ED 2500 Reflection Five- Mid-Term Formative

Due to the high school visitation on Thursday, I only had one class in my practicum
classroom this week. This week was definitely interesting overall due to the fact that my TA was
out at a PD session on Tuesday and therefore the class had a sub. The classroom management
skills and instructional techniques used by the sub were very different than those used by my TA,
but they provide evidence that my TA is well versed in the needs of her own students. Thursday
was interesting because we went to a high school social studies classroom. I loved everything
about it- the art, the energy, the layout. The classroom was just like a masterpiece in the sense
that it looked like this museum full of wicked art, info, and atmosphere in which the teacher is
the super energetic and passionate curator. Tuesday and Thursday were to vastly different
experiences, and while it is one thing to sit back and look at another persons teaching skills,
what about mine? How far do I think I have come so far? What are some things I need to
improve on? This reflection will be my attempt at self-reflecting on things that I do well, things
that I do well but need to improve, and things that I absolutely need to address in the next few
weeks. There are also likely many things that I have not noticed myself doing, so for those things
I will leave until my next journal entry, after I have received some feedback from my TA about
her perspective.
So things I do well. This is a tougher question than things I dont do well because I
dont want to seem too cocky or overconfident. However, I think that I have developed a greater
understanding about the different needs of learners. There are multiple things that affect a
students performance in terms of school work or classroom behavior. Over the course of the first
few weeks of this practicum I truly believe that I have been better able to understand at least
some of the ways to act around certain students. For example, once some of these students get
excited it is pretty hard to get them unexcited again. I like to interact with the students, but now
I find myself interacting differently with different students- depending on what I know about
them. I want to find ways to interact with them that arent going to distract them from their actual
goal. I now know that some students can be joked around with while I am helping them, whereas
others absolutely cannot- or it is over. I find that depending on the student I am interacting with, I
am customizing my reactions or responses. I have also become keenly aware of the different
wants of the students. Some students want peace and quiet, while others want a little bit of
noise. Some students do not want anyone- including myself- to bother them, while others really
do. I think it is important for me to continue doing this because it is certainly not an asset for a
teacher to not be fluid in terms of their behavior, because if I have learned anything in this
classroom it is that everyone is different.
Another thing I do well is working in small groups. I have had numerous opportunities to
help individual students or small groups. Usually we work at the back tables and chit chat about
how we can get the job done. These little groups are a great way for me to kind of teach on a

smaller scale. I think I am at least ok at getting the students to stay on task and helping them
through some things that they are either struggling to understand or just dont feel like doing. I
have also learned that sometimes you have to really encourage grade 3 students to do things.
These groups have also helped to some extent in developing my patience, which is something
else that I think I am good at in this classroom. I think I might have even managed to get one
group to compromise with their castle building project.
In other areas I feel as though I am doing just ok. I have noticed that there is a core group
that I interact with more than others- specifically the group sitting in the half of the room closest
to the window. I dont know why this pattern formed but it did. Im not saying that I exclude the
rest of the class, its probably a ratio like 60:40, but I am still not balancing my interactions. If I
were a real teacher this could mean the difference between a student feeling comfortable in my
classroom and with me as their teacher. I also think that if I were to end up with a student who
didnt feel comfortable saying hey, Mr. Williams, I would appreciate if you could come over to
my side of the room more often to help it could affect their performance. I can definitely say
that the side of the classroom that I have decided unintentionally to hang out in is more familiar
to me. I know what they did that weekend, I know to some extent what they are working on and
need help with, and I think that they feel comfortable with me there. I first noticed this pattern a
few weeks ago, and I have genuinely tried to fix it, but I still go to the other side of the room and
am met with quiet students and Im not 100% sure where theyre at etc.
Another area that I think I do ok at is my non-verbal language. I think that I generally
have a smile on my face, my posture doesnt seem to be too intimidating and some students even
ask me for hugs- so I cant be that bad, right? However, I do find that I have resting mad face,
particularly when I am tired. That isnt to say that I am annoyed or whatever but I think that to
some it may come across as such. I hope that I can really work on the facial expressions so that I
dont seem grumpy. The strange thing is that I have been a server for the last couple of summers
so I should have mastered the smile at this point. I dont think this is a most urgent concern, but
it is something for me to think about. Also I need to stop wearing grey because one student told
me I wear grey too much
On a more serious note, though, I think that a third ok but area is providing learners
with appropriate feedback. Sometimes when I am working with the students I try to help guide
them, without giving them the right answer, which I think is good. But the other day, (in just one
example of many) one student told me that his flight to Mexico only lasted for one song. The
students had to choose a more appropriate measure of time out of two. The question was would
you measure a trip to another province as the time it takes to listen to a song or number of
sleeps. The student was adamant that the right measure was song, and everytime I said no, he
kept adding one more song to the measure. Finally I ended up laughing because I honestly wasnt
sure how to respond. So this is just one example of how I need to better learn how to provide
feedback to students- I didnt want him to feel insignificant because I honestly couldnt tell if he
thought he was right, or if he was just being silly, and so I need to discover ways to tell them

they are wrong without making them feel either unintelligent or insignificant. They are all
intelligent and important. My TA and the Aides have become masters of this from what I have
seen but I think its something that comes with time.
One area that I can think of where I desperately need to improve is in terms of
maintaining behavioral expectations. I know I am only a student, but to some extent it is
important that I at least know how to address certain situations. I find myself oftentimes seeing
something that is going wrong, but kind of chickening out when it comes to responding. I dont
want to go over my TAs head and just jump in, and I dont want to advise the wrong correction
to certain behavioral missteps. I have had my fair share of run-ins though. One guy was cutting
up his entire pencil with scissors, and when I went to take the scissors and the pencil away he got
so sassy. The same guy on Tuesday took all of his things out of his desk during the subs morning
meeting and when I asked him if that was what he was supposed to be doing he very
dramatically told me I am cleaning out my desk thank you very much. I am actually kind of
grinning as I write this because looking back it is a funny story, BUT at the time I did nothing.
He said that and I just kind of backed off- the sub was at the front doing other things with other
students. Other times I dont do anything because I am not sure how. As with everything else I
think a good balance is the right approach. I dont want to come across as being absolutely
atrociously horrible, nor do I want to be seen as ah its just Mr. Williams. I think if I can learn
how to approach behavioral correction I can also branch off from that and even establish a
greater respect in the classroom. My TA handles discipline like a pro- Ive seen various
approaches, each customized to whichever student she is talking to. The Aides are awesome in
this regard as well. There are some signs I might be improving in this area though, on Tuesday
the aide told me you handle C really well referring to one of the more problematic students.
Not to toot my own horn, but (just kidding). In my opinion I have a long way to go in this
area.
On a more comical note I definitely need to take a crafting class. On Valentines day I had
to ask one of the students to show me how to weave a paper heart-shaped basket, even after my
TA already explained it. It was cute though because Im preeetty sure that this student really took
great enjoyment from the situation. And I actually did not mind either, but I would say Im
definitely not meeting expectations in terms of crafts.
Lastly, one area I think I have already somewhat corrected is the getting down on their
level thing. A few weeks ago I sent an email to my TA just asking how things were going
because we hadnt really had time to chat and she told me not to be afraid to get down on their
level. She said that some of the students really need help to get things organized from their
desks, particularly in the mornings. Where I would have stood around telling them to get their
books out, now I help them get their books and such together for the morning. I think this is
evidence that progress is being made.

I have a ton of things to say about this subject, and I think that next week I will have even
more to say after me and my TA get the chance to sit down and talk about it, but for now I am
going to leave it there otherwise this reflection will be like 100 pages long. This self-criticism is
difficult though. I think many times people have this belief that we can do anything and do it
well, so we naturally dont take the time to reflect, but I think that the self-assessment part of the
midterm formative has helped me see areas of improvement. Even if I can move things up by one
box for the final, I think I will be satisfied.