Trull 1

TWS 12: Reflection of Learning and Teaching

Reflecting over this teacher work sample experience, I have learned various things about
my students and how they learn as well as overall young adolescent development. Young
adolescents can be curious and inquisitive when it comes to their learning; however, a boring,
routine, and irrelevant curriculum will most likely cause students to become disengaged and
apathetic toward their learning. By using students interests and concerns as a guide for forming
the curriculum, one can foster a more engaging, relevant, and challenging learning environment
for all students. Before I began my teacher work sample, I thought it was impossible to create
ones own curriculum, but after studying the Georgia performance standards and learning about
my individual students, I found that crafting a curriculum around both the students interests and
the standards is, in fact, achievable. I discovered that once I began to design the curriculum
around students interests and concerns, the students consequently became more interested and
engaged in their learning and therefore reached higher levels of achievement than when their
interests were neglected to be considered. Specifically, I learned that my individual students put
more effort into their learning when I put more effort into their understanding. I also learned a
few things about myself throughout this teacher work sample process. As I created the pre and
post assessments and as I created the ten challenging and engaging learning experiences, I put
pride into the faultlessness and perfection of my work. Experiencing the process of actually
implementing the learning experiences and the assessments has helped me to learn that most
likely things will not be prefect and will not always go according to plan. Through this process I
have learned to become more flexible both in the classroom and in my daily life. Perfection is
not a real thing and modification and change are necessary for the successful development and
achievement of all young adolescents.

Trull 2
If I were to teach this integrated unit again in the future, based on my evidence of student
learning from my pre, formative, and post assessment data, I have concluded that I will make
changes in the following categories: assessment implementation, learning experiences, and
teaching practices. When attempting to analyze and compare the pre and post-test data, I realized
that determining the level of individual achievement was difficult because of the varying formats
between the two tests. In the future, I will design a pre and post-test that measures the same level
of knowledge and understanding from each student. Throughout the unit, it seemed as if students
were rushed to learn new concepts and develop new understandings due to the lack of time each
class period possessed and the amount of content needed to be covered. When I implement this
unit in the future I will extend some of the learning experiences to last two or three days to
provide in-depth coverage of each topic and to therefore ensure the success of each student. In
regards to my teaching practices, I will make sure to devote more time to analyzing and
synthesizing the data retrieved from formative assessments to determine the level of need for the
whole class and each individual student.
Based on the reflection and analysis of my teaching and student learning throughout this
unit, I believe that, in order to support both aforementioned aspects with future implementation, I
will need to participate in professional development that pertains to individual student
achievement. Based on student assessment data, over 80 percent of students met or exceeded
expectations for the unit; however, I remain concerned with the 20 percent of students who failed
to meet the expectations. In order to ensure the support of individual success throughout this unit
and throughout my career as a teacher, I plan to do further research and participate in
conferences based on individual student achievement.

Trull 3