2019. 5. 2.

Final Unit Plan Reflection - Google Docs

Final Reflection
When I came into Education 302-303 class, my expectation was learning how to teach
and going out into an internship to observe how a teacher runs his or her classroom. Until now I
thought lesson planning was a very easy thing to prepare. However, I was totally wrong about
that. Making lesson plan was challenging. I had to think through about goals and objectives, find
the correct standard and core, prepare materials and examples that I was going to be used
during the lesson. Listing and writing down all the possible barriers and things I am going to
teach during the lesson was time-consuming and challenging. However, lesson plans were not
the only ones that I had to make. Making a unit plan was totally new stuff. I had to prepared with
broad transfer goals and try to make the lesson plans fit and combine with my unit plan. The
whole process of making the unit plan was very confusing at first. I had trouble understand what
information I had to write down and prepare, but as I was understanding each part in the unit
plan and how it related into each lesson plans, it all made great sense. I had a lot of going back
and forward to correct and make changes in both my lesson plans and unit plan. One thing I
learned from this process is that I will never have a perfect, flawless lesson plans or unit plan. I
could edit and change to improve it, but it would be impossible to have a perfect one because I
learned that each student was so much different and the ways they learned were so diverse as
well.
I struggled even before I started my unit plan and lesson plans. Choosing which subject
to teach was an essential part. I talked with my mentor teacher for several days about which
subject I could teach. It came down to math, science or writing. Since I am a science major and
math minor, I was pretty confident about science and math. On the other hand, writing was one
of my weakest area for academics. As I was talking with my mentor teacher, I learned that being
able to strengthen my weakest areas by teaching them would be the best decision for me and I
strongly agreed with her as well. I decided to challenge myself to teach a subject that I am
struggling, so I could not only learn how to teach but also learn more about the subject myself. I
really worked hard and invested tons of time to research about writing especially nonfiction. I
really think that I have personally grown a lot and enriched my knowledge with the information I
did not know before.
As I was preparing and planning my unit plan and lesson plans, one of the goals that I
focused on the most was collaboration. According to Oakes, Lipton, Anderson & Stillman
(2013), the authors state, “many teachers now think of their classroom as ‘learning
communities.’... relationship that gives access to adults and knowledgeable peers… They

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design instruction that encourages students to interact and engage in authentic problem solving”
(p.175). I do strongly agree with how a teacher should value not only independent thinking but
also learn how to work together as a class and as a community. The classmates are not
competitors or strangers but accessible resources for each student. Teaching the students how
to use peers as their helpers and resource is what teacher need to do. So for my unit plan, I
focused greatly on pair works and group discussions. I wanted to make a classroom
environment into a living peaceful community which depends on the relationship between peers
and teacher. (Stronks & Stronks, 1999)
In addition, when I was thinking through how I could influence the classroom as a
Christian, I came up with two goals for this particular unit plan and lesson plans. It was to be a
discerning listener and have patience. I wanted to become a teacher where I am not the only
person talking in the class. I really wanted more talking and thoughts from the students. It was
like how Jesus was a discerning listener when he was alive. He preached numerous times, but
he also listened to people many times. I wanting to apply that into my classroom to show the
caring and listening that Jesus showed. Also, I wanted to be patient with the students. I tend to
be a person who likes to rush people and get things done quickly. However, students are not like
that and I need to understand that it is their first time learning the content. I have to wait for them
to understand and move slowly just like how Jesus was toward their disciples and people
around him. He did not scold them for not understanding his parables, but he explained to them
until they understood it. I really want to be a Christian teacher that “think about how knowledge
develops, about matters such as classroom ethos, school climate, and curriculum content and
structure, and when they plan how they will teach” (Stronks & Stronks, 1999, p.45). As I was
planning my unit plan and lesson plans, I tried to intervene as much Christian values and views
into my pedagogy and I hope I would continue to do that for my future teachings.
Since preparing and planning unit plan and lesson plans were my first time, I had lots of
areas to learn. From what I learned, I really want to mention two different things. First, I learned
about UDL (Universal Design for Learnings). It was the first time hearing about UDL and it was a
very interesting and important thing to consider for our lesson plans. I lacked knowledge of how
there can be diverse learners that learn in all different ways. It was the teacher’s role to try to
include all the possible ways to help those learners. There are three different categories of
engagement, representation and action & expression. Engagement is to have different ways to
motivate and stimulate the learners for learning and representation is to have multiple ways to
present the information and content to the learners for better learning. Action and expression

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are to use diverse ways to help the learners to express what they understand about the
learning. (About Universal Design for Learning) The second thing that I learned was about class
management. I learned many different ways of classroom management and one of them was
about behavioral narration. Lee Canter (2010) states, “Of all the forms of positive feedback I
have ever seen teachers utilize, the most effective is what I call behavioral narration” (p.64).
This is a way of class management to give instruction and give positive feedbacks at the same
time. For example, the teacher can tell the students to line up quietly and tell that Student S is
doing a good job of lining quietly. In this way, the teacher is managing the classroom plus giving
positive feedback to a student. I have tried in my internship and it worked perfectly. I think this
method of classroom management would be very useful in the future. Another classroom
management strategy that I really liked and learned was restorative justice. Woolfolk (2017)
wrote, “restorative justice focuses on righting the wrongs suffered… The process must be
voluntary” (p.583). It is a method of manage when the students do something wrong, the
teacher would not punish or scold the student, but the teacher would let the student rethink
about their behavior. Then the teacher gives a chance to fix their wrongdoings for better
behavior. I really like this classroom management strategies because it reflects what God had
done for us. He did not just punish our sinful actions and life but gave a chance to redeem
ourselves and correct the wrongdoings. Sadly, I did not have a chance to use this method during
my internship, but I would like to try it out in my future class.
Due to time and scheduling for M-Test, I only got to teach one lesson. But my one lesson
was a three-day lesson, so I taught three classes. I would say I was satisfied with how my
lesson went. The students were very engaging and listening well during my first lesson about
nonfiction. They were excited to choose their topic and research it. I was nervous at first, but as
I was teaching I got used to it and now I think I am not nervous anymore standing in front of
students teaching. Overall looking at my unit plan and lesson plans, I feel accomplished and bit
more ready to become a teacher.

Sources:

About Universal Design for Learning. (2019, April 23). Retrieved May 1, 2019, from
http://www.cast.org/our-work/about-udl.html#.XMpqFY5KiUk

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Canter, L. (2010). Assertive Discipline (4th ed.). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
Oakes, J., Lipton, M., Anderson, L., & Stillman, J. (2013). Teaching to Change the World (4th
ed.). Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers.
Stronks, J., & Stronks, G. (1999). Christian teachers in public schools. Grand Rapids: Baker.
Woolfolk, A. (2017). Educational Psychology (13th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
(Calvin custom binding)

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