Final Tuning Protocol Reflection--- Kate Lexvold

When we were first introduced to the Tuning Protocol, I was very nervous for all that it
entailed. I was so confused as to how I would plan out the three connected math lessons and then
video tape myself teaching one of them. I was a bit overwhelmed with it all, and I didn’t have the
best attitude toward the whole situation.
I decided to get right on it, so I started talking it over with my cooperating teacher in the
kindergarten classroom. She was also a little confused, but we knew that together we would
make it work. When I told her that it had to be math instruction, she was a bit hesitant because
their school had just been introduced to a new math curriculum. She wasn’t even comfortable
teaching the lessons, let alone having me teach them. She had full confidence in my teaching
ability, so we started looking at the material that I would cover. I decided on three days that I
would teach, and she gave me the materials to start planning out the lessons for those three days.
After I got started, it wasn’t as bad as I had initially thought it would be. I made sure to gather all
of the information and materials that I needed, look at every detail of my lessons, and think of
ways that I could engage all of the students. I wanted to be very prepared for my lessons because
I knew how the students acted during math instruction.
The days finally came for me to teach my lessons, and I think that they all went really
well for the most part. It was so nice to have the video to look back on to analyze my teaching. I
thought it provided me with some great insight into how I can improve my teaching as well as
what I am doing well.
Even though I felt that the lessons went well, there are still some things that I would do
differently if I taught this segment again. First of all, I would try my best to slow my talking
down. I always talk fast, so when I teach I try to slow down a bit, so the students can understand
me better. I still need to work on this more, and I think I will only get better with practice. Next,
I would make sure to plan the math lessons at the same time each day. Usually this isn’t a
problem because we have a designated math instruction block, but on one of the days, there was
a conflict in scheduling. We had to improvise and move the math lesson to the afternoon, and
this was definitely a mistake. The students were exhausted, and they weren’t used to having math
class in the afternoon. The change was definitely apparent as the lesson progressed. If I taught
this segment again, I would make sure that the schedule would remain consistent throughout the
three days. The last thing that I would do differently is the way that I passed out the display cards
to the students. I thought it would be a good idea to have some sort of system to who I was
giving the cards to, so that those students would get the opposite ones the next day. This didn’t
go as well as I had hoped, and it led to some unnecessary talking which, in turn, led to some lost
instruction time. If I taught this segment again, I would simply hand the cards out to the first five
people sitting in a row and continue doing so until the cards were gone each time. This would
eliminate the confusion as well as the lost instruction time.
I thought that the Tuning Protocol was a great learning experience. I felt as if I learned a
lot about who I am as a teacher and what teaching style seems to work well for me. I learned that
I did a good job of incorporating the language objective into the lesson. I made sure to address it
right away, and I had the students use the academic language throughout the lesson. I learned
that analyzed my student work well. I discussed who they are as students, what their work
showed, and then what I would do next with each student. From the Tuning Protocol, I also
learned that I do a good job when it comes to introducing the lesson or what we will be focusing
on that given day. It was beneficial to have multiple eyes on my presentation to give me the most
feedback possible. It opened up my eyes to things that I never even thought of when going about
the assignment. I really enjoyed doing this activity, and I think that it was a very meaningful
assignment. It is something that we will be doing in the future, so it was great to have this
experience.