Reflection and Self-Evatuation Overall, I consider my efforts on Unit 4A to be successful. As an educator, I provided my students with activities and ideas that were engaging and taught them ‘material without overpowering them with monotonous lectures. My classroom instruction provided opportunities for students to be active participants in their education by utilizing teacher-provided (and checked) online resources, practice ideas that we discussed in class, and receive direct (and oftentimes instant) feedback. Furthermore, T used student reflections and feedback to guide my instruction, ensuring the best possible Jeaming opportunities for every student going forward. Finally, I did my best to address ‘gaps in prerequisite knowledge quickly and effectively without bogging down instruction for leamers without gaps and built upon that prerequisite knowledge to help students apply their understandings to new ideas and authentic scenarios. With this being said, one major detriment to my unit was the time constraint (whether real or perceived) that was felt throughout. The unit criteria provided by my ‘mentor teacher incorporated a lot of content, all expected to be covered in a relatively short amount of time. Since this was the case, my lessons were not always as student- focused or engaging as I would have liked. In addition, students did not have ample time to “warm up” to me or my teaching style, which was noticeable along the way. I came into the classroom under the impression that all students would be cooperative following ‘a short introduction, but what I found is that like any other position or project, it took ‘time to develop a rapport with my students. To my students’ credit, however, I was made in general) to feel welcome in their classroom. As an intruder in their space, they didtheir best to welcome me and adapt themselves to my ways when I should have been adapting to theirs. According to my students, “Overall, itis evident that you are committed to giving students the best ‘education possible, so that their ability to succeed is achieved and even improved throughout the duration of your stay at Edward Little. The way you teach Pre-Cal lessons gives students a direct form of consistent learning... Itis apparent that you are well versed in the material you are teaching... You wish for the best in your students.” “The notes in class were clear and helpful. I wasn't lost when we did the notes, and the quiz was easy. Iforgot we had a quiz, and didn't prepare at all, but I didn't struggle with it at all.” “You do a good job with the lessons, IJust think that maybe you should slow down a little and explain things a little bit more in depth instead of assuming that we know what we are doing, because I know that half of the time I have no idea what 1am doing... One thing that I like that you do is how you have the additional resources for us to look at because I use those resources and they help me...” Given the ability to retry my unit, I would have cut a lot of our discussion/lecture segments and instead proceeded through activities (whether hands-on or utilizing technology), Some ideas that I had in this regard were to put to use our trig concepts to ‘measure walls, diagonals, or hallways within the school or use a project to communicate understanding about the law of sines and law of cosines by having students engage in a project pick coordinates using latitude and longitude lines (incorporating degrees, ‘minutes, and seconds) and determining the distance between the points using both of the laws, then checking their answer using the type 2 technology Google Maps. Further, I‘would like to introduce my classes to the writing component of math, where ideas and concepts can be discussed using written words or even pictures, diagrams, or expressive art. It would be a success for me to educate students on how to effectively communicate ‘what they are doing and why in regards to a proof of mathematical theory using “English” instead of “math” jargon for a specific audience. Finally, I would have liked to at Jeast offer an altemate summative assessment in the form of a video “tutorial,” math “rap/song,” or project based on student interests. In these ways, students would have ‘been able to wrangle with the content in ways that penetrated deeper than simple pencil- and-paper can reach. In regards to my learning goals, I found the most success was had within the domain of LG1 or LG4. These leaming goals were likely so successful because they ‘were both introduced early on in the unit and expounded on continuously throughout instruction. Also, specifically for LG4, students were presented with authentic, applications (latitudinal and longitudinal lines) to associate the content they were being introduced to with. For LGI, I provided students with many explanations as well as resources to review and practice unit circle components (including interactive unit circles, interactive quizzes, and references). Last possible reasons for the effectiveness of these leaming goals are that they followed a natural progression throughout the unit, were not ‘mutually exclusive, and had other unit topies built upon them. My least successful learning goal is difficult to say. In terms of empirically, it ‘would most likely be LGS and LG6, though these leaning goals did have some success within the classroom. In terms of the learning goal that had an opportunity to be more successful given more time, LGS was the most disappointing. I missed an opportunity torecord students’ explanations and quantify their abilities to explain. I could have incorporated a audio/video recording project or written response component to a test or ‘quiz, but chose not to in fear that students would not respond well to those types of prompts without due notice or practice and also due to lack of time for preparation. Students did not initially respond well to the idea of reading and writing within a ‘mathematics classroom, so I was immediately discouraged from the idea. As such, I did ‘not want to force too many nuances upon the students and elected not to go forward with this component of the unit. Near the end of the unit, I did incorporate a very small ‘component of LGS into the Classkick component of the stations activity, but this was ‘more for students to get comfortable with the idea of helping each other instead of quality ‘communication of thoughts. In all, my hesitation in regards to this learning goal lead to not receiving the data necessary to gauge where students were at in terms of the goal. ‘Throughout this process, I have leamed and reflected upon a great deal. ‘Components of teaching that I thought would be imperative to success such as content and analysis ended up not being as important as I thought, whilst others that I considered ‘of less merit such as the balance between the emotional quotient, intelligence quotient, and multiple intelligences ended up being essential to success within the classroom. In the end, the most important things that I have set as goals for myself as an educator and ‘as a person are to be myself, be honest and true to my students and to others, to trust people to be the experts of their own lived experiences and feelings, to work to ‘understand why my students feel the way they do instead of demeaning them for feeling that way, to be firm but patient with expectations of students as learners and individuals, to stand for what is right, and to always be a leader and role model.