Final Reflection Hammett 1

[Samuel Hammett]

Final Reflection, Top Ten Lessons Learned:

● Write ten lessons learned and describe each - how did you learn this lesson?
● For each lesson, connect to either the general educational context, the course readings,
and/or your own future educational philosophy.
● Use specific details and elaboration.

Top Ten Lessons Learned:

1. Teaching is a rewarding profession.​ This is the main lesson I tend to find when doing
field experience in a classroom. Even on my most challenging days with students all it
takes is seeing one student get the lesson you're helping them with. Teaching rewards me
everyday for just participating and challenging the next generation to learn mathematics
is a creative way. I learned this from participating in my field work at centennial. Going
to Mrs. Bowmans and tutoring students to the best of my ability and then seeing the spark
ignited in a student is what made me realize this. Carrie Lam writes in her edutopia blog
post: “The feeling you get when these students turn those statements around and into, “I
did it! I am so proud of myself,” is absolutely priceless.” (Lam, 2016). Carrie’s sentiment
is exactly the experience I found at centennial middle whenever I tutored students and
really noticed some of them starting to understand.
2. Not every student will come to class ready to work.​ I learned this through repeated
visits to the same classroom such as going to Mrs. Bowman’s class. Seeing the same
students over and over I got a sense of what the students are capable of. Sometimes the
students who usually do their work will not do it that day. I think that’s alright, students
health and well-being should be a priority and I know whenever I was in school there
were days where I was not in the right frame of mind for class as well. This lesson
reminds me of a line in a poem written by Ellen Seusy where she writes: “in a room full
of tired children who stare at the floor” (Seusy, pp. 94). This line is meant for a new
teacher to realize that each student has their own issues, problems, or difficulties that they
deal with outside of school. A lot of times the effects from these problems will strain the
student, so approach every student in a manner that respects that.
3. Mathematics is a diverse subject.​ I saw this lesson in action whenever I was talking
with students one on one during my Student Learning Project. Each student that I talked
had a similar issue mathematically, but once talking individually to them they each had a
different way of solving or approaching the problem. Connecting this lesson to the
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general educational context you will see that Mathematics in public education is moving
towards creativity. In the past Mathematics in public education focused on the process of
mathematics and only showed students one way of solving a problem. Now, we have
students think conceptually often applying different mathematical methods to get to the
same conclusion.
4. Every Student has different experiences that makes them unique.​ Often we hear
about diverse classrooms and classrooms are reflecting the diversity of the world. I
noticed this diversity whenever talking to students at the lunch tables at centennial
middle. Each and every student would be given the same prompt, but no two students
were the same. I loved watching students talk about what made them happy with some
notable examples being Cardi B, Fortnite, Cooking, and Field Trips. My Future
educational philosophy states that diverse classrooms should be approached in an
equitable manner. I truly believe this statement and to really follow it I will think about
what each student brings to the classroom and take it into consideration whenever doing
anything that affects students.
5. Teaching is a challenging.​ Like all things in life, there is a challenging side to doing
what you love. With teaching it was a bunch of things like waking up early, dealing with
misbehaving students, working through deadlines, or trying to teach a different method.
With these challenges comes growth, and just like we challenge the students so that they
will grow and learn, so too will the teacher be challenged. At centennial middle the most
challenging thing was trying to teach in a way that made sense to students. I have been
focused on doing college level math for so long that it became hard to teach the basics to
students. Similarly, a Michigan service learning project goal stated: “allow students to
apply classroom-based sustainability learning to practical experiences that would either
challenge or reinforce ideas presented in the classroom” (Karwat et al., pp.152). This goal
matched the experience I had in the field experience whenever I was challenged. The
challenges faced at centennial middle forced me to reflect on my in-class teaching or
readings and apply them in a way to overcome the challenge. I am very grateful to have
had these experiences.
6. When you enter a school you become a role model for students.​ As the lesson
suggests, each and every adult has an impact on a growing mind. Students look to adults
for guidance, and simply learn things from us because they are still experiencing the
world. I learned this in my fieldwork whenever I noticed students starting to become
more friendly towards me after repeated visits to the classroom. From my positivity alone
they learned that if they talk positively and politely to me that I will be happy to talk
about their interests. From basketball to Cardi B, I have talked about every subject that
makes students happy. The North Carolina Professional Teaching Standards have a
standard that closely resembles this “role-model” lesson which states “Teachers lead in
their classrooms.” (NCPTS, 2013). The standard is expanded upon by the artcle by
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advocating for Teachers to lead their students because students will follow the example
the teacher sets. Whether I realised it or not, students would follow my example and if I
step out of line then so will they.
7. Technology can be effective in the classroom.​ The technological advancements that
humans have achieved has amazed me as I have grown up. Education is no exception to
this rule and centennial middle used technology is many different ways. To name a few,
they used laptops to due make-up assignments, i-pads to help ELL students, and
visualization programs in mathematics. The technology also allows students to feel like
they have control over their learning and gives them confidence to complete assignments.
This emphasis on student’s learning is similarly noted in edutopia when Beth Holland
states “True blended learning affords students not only the opportunity to gain both
content and instruction via online as well as traditional classroom means, but also an
element of authority over this process” (Holland, 2017). Blending technology, like
Holland suggests, is what centennial was trying to do in their mathematics classrooms
and I believe it was a step in the right direction.
8. Mathematical language or academic language in general is needed.​ Some of the
biggest struggles I have noticed in mathematics, and particularly in my field experience
was students not being able to express their thoughts. Whenever the student does not
know the academic language they cannot begin to explain what problem they are having.
Conversely, whenever a student does know mathematical language it is easy to help catch
them up to speed since we are on the same page. Candice Harper and Ester de Jong
noticed that this particularly affects ELL students because they may learn English well,
but fall behind in academic classes because they often use jargon (Harper, 2004). In the
future I would like to see more emphasis on mathematical vocabulary so that students can
understand conceptually what they are talking about.
9. Guiding Students is more than telling them the answer.​ In EMS 204 I learned about
the perils of “guiding” a student to an answer in the wrong way. I noticed in my field
experience that often the questions I would ask would only tell the student what to do.
While I think those types of questions are necessary for students sometimes, I cannot rely
on them all the time. Sometimes to accurately evaluate student improvement you need to
guide your student without telling them the answer like I did in my field experience.
Bloom’s Taxonomy has different levels of engagement for students and their higher
levels such as the “create” level challenge students to create something on their own
(Anderson, pp. 65). This can be used to accurately measure student’s knowledge by
giving them a task that shows their comprehension without teachers specifying what is
needed or being assessed.
10. Mathematics does not have to be boring.​ This is one of the most important lessons I
received from Mrs. Bowman. Everyday I was in her classroom I got to see new and
exciting ways to teach mathematics. The first day I observed her students were creating
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board games to explain mathematical concepts. The students were so focused on the
game they never realized how much math they knew until they were playing the games.
This fits the Bloom’s “create” level of taxonomy closely because she had students create
something from scratch to explain a concept themselves (Anderson, pp. 65).This, in turn,
has students understand mathematical concepts conceptually and deeply so that it comes
easy to them the next time they need to use it.
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References:

Lam, C. (2016, August 10). 11 Rewards of Being a Teacher. [​Link​]

Seusy, E. (n.d.). ​Preparing the New Teacher.​ NCTE.

Karwat, D., Sherman, L., Cole, L., Badiane, K., Coseo, P., & Larsen, L. (n.d.). ​A Lesson in

Service Learning and Community Engagement​ (Vol. 1).

NCPTS. (2013). ​North Carolina Professional Teaching Standards.​

Holland, B. (2017). Are We Innovating, or Just Digitizing Traditional Teaching? [​Link​]

Harper, C., & De Jong, E. (2004). ​Misconceptions about Teaching English-Language Learners

(2nd ed., Vol. 48). Wiley.

Anderson, L., & Krathwohl, D. (n.d.). ​A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing.​