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Reflection and Self Evaluation

Culturally Responsive Curricula/Multicultural Education
While teaching my unit on animals I taught the students about different habitats. For each
habitat we would look on our globe and locate where the habitat is located. We would discuss the
different countries that the habitat covered and address a few of the cultural differences. The
students were able to see that there are many different cultures around the world. All of our ELL
students speak Spanish. Before each of the lessons I asked them if they knew how to pronounce
some of the words in Spanish and if they were comfortable sharing with the class. They were
usually excited to share their culture with our class. The other students also enjoyed hearing
another language. I even heard some of the students saying the Spanish word throughout the day
because they wanted to remember it and tell their families what it means.
How Technology was Used
My student teaching classroom doesnt have a large amount of technology for me to
utilize. I used what was available to the best of my abilities. At the beginning of every lesson I
started with a PowerPoint to introduce what the lesson would be about. I included many pictures
and vocabulary words throughout the PowerPoint. Providing these pictures helped the students
see what I was discussing. There is an educational website that provides many great videos and
resources for an array of subjects named brain pop jr. I used this multiple times to introduce
different topics throughout my lessons. After I had finished teaching the unit, my mentor teacher
came up with the great idea of having the students choose an animal and create a short
PowerPoint presentation about their animal. We are currently still working on this as a class. I
pull a small group to the back for 30 minutes every other day. They use an iPad to find

information and create their presentation. We will share these in about a week when the whole
class has finished.
Evaluating My Confidence
I felt very comfortable teaching this unit on animals. I love animals so I was excited that I
had the opportunity to teach a unit on something that I am passionate about. I felt well prepared
for every lesson and I enjoyed researching the subject matter. I didnt get started teaching my
unit lessons until about 3 weeks into student teaching. Getting a late start helped me feel more
confident in the classroom because I knew the students names, classroom routines, and what
strategies were most effective for those students. I felt comfortable and confident in front of the
students, my mentor teacher, my practicum supervisor, or anyone else who happened to come
into the room. I feel that being well prepared and knowledgeable in the subject area helped me
achieve that confidence.
Physically and Emotionally Safe Classroom
While teaching my unit I tried to create an environment where all of my students felt safe
and comfortable in sharing their questions and comments. Before I started the unit we had a class
discussion about how we treat our friends and classmates. We discussed why it is important that
we dont laugh if someone asks a question that they think is too easy. There is also a class poem
that states the importance of treating classmates with respect. While I was teaching my unit the
students were working on memorizing the poem, then passing it off to earn brag tags (a reward
system that the school implemented). There are a few students that have a difficult time keeping
their hands to themselves. They arent aggressive but they often give hugs or try to pick up other

students. At first I just reminded the students to keep their hands to themselves but when it kept
on being an issue I resorted to having the students move their clip down.
Classroom Management Strategies
I entered my student teaching classroom halfway through the year so many of the
management strategies had been in place for quite some time and the students were used to them.
My mentor teacher uses a clip up/down chart to address both positive and negative behavior.
Through trial and error during my unit I found that it was far more effective to find a student that
was behaving well and ask them to clip up rather than get after the student that was misbehaving
and tell him to clip down. If the class was getting out of hand I would look for someone around
them that was working or listening diligently and ask them to move their clip up; this would
usually quiet the other student down quickly. While I was teaching my unit I started to
implement table points. My teacher had received a grant and bought 6 stools for the students to
use instead of chairs. I keep track of table points starting on Monday and ending on Friday.
Whichever table has the most points at the end of the day on Friday gets the stools for the next
week. I noticed that the students help keep each other quiet in hopes that their table will earn a
point. One of the most ineffective classroom management strategies I used was having the
students clip down. I found that this would stop the misbehavior for a short time, but the student
would go back to their bad behavior the second I turned around. I also felt that it created
animosity between the student and me.
Outcomes of Teaching and Student Learning
After reviewing the pre-assessment I was able to see the items that I really needed to
address throughout my unit. Questions number 1 and 7 were not missed by any of the students on

the pre assessment. I still felt the need to address question number 1 because it was a true or false
question which I believe made it easier for them to answer it correctly. Question number 7 asked
about what type of animals live in the ocean. This question has an obvious answer but I still
wanted to address it during my unit. I feel that the students showed a lot of progress when
comparing their pre-assessment scores with their post-assessment ones. However, there were
questions that many of the students missed on the post-assessment such as numbers 2 and 10.
The data that was collected during the post-assessment helped me realize where some of my
weaknesses existed in my instruction. I also realized that I should have made more
accommodations for my ELL and low level learners because their scores did not improve at the
rate of the other students.

Personal Growth and Learning

Throughout the course of my unit I feel that I became a better and more confident
teacher. I am more comfortable with many different aspects of teaching including classroom
management, lesson planning and delivery, formative assessments, and analyzing assessments. I
learned how much work it really takes to plan and teach an entire unit. Planning is the easier of
the two, but teaching the unit while trying to keep the students engaged is sometimes difficult.
After the lessons I would discuss with my mentor teacher things that I could have done to
improve the lessons and the outcomes.
Caring and Professional Relationships with Students
During my unit instruction was able to see how effective praise can be in the classroom.
When I give the students a genuine compliment they light up and start working even harder than

they were before. During the beginning of my lesson instruction I would have the students clip
down when they were misbehaving but I could feel a negative difference in their attitude; they
would get back on track but it wasnt with enjoyment. They were only getting back on track so
they didnt have to move their clip down again and risk calling their parents. After about the 3rd
lesson and nearing the end of my 3rd semester of student teaching, I decided that I would change
how reacted to negative behavior. I started finding a student that was on task, compliment them
by pointing out what they were doing that was appropriate, then asking them to move their clip
up. The rest of the class would notice and immediately start working more efficiently in hopes
that they too would get to move their clip up. The whole feeling of the classroom changed when I
started giving more compliments and clip ups. I had more fun teaching and I could see that the
students had more fun learning. The whole experience of teaching this unit helped me realize that
I want to be a teacher who gives many genuine compliments to my students to build their selfesteem and create a caring classroom atmosphere.