Javiera Bravo // Laura Espinoza

REFLECTION AND SELF EVALUATION

MDD Standard 6
The teacher candidate identifies the main things learned in this practicum and ways
in which this learning has informed their professional development needs, reflecting on
the meaning, values, and purposes that will orient his or her professional life.
4.1 As for us, we learned that every student has a different learning style that should
be taken into account when teaching new content. Furthermore, it is worth to
mention that we realized that what we as teachers think that is explanation
enough, it might be too broad for students, especially when giving and checking
instructions. On the other hand, we learned that as a teacher, we have to have a
back-up plan in case the lesson is not working the way we predicted; it can be a
different activity that changes the environment of the classroom. Besides, the
way of introducing ourselves to students and how we behave in front of them will
influence their performance during the lesson, positively or negatively.

4.2 One of the most important areas in which we had a professional growth was
instructional and explanation strategies. We learned to provide more than 2 ICQs
when checking instructions, but the most meaningful thing we learned was
simplifying the explanations when students had (or have) doubts related to the
content. During the second lesson, for instance, students were very concerned
about learning the difference between will and going to, so during the practice
stage they called out for help many times, and we had to explain the difference
over and over again until the explanation became short and accurate for them to
understand. Thus, for the two lessons left, we found different ways of explaining a
same subject, since we realized that students need more than one explanation to
accomplish a learning goal. Moreover, it need to be said that teachers must be fully
prepared for a lesson in terms of content before carrying it out, because they have
to be able to properly answer students questions. That last point is important
because teachers attitude towards the content will certainly affect the students
attitude towards the same; in other words, if a student notices that the teacher is
not confident about the lesson or the knowledge they are supposed to know, then
their interest in learning will be lower.

References and Credits:

Substitution drills: Ms. Mara Gabriela Sanhueza.
Pictionary about cooking verbs: idea taken from the original Pictionary game.