Week 7 Reflection

Week 7: What part do parents play in their children’s education?  How can you enlist their help? How would you handle making a difficult phone call to a parent?

            I feel that parents play a pivotal role in their children’s education. I can provide instruction in the 70 minutes I see the students, but without parent support and encouragement, I cannot ensure that assignments and studying is completed at home. When parents support their students, the students become much more responsible about school work. To enlist parent help, I keep my course website as up to date as possible so that parents, along with students, are aware of important due dates in the course that their students should be working toward. I also make sure to communicate with parents of at-risk students frequently so that I can be sure they know about important due dates that their students cannot miss. I also keep them informed of their students’ progress so that they can discuss the course with their students in an informed matter. I have found that by beginning email communication with parents in a pleasant manner that compliments and the student,

            I have to make two difficult phone calls to parents so far. One was about a student who cheated on a homework assignment, and one was about a student who may not pass the course. The first phone call made me very nervous because I thought the parent might not believe me. But luckily the call went very well and the parent was very supportive of my disciplinary actions. The support of my master teacher made me very prepared for this phone call, and it went quite well. The second phone call led to a voice mail informing the parent of the student’s updated grade. The parent called back when both my master teacher and I were gone. She left a bit of a hostile message, which prompted my master teacher to call her back instead. However, when informed of the entire situation the parent was much more understanding and appreciative of the update. I have found that interactions with most parents go smoothly, as long as I am prepared and as informed of the individual situation as possible. 

Week 6 Reflection

Week 6: If a student said she thought you were the worst teacher she ever had, what would you say? If a student fails, what would be your feeling or reaction? What would be your way of dealing if half of the class failed in a particular test?

If a student told me I was the worst teacher she had ever had, I would tell her that I am sorry that she feels that way, but that I am happy there are other teachers she has enjoyed more. I would then ask if she had a specific suggestion or reason for why my teaching style did not match her learning style. I would do my absolute best to not take it personally, because even if she feels this way, many other students might feel I was a great teacher for them. Also, by encouraging her to give a specific reason, I could discover whether she only felt this way because of the grade she received, or if there really is something I can learn from disappointing her.

            I have been tracking my students’ grades very carefully all of this term. I am very aware of which students are in danger of failing, and I have been in close communication with them and their families about this issue. For this reason, I do not feel that I would be shocked or feel that I personally had failed them. The students who are failing are generally failing because they do not do the necessary work, not because they are missing important concepts.  I have bent late work policies to try and get them to turn in their work and receive some points to boost their grades and I have required them to attend after school tutorials to catch them up. However, some students still continue to receive failing grades. Therefore, while I will be sad that the students did not pass, I will not feel that I personally failed them, because I have been doing everything I can to improve their grades.

If half the class failed a particular quiz or test, I would look back over the assessment and see if I had included information which was not covered well. However, if the information in the quiz or test seemed fair and appropriate. I would find ways for the students to make up points with another assignment. 

Week 5 Reflection

            I decide if my lesson has been successful in two ways. The first is the more informal feeling I have based on the level of student engagement and the sense I have that they comprehend the material. The second, more essential way to gage the success of my lesson is by seeing if the students have met my objectives and achieved the standards by assessing their learning. I try to assess my students frequently and in different forms, writing, multiple choice, and others, to see how well they are learning the content.

            I work very hard to engage my students in lessons by allowing them to express creativity and individuality. Last week I taught a lesson where the students worked in groups to modernize a novel and change its perspective from male to female. The students had the chance to give their creative interpretations of how the novel would change. Another creative assignment my students currently have been working on is “Artist’s Journals”. In this assignment the students choose a quote from the novel to connect to a theme. While this may not seem very creative, the aspect that makes it an “Artist’s Journal” is that the student also include artistic interpretations of the theme. This assignment has given my students the chance to apply their creativity ability, whether with art or computer design, to themes from the novel. I hope that I continue to find opportunities for my students to demonstrate their creativity and individuality in their assignments. 

Week 4 Reflection

          Since the prompt for this week was a repeat of last week, I thought I would reflect on what was a major experience this past week. I found that three of my students cheated on assignments this past week. While two of them were only on a homework assignment, I was very disappointed to encounter this dishonesty. One of the instances was on a much more serious assignment, which put the student in a very difficult position for the final grade. Despite my efforts to support this student throughout the semester, I have not seen much of a change since this incident occurred. In both of the other two students I was shocked by the excuses they provided for their actions.

            I guess I never expected that my students would do this, since I always tried to provide support for all of my assignments. I had heard about the increase in cheating that has occurred recently, but I did not expect to have to deal with it personally. However, I was proud of myself in handling this situation. I wrote my first referrals, which is an important disciplinary experience to have. Also, it was nice to have the support and advice of my master teachers and the school administration in handling this situation for the first time. While I sincerely hope to not have to deal with this on a regular basis, I am glad that I could have this experience and reflect on it. 

Week 3 Reflection

Are there any strategies that you use to encourage teamwork among your students? What ways are you adopting to instruct students who have varying abilities?

            To encourage teamwork among my students, which I value highly, I have established several “fun Friday” activities which allow the students to bond. The students sit at tables of four which are linked to make tables of eight. I use these tables to establish groups which are consistent for a few weeks. This allows the students to get to know the people at their table and learn how to work with these peers specifically. The large groups of eight become teams for the “fun Friday” activities and work together to earn extra credit. In addition, I encourage students to support one another in their academics. In my senior class the students are doing individual research papers. However, we have set up a system for the students to share their research sources with one another, so that if two students have similar topics, they can benefit from the knowledge of one another.

            One example of my developing abilities to instruct students of varying abilities is also the research paper for my senior class. The students are allowed to choose their topic for the essay. I have encouraged my strong achieving students to branch out in their topics to more difficult research and writing styles. I also provide these students with a different level of feedback for their writing. For my students with special needs or who are lower achieving, I tailor my feedback so as to not overwhelm the students. I focus my attention on aspects of the paper that they must improve to be successful, rather than finding every error with their work. Also, I try to encourage them to write about things they are interested in, yet that they also feel they can be successful with. I have found that simple adjustments like these are essential to making each individual student successful.