Running head: VIDEO

Video Reflection

Ellie Samples

Paris Junior College

EDUC 1301.200

Dr. Marian Ellis, Instructor

December 15, 2020

Running head: STUDENT 2

Video Reflection

Watching the online observation videos really helped me learn important characteristics

that teachers have and how they respond. Having the different levels of schooling was really

beneficial for me to see how different the style of teaching is and the use of different techniques.

Having the videos be both student centered and teacher centered was nice so I could find ways to

improve my teaching. Watching the online observation videos has helped me greatly in finding

ways to communicate with my students, have different styles of teaching, and how to create a

comfortable environment for students to learn in.

In one of the videos, Kristin Bijur had a very effective system of communicating with her

students and dealing with conflict. If the students had a disagreement, or something happened,

Bijur would have the students talk to her and the other student. When two of Bijur’s students

were mad at eachother, Bijur asked them what happened and had both students tell her their side

of the story. Having both students tell Bijur what happened and admit to what they did helped the

students resolve their conflict. Admitting that they were wrong, and apologizing really helped the

environment of the classroom. Bijur is really open with her students and creates an environment

that her students are comfortable in. For my future classroom I will adopt her openness to

communication in order to have a comfortable classroom to learn in.

While watching the observation videos, I noticed that the teachers had different methods

that they used to really engage the students. Something I could use for my future classroom is

using one of Tom Reardon’s methods of teaching. He really engaged his students and he told

them they had 30 seconds to write down the table, so their interaction was immediate and they

were paying attention. I also enjoyed Jenny Novak’s method of teaching. Novak was patient and

asked certain questions to have the student think about their answer and how they got it, and also
Running head: STUDENT 3

how other students got their answers. Novak gave the students time to think, and she also had the

whole classroom interact and the students shared their answers and helped each other out. In my

future classroom I could also use Patricia Valdez’s use of patience. When the student’s graph did

not match the classroom graph, Valdez waited to point her mistake out to help the student realize

she used a different x and y axis. Waiting to point out the students mistake helped the student

realize what she had done and understand why it was wrong instead of fixing her graph to fix it.

Another key component I observed is the involvement of the entire classroom. Creating a

safe space where students can share what they learned or have experienced will greatly benefit

the whole class. Something I will use in my future classroom would be having the classroom

engage in conversation. When students share their opinions, students learn more than they would

if they just read the textbook. Daryl Robbins’ activity of “Expert Jigsaw” is a great example of

classroom involvement. Having all the students do research and bring their own piece of

information to the table encourages all of the students to participate. Having to teach a topic to

others makes sure that the student learns about the topic.

These classroom observations were really eye opening about how much really goes into

being a teacher. You need to be able to be compassionate with your students. You need to be

able to have different teaching styles. You need to be able to communicate with students,

teachers, and parents. Making sure that the student is your first priority is essential. From finding

different ways to teach, creating a healthy environment, and being able to communicate, these

observation videos have truly helped me gain more information about the teacher I want to

become.