Week Ten

Secondary Methods Student Weekly Reflection Sheet

Sam Houston State University

Name: Katy Wood

Date: 11/7/11

1. The most positive aspect of my field experience (or an area I showed strength) since my last reflection has been:

The most positive aspect has been when I taught my second lesson, and the students were really receptive to what I was teaching. They were excited to learn, and that got me excited to teach. I think they had fun learning even though the activity was challenging.

2. The aspects of my field experience which most need improvement or adjustment include: I suppose I just need to come to terms with theatre classes being loud. However, I think once I establish my own classroom rules, the times to be loud and the times to be quiet will be well established so I don’t have to yell. Luckily I know how to yell properly so I don’t lose my voice, but I would rather not have to yell as often. I say yelling, but it’s not as if I’m reprimanding the students. I just have to speak louder for them to hear me. And again, I suppose once I establish in my own classroom that I will not be speaking very loudly so it is important to be quiet while I’m speaking, that won’t be a recurring issue.

3. Two important things I have learned about teaching and learning through my field experience since my last reflection include: One thing would be that even though students may complain about how hard a task or activity is, they still want to participate and make an effort. So I suppose that whenever a challenging topic is introduced, it should be introduced in a fun way. Another thing I have learned about teaching is that games or activities should be used every day. In my field especially because students learn best in theatre by doing, so the more we do, the better they will be.

Secondary Methods: Reflecting on Emerging Dispositions and Diversity Proficiencies

1. Demonstrates ability to be understanding, respectful and inclusive of diverse populations.

2. Demonstrates an attitude of reflection and thoughtfulness about professional growth and instruction.

3. Demonstrates a commitment to literacy, inquiry, and reflection.

4. Practices ethical behavior and intellectual honesty.

5. Demonstrates thoughtfulness in communication and an awareness and appreciation of varying voices.

6. Demonstrates a commitment to adapting instruction or programs to meet the needs of diverse learners.

During my lesson this past week, I had to adapt my instruction during the activity. The students found the activity to be fairly difficult and did not want to be stuck with a certain emotion index card. So instead of just keeping their original partners and original cards, I had them sit in two circles. The outer circle would move around the inner circle with every new set of lines. And every so often, I would have the students trade cards with someone around them. This really helped the activity, and it also gave the students more opportunities to express many different emotions.

7. Demonstrates knowledge of second language acquisition and a commitment to adapting instruction or programs to meet the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse learners.

8. Leads diverse learners to higher level thinking in cognitive, affective and/or psychomotor domains.

During my lesson, the students had to think on a much higher level because they were required to make their partner feel the emotion on their card instead of expressing that emotion themselves. The activity was quite challenging, but I believe the students got a lot out of it and will be able to use what they learned in the future. I also received many comments from the students afterwards about how much they enjoyed the lesson.

9. Uses assessment as a tool to evaluate learning and improve instruction for all learners.

10. Demonstrates a commitment to using technology to create an authentic learning environment that promotes problem solving and decision making for diverse learners.

During my lesson this past week, I showed a video on youtube of Lee Strasberg, a famous theatre historical figure. The cool thing about the video was that it was filmed in the 1960’s, during one of Strasberg’s acting classes. Many times, there are not videos of the actual historical figure themselves, so it’s as if they don’t exist. But because the students could actually watch this great teacher in action, it made the figure more relatable.

Week Nine

Secondary Methods Student Weekly Reflection Sheet

Sam Houston State University

Name: Katy Wood

Date: 10/29/11

1. The most positive aspect of my field experience (or an area I showed strength) since my last reflection has been: On Monday of last week, my mentor allowed me to teach the majority of her classes for the day, and I showed improvement in classroom management as well as keeping the students actively engaged. I also really enjoyed having discussions with the students on the various topics that were addressed during the class. I feel like I’m slowly starting to get the hang of teaching.

2. The aspects of my field experience which most need improvement or adjustment include: I really need to work on keeping personal issues outside of class. It’s not to say that I’m sharing my personal information with the students, but sometimes there will be different forms of drama going on in my life that stress me out, and it’s difficult to not let little stressors in the classroom (that normally wouldn’t affect me) get to me. I suppose I will need to find some way of getting out my feelings before class starts, like writing in a journal or something.

3. Two important things I have learned about teaching and learning through my field experience since my last reflection include: One important thing I have learned about teaching is that sometimes I will be required to teach things in a way that I would either a) not be comfortable with or b) not be my chosen method of teaching. I supposed I’ll need to get used to that for next semester when I am student teaching. Another thing I have learned about teaching is that students respond really well when asked about personal experiences. This past week, they have been learning about the acting method, which requires you to build on past experiences to create a character emotionally.

Secondary Methods: Reflecting on Emerging Dispositions and Diversity Proficiencies

1. Demonstrates ability to be understanding, respectful and inclusive of diverse populations.

2. Demonstrates an attitude of reflection and thoughtfulness about professional growth and instruction.

I demonstrate an attitude of reflection every week after interactions with the students. I am constantly thinking about what I do, how I do it, and what works and what doesn’t. By reflecting on these things, I can attempt to become a more effective teacher every time I step back into the classroom. This next lesson I am teaching is one that I have bounced ideas back and forth with my mentor about what would be the best way of teaching that particular topic.

3. Demonstrates a commitment to literacy, inquiry, and reflection.

During the classes on Monday, the students read an article out loud about Constantin Stanislavsky. This required other students who weren’t reading out loud to follow along while the other students were reading. After they read the article, we discussed what the article stated and what the information meant.

4. Practices ethical behavior and intellectual honesty.

5. Demonstrates thoughtfulness in communication and an awareness and appreciation of varying voices.

6. Demonstrates a commitment to adapting instruction or programs to meet the needs of diverse learners.

During one of the lessons, the students were not responding well to the initial activity that was planned, so my mentor teacher and I thought of a new activity for the class that worked much better. The original activity was a relaxation activity, but the students were giggly and not taking it seriously, so we put them in pairs and had them recite different lines to one another in the realist way possible. It still required them to be serious instead of silly but in a different way.

7. Demonstrates knowledge of second language acquisition and a commitment to adapting instruction or programs to meet the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse learners.

8. Leads diverse learners to higher level thinking in cognitive, affective and/or psychomotor domains.

9. Uses assessment as a tool to evaluate learning and improve instruction for all learners.

10. Demonstrates a commitment to using technology to create an authentic learning environment that promotes problem solving and decision making for diverse learners.

Week Eight

Secondary Methods Student Weekly Reflection Sheet

Sam Houston State University

Name: Katy Wood

Date: 10/24/11

1. The most positive aspect of my field experience (or an area I showed strength) since my last reflection has been: Being able to work with the students and getting to know them and how they learn. I had the opportunity this week to observe a middle school classroom and work with junior high level students. I felt like I could teach middle school students better than high school students since I didn’t almost blend into the class looking as young as I do. I feel I could teach middle school students very well using their creative energy.

2. The aspects of my field experience which most need improvement or adjustment include:

Again, with the high school students, I just need to figure out what works best to keep them quiet when I’m trying to speak to them. I don’t always want to yell, but sometimes I feel that I won’t be heard unless I do. Other times, I will get the students quiet and attentive and speak in a softer voice, and that works quite well. Only it doesn’t work for very long, and they get rowdy again.

3. Two important things I have learned about teaching and learning through my field experience since my last reflection include:

Middle school aged students have tons of energy. And I feel that in my future classroom, I could provide an outlet for releasing all of that energy through activities and performances, keeping their creativity blossoming. I have also learned that teachers should never search for internet videos during a class. You never know what type of material may pop up, even if the school’s internet is censored.

Secondary Methods: Reflecting on Emerging Dispositions and Diversity Proficiencies

1. Demonstrates ability to be understanding, respectful and inclusive of diverse populations.

2. Demonstrates an attitude of reflection and thoughtfulness about professional growth and instruction.

3. Demonstrates a commitment to literacy, inquiry, and reflection.

4. Practices ethical behavior and intellectual honesty.

5. Demonstrates thoughtfulness in communication and an awareness and appreciation of varying voices.

During my field experience in a middle school this past week, I was aware of the young voices and what they offered to the class. The students were in groups working on their voices of their readers theatre plays, and I went around asking the students in the different groups about the different voices they were using. I even offered up suggestions for them to try. One group’s play was in monkey land, so we had to practice monkey sounds.

6. Demonstrates a commitment to adapting instruction or programs to meet the needs of diverse learners.

Last week, during an advanced theatre class at the high school, the students were working in groups on their scenes where they had to play two different characters in the same scene. They had to leave and come back with a different prop or outfit to change characters. While working with a group, one of their costume pieces was a tie, and none of the students in that group knew how to tie a tie. I took a couple minutes to demonstrate how to tie one so they would know for the future, as well as for their scene performance.

7. Demonstrates knowledge of second language acquisition and a commitment to adapting instruction or programs to meet the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse learners.

8. Leads diverse learners to higher level thinking in cognitive, affective and/or psychomotor domains.

9. Uses assessment as a tool to evaluate learning and improve instruction for all learners.

During the scene performances, I used a rubric to grade the different scenes. The rubric was based on an individual performance, with a total of 20 points each, but since there were five students in a group, I graded each performer individually and calculated up the total score for their group grade. I then took the individual grade and multiplied by five to get the individual grade. I found this rubric to be very effective in evaluating the students’ performances.

10. Demonstrates a commitment to using technology to create an authentic learning environment that promotes problem solving and decision making for diverse learners.

Week Seven

Secondary Methods Student Weekly Reflection Sheet

Sam Houston State University

Name: Katy Wood

Date: 10/16/11

1. The most positive aspect of my field experience (or an area I showed strength) since my last reflection has been:

One aspect of my field experience that I have shown strength is the ability to be flexible. I taught my first lesson this past Wednesday, and it was a PSAT testing day, so all of the class periods were not their normal length. I taught during fourth period, which ended up being much longer than the rest of the periods, so I had to improvise another activity to use up the rest of the class time.

2. The aspects of my field experience which most need improvement or adjustment include:

One aspect would be to not let outside stressors or my personal life affect my teaching. Even though my lesson went fine, tiny things that went wrong during my lesson (a slide was missing in my powerpoint) pushed me over the edge, and I had to leave the classroom because I became too emotional and could not hold back tears. For the next time, I’ll just need to vent my stress to someone before I get to school so that I’m not dwelling on everything that is happening outside of school.

3. Two important things I have learned about teaching and learning through my field experience since my last reflection include:

Late bus duty can be a bit hectic. I stayed after school on Monday for play rehearsal and then went with my mentor to late bus duty. The campus just started enforcing a new rule that you had to have a late bus pass to ride the bus home, and many of the students did not have one. I have also learned that teachers need to be able to keep talking during their lesson even if there are students talking. And I’m referring to when students make comments to one another about the lesson while you are talking about the lesson. This distracts me sometimes, and yet I see many teachers not affected by it.

Secondary Methods: Reflecting on Emerging Dispositions and Diversity Proficiencies

1. Demonstrates ability to be understanding, respectful and inclusive of diverse populations.

2. Demonstrates an attitude of reflection and thoughtfulness about professional growth and instruction.

3. Demonstrates a commitment to literacy, inquiry, and reflection.

4. Practices ethical behavior and intellectual honesty.

5. Demonstrates thoughtfulness in communication and an awareness and appreciation of varying voices.

6. Demonstrates a commitment to adapting instruction or programs to meet the needs of diverse learners.

7. Demonstrates knowledge of second language acquisition and a commitment to adapting instruction or programs to meet the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse learners.

During my lesson, I kept the language simple for the students who spoke English as a second language. I also presented many pictures and videos for visual learning, as opposed to auditory learning. The activity was a very physical activity that didn’t require any speaking or really any need to understand a language to participate. By doing those things, it was much easier for these students to participate in class.

8. Leads diverse learners to higher level thinking in cognitive, affective and/or psychomotor domains.

I conducted an activity called ruining the entrance, where the students had to enter through the door in a ridiculous manner, thus “ruining the entrance”. They each had to come up with their own creative way to enter through the door. By doing this, they were required to think on a higher level to participate in the activity.

9. Uses assessment as a tool to evaluate learning and improve instruction for all learners.

10. Demonstrates a commitment to using technology to create an authentic learning environment that promotes problem solving and decision making for diverse learners.

During my lesson that I taught, I used a powerpoint with pictures and videos to show the students what I expected of them in their performance or activities. With the pictures, I would ask the students what they saw in the picture and why they thought it was there. Without telling them prior information, they had to figure out the various elements of the photo, thus promoting problem solving.

Week Six

Secondary Methods Student Weekly Reflection Sheet

Sam Houston State University

Name: Katy Wood

Date: 10/8/2011

1. The most positive aspect of my field experience (or an area I showed strength) since my last reflection has been:

I have been able to use what I learned in class about discipline during my field experience. During the technical theatre class, I was able to delegate different tasks, and when students were not doing their assigned tasks, I had to discipline them. At first the students were taken aback from my telling them they needed to be working, but I think I could get used to it.

2. The aspects of my field experience which most need improvement or adjustment include:

I feel that I need to be more prepared when it comes to teaching lessons. Either more prepared or just more efficient in creating them. If those things were to happen, I would not feel as overwhelmed as I currently do.

3. Two important things I have learned about teaching and learning through my field experience since my last reflection include:

One thing I have learned is that teaching requires a lot of extra time outside of class to prepare lessons. I have always known this, but I have never known how much time it really takes to prepare lessons. Another thing I have learned about teaching is that in my content area, the students seem to be more willing to learn new things because the class is laid out so differently. Every day is a day full of physical activities or being silly and over-the-top for improvisation sake. I feel that I can get a lot more out of the students since my class will be one of the classes during the day they look forward to coming to.

Secondary Methods: Reflecting on Emerging Dispositions and Diversity Proficiencies

1. Demonstrates ability to be understanding, respectful and inclusive of diverse populations.

2. Demonstrates an attitude of reflection and thoughtfulness about professional growth and instruction.

This week was full of thoughtfulness about professional growth because I was constantly thinking about the different ways I could teach the classes where I am doing my field experience. I was constantly thinking of the course material my mentor had been going over and how I could either build upon that or teach something new that she had not already taught. Later that day, I sat down with my mentor and we brainstormed different ideas together and figured out the general idea of what I would teach next week.

3. Demonstrates a commitment to literacy, inquiry, and reflection.

4. Practices ethical behavior and intellectual honesty.

5. Demonstrates thoughtfulness in communication and an awareness and appreciation of varying voices.

I was very thoughtful in my communication during the technical theatre class. Some of the students were just standing around watching me and the other students working on different projects. I stopped and asked the students what they were doing and what they could or should be doing. They immediately got on task, and I felt that this way of disciplining them was much better and more effective than yelling at them.

6. Demonstrates a commitment to adapting instruction or programs to meet the needs of diverse learners.

7. Demonstrates knowledge of second language acquisition and a commitment to adapting instruction or programs to meet the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse learners.

8. Leads diverse learners to higher level thinking in cognitive, affective and/or psychomotor domains.

9. Uses assessment as a tool to evaluate learning and improve instruction for all learners.

10. Demonstrates a commitment to using technology to create an authentic learning environment that promotes problem solving and decision making for diverse learners.

During the theatre one classes, the students were watching a movie where they had to analyze the different parts of the movie, including theme and plot…etc. The movie was a murder mystery, so I would stop the movie at different points and ask the students who they thought the murderer was and what weapon was used. By stopping the movie during the good parts, the students were more excited about continuing the movie to find out what would happen next.