to use that media they were able to meet the requirements of the lesson. The

important thing to remember is to push students to try new things if they are unable or unwilling

to try new medium.

During my internship, I focused on the eight Iowa Teaching Standards by keeping a

journal of parts of my lesson that met different standards. The natural consequence of this, is

seeing where my lessons fell short and it allowed me to gravitate towards parts of the standards

that I felt were missing.

The first standard deals with enhancing academic performance and implementing the

district’s student achievement goals. In my classrooms, I am constantly pruning my lessons to

better adjust for empirical data obtained through formative and summative assessment. At the

elementary level I became conscious of innovative ways to communicate with parents, such at

Artsonia. Although the students’ grade for projects are not visibly evident, early access to the

artifacts they create provides visual confirmation that students are learning and prospering in the

classroom environment I have created.

 The second standard deals with competence in the appropriate content knowledge. This is

evident in the lessons that I teach as I ensure that they all contain either a local artist, well known

historical artists and their movements, or cultural or historical information about a group of

people. One lesson in my unit dealt with African American History. The focus of the lesson was

on the Underground Railroad. We learned about Harriet Tubman and Freedom Quilts as an art

style. Although Harriet Tubman is not a notable artist, she played an important role historically

and was a key proponent to the Underground Railroad and the art it inspired and made useful.

The third standard deals with competence in planning and preparing for instruction. I feel

like my practicums prepared me for this more than anything. During my experience, I quickly

learned that lesson plan formats differ from school to school and being able to adapt and leave

enough details for a substitute to follow is crucial to planning. In my student teaching

experience, I was fortunate enough to learn a new lesson plan format that was better aligned to

choice based classrooms. I became familiar with it, as the form was different for every grade

level I taught. I was able to sit in on a professional development meeting downtown twice where

we discussed the strengths of the lesson plan, practiced filling it out, and made much needed

revisions to it.

The fourth standard deals with teaching practices and scaffolding, emphasizing the need

to create instructional practices to meet students’ needs both cognitively and socially. I do this

constantly when I check for understanding throughout my lessons. I try to utilize questions that

promote multiple levels of thinking, and enjoy asking predictive questions about videos we

watch or stories we read. During our lesson about Kente cloth and the Ashanti people, I ask

students about what they think will happen next during the story “The Spider Weaver”. I also ask

them to relate to the people and ask higher order questions about the creation of the cloth.
 The fifth standard deals with using a variety of methods to monitor student learning. This

is a major part of my instruction, and three levels of adjustments to my lessons occur during any

given day. The first would be minor tweaks I make to a lesson due to formative assessment.

These alterations take place “on the fly” and are tailored first to an individual class, and second

changes are made to my lesson to accommodate similar classes. The second would be changes

made in subsequent lessons or supplemental information provided during “work days” due to

results of summative or formative assessment. These changes are implemented if I see a trend

within a given class while assessing their learning in interviews during art creation or during our

review at the end of class. The third would be changes made to an entire lesson which are

implemented only after summative assessment of the lesson is complete. If a large portion of

students miss certain content, then a lesson is assessed and altered for the following year.

The sixth standard deals with demonstrating competence in classroom management. I do

this by ensuring students are on task and motivated. One way I do this is by seeking out

examples that students would have a collective interest in. During my Freedom Quilt lesson, I

used an example of diamond pick axes from a popular game called Minecraft. Students loved the

idea and wanted to incorporate their own interests into the assignment. This ensured that students

remained engaged and invested in the lesson.

The seventh standard deals with engaging in professional growth. The entire point of my

student teaching experience was to grow and learn as a professional, in a professional setting.

One area that I grew in was English Language Learner strategies. During Professional

Development, we learned about ways to get an unbiased assessment on English Language

Learners that involved recording their Think-Pair-Share sessions and playing them back later to

hear the conversation as a whole. While I did not use this exact method, it did make me examine
how I evaluate my English Language Learners and helped me change the way I assess their

work.

The eighth standard deals with fulfilling professional responsibilities. It mostly deals with

ethical behavior, working towards district goals and being respectful. Another area of this is

collaborating with students and families to enhance student learning. I do this when I survey

students about their interests so that I can include different media in their lessons. I also do this

during conferences, where I helped parents sign up for Artsonia and talked to parents about their

children’s artwork.

Teaching has taught me a lot about working with others. Teaching is a job that requires

you to have a good relationship with your peers. At the elementary level, I learned to work with

the other specials teachers because they need you to have their back just as much as you’ll need

them. When the 2nd and 3rd Grade concert approached, we not only gave up half of a class worth

of instruction, but we assisted the music teacher in ushering the kids into their spots and giving

them feedback on their practice performance. Sacrificing part of our instruction was the only

way that the students could practice for their concert. The singing could be done in class, but not

with all of their peers where issues could be addressed such as one class singing more loudly

than another. The students also didn’t have a chance to practice entering, fining their place,

posing for pictures, and many other behaviors that only apply during a concert. Classroom

teachers wouldn’t all sacrifice their instructional time to practice, and more importantly even if

they had, the music teacher would be occupied teaching another class from another grade level.

So this made the most sense. When it came time to reciprocate and we needed help recording a

puppet show, the music teacher had our backs and helped. Having the support of your peers

makes all the difference.

 Teaching has taught me a lot about working with students. Every child has a story, and no

two children are the same. I have had students tell me about loss of family, homes, or friends. I

have had students tell me about their successes however small, like one who made slime at

home, or large, like winning games in the finals. I have had students that don’t want to talk to

anybody, and been there when they finally open up. I have been there for students on rough days.

In my high school experience I worked with a girl who is advanced in her artistic ability, but

struggling personally after a suicide attempt. I was there to try to brighten her day after another

student made fun of her for that suicide attempt. I was there to comfort her and encourage her

artistically. Class sizes in Sioux City are swelling, and it’s hard to be involved in every child’s

life, but it is an integral part of our profession and detrimental to these students’ success and

happiness.

Finally, teaching has taught me a lot about myself. I have had plenty of andragogical

experience, but when it came to teaching children I was worried about adjusting my academic

language and scaffolding my lessons for the lower grades. Mrs. Owings looked at me one day

and said, “They’re just people. How would you talk to your son?” and from then on, I had the

confidence and the understanding to scaffold appropriately. It was truly as if she flicked a switch

in me that fueled my understanding. Young students need to have things explained to them,

because this is their first time hearing about these things. They don’t understand concepts like

slavery, from my black history month lesson. They need to have it explained and you need to

explain why it is wrong in a thoughtful and considerate way.