Success Journal Reflection

When looking other the past week of posting particular subjects of teaching that I have felt successful in, I have come to the realization that no matter how long you are an educator you are always are learning how to be a better teacher. I feel as if I have made great improvements in the short time of been student teaching this semester. However, I have much to learn to become a great effective teacher.  Each day, at the school I continue to find myself trying new strategies for teaching to my students and continue to gain personal experience as well as work experience while student teaching.

Other areas that I wish to continue to succeed in while students teaching are growing my confidence and classroom management skills.  I also hope to gain more teaching techniques and skills to become an effective teacher. I hope to continue to grow as a mentor and a better personal. I feel while been back in the public school system students look up to me as a role model possibly due to being a closer age then most other teachers at the school.  This experience has honesty made me want to be better and continue to improve myself not just as a teacher but also as a person.  

Success Journal #5

Today I found myself being successful in communicating with my students in developing their cognitive skills.  Often with teaching I found myself being repetitive with my lessons instead of teaching and allowing students to develop their cognitive skills. Prior to my lesson over the Industrial Revolution I asked my students to ask themselves not what the revolution brought to the nation but why and how these inventions changed the economies.  As a class we went somewhat off schedule with an activity of everything we use today in our daily lives we take for granted that may have had its original creations derived from the Industrial Revolution. I found it to be a great activity with full participation from my students.

Success Journal #4

Today I found myself being successful in the classroom by being aware of a student that did not understand the lesson.  While performing my lesson over Manifest Destiny, I noticed one student in particular not engaging in the discussions and questions included and promoted within my lesson.  Once the lesson was completed, I approached the student asking if they understood what the lesson was over and they replied with not really.  When finding this out, I began to ask what part of the lesson was not understood.  The student made it clear that she had moved to Texas from California two years ago and didn’t know much about Texas history. When understanding the Texas information was brand new to this student I gave an individual lesson and helped relate why Texas history was important to the term Manifest Destiny along with relating it to Californian history.

Success Journal #3

One thing that I found myself doing successful today was keeping better classroom management.  While presenting a lesson today I had to tell a group of students several times to pay attention and stop misbehaving. This might not seem like a hard task but as a new teacher I had a difficult time approaching the students due to they were all football players, which I help assistant coach for. I understand classroom management is key when teaching and I wanted to keep a professional student to teacher relationship.

The first instance of the students misbehaving I simply ask them to pay attention. However, like all students their conversation could not wait. When having to ask them a second time to pay attention I tried to not make a disturbance towards the whole class.  I walked over to the students and quietly asked them to be quite and take notes. With this approach, the students understood what I meant when I said to pay attention and began to behave and do what was asked. Classroom management is vital for teachers in their classroom and it is important to be done in a professional manor.

Success Journal #2

One thing that I found myself doing successfully today was being able to present my lesson clearer. I noticed my first few lessons I tended to run through my power point presentation way too fast.  When doing so I realized I sounded nervous, which is understandable for new teachers. However, my students noticed also and made it clear to me that I could have slowed down and made my lesson clearer.

In the last few weeks, I have been practicing on how to demonstrate proper teaching techniques when giving a lesson. One strategy I have been practicing is just breathing. This may sound obvious but I find myself running through slides too fast and not taking breaths between sentences. This strategy allows me to pace myself while teaching and forces me to slow down my lesson.  When I don’t sound out of breath I don’t sound nervous and I also feel more confident in my teaching skills.

Success Journal #1

One thing that I find myself doing successfully is helping students with questions towards the lesson. I feel as if they have trust and a comfortable relationship with me to ask for help with any problem. When I am helping students solve and workout answers or problems makes me feel as if my assistance is needed in the classroom. In my cooperative teachers classroom, the size of the class is smaller than most high schools and students can easily receive help form the teacher but choose to ask for my help most times.

Each day is a new challenge and unexpected, which is why I chose to teach. I love the challenges of teaching. I feel each day I develop more and more as an educator, which is a comforting feeling as a student teacher. I can honestly say I still enjoy getting up each morning and going to school not knowing what the day might bring. I have been learning and soaking in as much as possible each day.