Standard 1
The teacher understands how learners grow and develop, recognizing that patterns of learning and development vary individually within and across the cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, and physical areas, and designs and implements developmentally appropriate and challenging learning experiences.
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Reflection- Fall 2016:
The teacher understands how learners grow and develop. The teacher understands each student has a different style of learning and development; in the areas of reasoning, language, social, emotional, and physical. Teacher’s take this and they will design and implement appropriate and challenges for their students.
Fall of 2016 I was placed in North Side Middle School for Practicum 361. During this time, I work with 7th and 8th grade students, in a co-taught general and special education English classroom. I work with students who are all on different performance levels, with different learning styles. For one student we will work in a one-on-one setting where we will talk through the assignment and provide different examples. Or I will take a small group of students into another room, where they have the opportunity to talk not only to me but to their peers as well, about the current assignment. With practice, I have strengthened my ability to observe a child, and after observation one, and am able to pinpoint each child’s specific learning styles. After pinpointing each of my students learning style and ability levels, I am able to quickly adapt my teaching to tailor the needs of each of my students, in a way that is the most beneficently the unique needs of my students. I have a responsibility to my students to help aid them to be the most successful person they can be, success does not just happen overnight, it takes a lot of determination, and requires a lot of effort. I know this from personal experience and one thing that helped me was when I was given choices. Many school require students to be assessed in the form of a test, I however believe there is a much better way to do this, and it requires allowing the students to choose how they will be assessed. I want to be able to give my students a choice; do they want to take a test, do a project, or create a presentation. By allowing my students to have a choice, on how they would like to be assessed over the required materials, I am allowing them to decide what form will be beneficial (and the least stressful) to them.
When I was in high school I had a teacher once tell me, that as a teacher, you cannot just stand up in your ivory tower, and expect your student’s to automatically be preforming at grade level. It is almost guaranteed that you will have at least one student who performs below grade level; and you cannot just fail that student or just skip over them and only focus on those who are on track. As a teacher, you must be able to balance your time with each student, and provide the necessary tools for each child to succeed. As a preservice teacher, at times I have struggled with this, it is so easy to come into a classroom at teach. I say this because, we do not see each of these children every day of the week, for a whole year; instead we see them a few times a week, for one semester—and because of this this it is easy for us to come in and teach in our own personal and ideal way. However, we need to keep in mind just because it is our preferred way of teaching, it does not mean that it is beneficial method, for our students to learn; instead we need to change it up and personalize our teaching to meet the needs of the students.
One of my goals as a teacher is, to be constantly learning from both my colleagues as well as my students; this can be done by asking for help, techniques, and advice. For me, I have a higher ability of making up and incorporating different techniques and styles in my classroom once I have heard the opinions of others. In order to help my students, grow and develop in a positive way, I will be keeping track and monitoring their progress on a weekly or a biweekly basis. I want to be able to print out each one of my student’s grades and assignment list, that have already been graded and entered into the gradebook; and I want to go through and highlight any missing assignments that need to be in order to receive credit must be turned in. In doing this I will be able to hold each one of my students accountable for their own grades. One limitation that I know could be a struggle, are the other teacher’s policies on turning in late work. This will require me to talk and collaborate with other colleagues. Luckily, I have both positive and negative experiences in teamwork. I am willing to work with others in order to achieve the best results for my students. I will stop at nothing to help my students succeed, and that means using every resource you have in your repertoire.