Skyla Sale

UTeach 640
J. Haug
November 25, 2015
Learning Reflection #3: All Nine Teaches
During my last three teaches, I felt more comfortable and even
more excited than the last six. And throughout this semester, I have
grown to know more about my teaching persona and myself as a
young budding professional. I have been challenged with classroom
management and time efficiency, and Ive stayed positive throughout.
In my 7th teach, I annotated an essay prompt and helped
students go through their first in-class writing assessment for the
semester. It took a lot of patience and thorough explanations. This
lesson showed me the importance of multiple explanations through
different techniques. I really like this lesson because students would
raise their hands for me to check their thesis statements, which were
all really well done. It was rewarding to see the work from the past few
lesson all come together nicely.
In my 8th teach, students had a blast. They loved the activity and
the engagement of creating a story character as a class. Students
worked with partners effectively and they seemed happy to show me
their products.
My 9th teach was a about becoming playwrights and writing a
play with a partner. At first, the students didnt know where to begin,
but after an activity that got the creative juices flowing, they got
straight to work, creating such creative plots and building off of their
fun characters.
These lessons tied together both weeks that I observed. When I
first got to Anderson, the students were working on reading workshops,
and then they moved reading Antigone and Martin Luther King Jr.s
Letters from a Birmingham Jail. They practiced rhetorical strategies
and logical appeals. All of this led to their persuasive paper essay and
then own creating work in a play format. It was nice to see how all of
the units and readings worked together to create one large project.
Over the weeks, I earned a good rapport with my classes and my
CT. I felt like a bridge between the two. My students seemed to respect
me and listen to what I had to say. A lot of the students asked me
advice on their writings and by my 5th teach, students were bringing in
creative writing and asked me to read and give them feedback. And

when we would go to the library, it felt like little victories every time a
student would tell me they liked the book I suggested.
Being in front of the class was a bit intimidating at first. I gained
comfort as an authority figure by greeting the students each day,
which helped immensely. I now feel totally comfortable explaining
things to students, and I love working one-on-one to discover the
answer or create new ideas for projects. Using media is also something
I feel good aboutbefore 640, I was so nervous about using the
projector or internet with the students, but observing my CT do this
gave me the courage to look up facts or answers that I dont know
about.
I learned that classroom management gives me a mini panic, but
apparently (according to my CT) you cant tell, so at least I hide it!
When a student acts out, I just take a minute to stare at them, and
honestly, that normally works to settle them down. And because of my
personality, the students stop and look worried when Im not smiling or
talking. Ive had this effect on my little brother growing up, so its
funny to know that my infamous Skyla glare works.
I love my students, and I have really enjoyed this internship. Ive
learned a lot about myself and Ive learned effective ways to work
around a classroom. Walking around and gazing on student work is
something I do quite often. I weirdly high five students for approval and
encouragement, which usually puts a smile on students faces. I never
knew how much patience it took to be a teacher, and this is something
Im still working on, even though I feel better at it after 640. For next
semester, I am hoping to observe other teachers with different
methods and learn from a variety of techniques in order to build my
own. Im also going to be focusing on better lesson assembly and
identifying the objective faster than I have been. Overall, Ive enjoyed
this internship and I look forward to the next!!