Annotated Transcript

During my first semester of student teaching I took this course focused on literacy. It was through this course that I learned about educational equity although not a goal of the course. Through discussing the literacy resources at my placement I discovered how nearby school had more literacy resources. Besides learning about equity I also formulated my ideas about my vision of literacy instruction and assessed literacy for the first time as a teacher.

My content focus during my undergrad was social studies so I recall looking forward to this course on social studies instruction during my student teaching. I am very proud of the integrated social studies unit I created on the Thirteen Colonies. I created the unit from available resources and tried Problem Based Learning for the first time. I challenged myself to design assessments beyond quizzes and learned how important it is for students to be able to apply their knowledge and not just recite it.

As with my math, social studies and language arts focused courses, in their course I designed a science unit on force and motion. I then investigated methods to improve students’ written responses after experiments. During discussions students were able to share ideas but struggled when they had to put the ideas on paper. This practice of analyzing student assessments and reflecting on my role continues to this day. I realized I play a role in their ability to answer written questions.

This was the first course I took towards my masters after completing my student teaching and teaching for two years. In this course I learned about the history of education such as how the philosophy and ideas of education have changed over time. I also learned of different inquiry methods teachers utilize such as ethnographic observation and classroom based research. These were concepts I had not thought of before this course. I found it enlightening to learn about Vivian Paley and her classroom observations she made while teaching that allowed her to make conclusions about how children understand the world around them.

It is easy to assume this course would be about reading children’s stories and watching movies to compare them. While I did analyze the two I also dove into the messages the stories portray to children such as gender equality and popular culture. Through reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl I realized the value of teacher read alouds and how teachers can model fluency to young students. Through reading other texts I concluded movies seen before reading the book have a profound impact on the images the reader makes in their mind.

When I was selecting courses for my masters program I knew I wanted to take a course focused on English Language Learners. I didn't expect to learn about different methods of instruction for these students such as structured immersion or bilingual instruction. I explored ways to value ELLs home language and culture, and parents cultural diversity. It was interesting to learn about the impact fluency and literacy in the first language have on the second language.

In any classroom there is a wide range of literacy abilities. In this course I learned more about literacy development. What stands out to me the most is the case study I completed with one of my students. Using assessment data I created lessons specific to his needs. I analyzed his literacy skills and checked for progress in the focus area.

I selected this course because I have always felt my math instruction could be improved. Through this course I investigated how to increase student engagement during my math instruction. These are strategies I still use. I analyzed tasks to determine if they were open or closed and gained insight into different types of knowledge. This new information gave me a better understanding of the mistakes students were making on assessments and how I could support them.

As one of the final courses on my journey to my masters, this course has helped me to reflect and recall what I have learned along the way. Through the creation of the website I have shared my goals, highlighted coursework artifacts and provided insight into my classroom. I have realized how much I have grown as an educator since I took my first graduate courses. This course also introduced me to using new technology such as Flip Grid and publishing a website.

As one of the final courses on my journey to my masters, this course has helped me to reflect and recall what I have learned along the way. Through the creation of the website I have shared my goals, highlighted coursework artifacts and provided insight into my classroom. I have realized how much I have grown as an educator since I took my first graduate courses. This course also introduced me to using new technology such as Flip Grid and publishing a website.