Megan Setliff TWS 4 & 5. EDUC 386 Hours.

Section 4: NARRATIVE REFLECTION (10 points)

● In your formal lesson(s), what things went well and did not go well? What would you do
differently if you were to teach this lesson again? What did you learn about yourself as
a teacher through this lesson planning process and delivery?
○ There were some high’s and low’s, but overall my lesson went great. Some positives
were my students were engaged, responsive, and well behaved. This is not typical for this
class so I was excited to teach to a group of engaged students. If I were to teach this
lesson again I would change a section of the slides and notes as this part caused a lot of
confusion for the students. Throughout the lesson planning process I would find myself
asking questions from a student's perspective: “is this relevant” “why do I need to know
this” “how does this help me down the line”. Asking these questions helped me decide
what was relevant for the lesson. I’m finding this is very important to me as the time
spent in the classroom is limited and I want to make the most out of my lesson time.
● What do you see as your strengths and weaknesses as an educator? (2 points)
○ Empathy is one of my greatest strengths in and out of the classroom. I grew up in a less
than ideal household and I will always try do what I can for every student to make their
world a little better. Although it's not directly related to instruction, I think having
empathy / caring for your students is important, and I will not have a shortage of it.
○ Decision making has always been something I have struggled with, and as an educator I
have realized I don’t always have all the time in the world to decide on something. I have
been able to work on this as I have gotten older but this is one of my greatest struggles in
many aspects in my life.
● How did you do with classroom management? (2 points)
○ Going into the lesson I felt prepared when it came to classroom management. From what
I have learned from education classes, teaching blogs, and personal research, I’ve learned
a lot of different techniques to help me best manage my classroom. However, it was
harder than I thought it would be. Having to think and react quickly without being thrown
completely off guard was difficult, but as the lesson went on it became easier to manage
disruptions. Additionally, there were a few times where I wanted to laugh at something
inappropriate yet hilarious, and it was difficult to keep a poker face to remain
professional.
● What elements of your own professional experience will you work on to improve in your
next field experience, EDUC 450? (2 points)
○ My biggest goal for 450 is to walk out feeling more prepared for student teaching. I’m
hoping for more opportunities to practice classroom management and to build student
relationships. I also want to practice being comfortable in front of a classroom. I always
feel a bundle of nerves before teaching, even though they typically subside in a few
minutes, I want to build confidence in the classroom to hopefully eliminate some of the
nerves.
Section 5: FIELD NOTES (10 points)

Walkabout at Preston:

See Hear Wonder Notes:

Workshop Model Notes
386 Hours

Activity Date(s) Description Time

Parent Teacher 2/21 Student led conferences 2 hours

Conferences

Basketball Games 2/13 Preston vs Webber 2

2/25 Preston vs RCM

Choir 2/28 Choir Concert .5

Came in to finish 3/29 Came in to finish lesson 1

teaching

Golf 3/27 Preston vs Wellington 2

Track 4/22 Wellington, Preston, Blevins 2

Activity Night 4/5 Activity Night at Preston Middle 2

School

Workshop Model 4/4 Observed Sampson Martino 4

Observation

Total Time 15.5

Parent Teacher Conferences

I attended the student-led parent teacher conferences on February 21st of this year. During this

time I ventured into a few classrooms, all around the hallways, and into the gym to watch the basketball

game for a few minutes. During this time I was able to observe teachers, students, parents, and

administrators.

For the first hour I was mostly in Tami Wolff's classroom and to my surprise there were not very

many students coming in. For the most part the students coming into the classroom seemed engaged, but

some seemed like they were just going through the motions of demonstrating their project. Most of the

parents were engaged regardless of their students behaviors, it was nice to see Preston Parents engaged.
Unfortunately I did see some parents on their phones while the students were demonstrating and that was

off putting as I felt the students deserved to be heard.

As I walked through the halls I saw an array of different conference set ups. There were some

teachers in the halls holding more formal conferences, some classrooms were open with the same setting

as Tami’s room, and some were parents and teachers meeting privately. I also saw the building

administrators toward the entrance of the building greeting parents as they came and went. I also ventured

into the girls basketball game for a moment and one thing I noticed is there were more parents at the game

than parent teacher conferences. I wondered if they would attend conferences after the game, and if that

contributed to the small number of families I saw.

Workshop Observation

I observed Sampson and Martino for three periods of the same lesson. The great thing about this

was being able to see workshop model three times, but slightly different each time. Each period would

start with khan academy, then move onto the learning the objective (mini lesson):

The students would gather in the nook of the room, look at the problems presented together, turn

& talk with a neighbor, and then have a group discussion on the problems.

After the mini lesson students returned to their seats and worked on a problem sheet for the remainder of

the hour. The problem sheets varied on the content for students who were at all levels of learning 1-4.

Students who finished lower level problems were challenged to do the upper level ones while others

remained with the base problems. This was all done in each period but looked different each time. The

third period was my favorite period to observe because this class had a high number of 504’s and IEPs.

Something unique from this period was two students at the beginning of class left the room with Mrs.

Sampson (I followed) went downstairs, then outside, and ran to the Preston sign and back. Mrs. Sampson

said each day they do that and it helps them focus better on class, and it had zero disruption to any
students. Seeing this along with the classroom environment really enforced to me that this classroom

promotes student learning.

The overall environment in this classroom seemed very inting to learning. There was a ton of

technology including: 12 computer workstations (all of which had some sort of smart board), student

laptops, TVs, and the teacher laptop that had Lan School which is a student laptop monitoring program.

Additionally there was a growth mindset feel within the room, dry erase tables, flexible seating options,

and the learning targets for the day were clearly displayed on the board. The board had other relevant

information such as homework, test dates, and other announcements. Overall the classroom environment

was set up to promote student learning.

During the student work time I made note of the teacher-student interactions. I heard montering

and conferring questions like: “what are the two ways to solve this” “what would happen if” “how are

things going here”. In addition to monitoring and conferring I heard the teachers engage with students

about extracurriculars, how their day was going, and other general conversations. Overall from this

observation I understand workshop model better, and I had a great opportunity to observe relationship

building, promoting a growth mindset environment, and classroom management.

Activity Night

This ended up being a ton more fun than I had anticipated. When I first arrived I headed into the

gym to check out the dodgeball tournament. I saw a group of students from my placement and it was fun

to see them engaging outside of the classroom. During the dodgeball tournament I saw a lot of flirting and

teasing between the predominantly male and predominantly female teams, which was cringy but also

endearing. I watched the tournament for a few rounds and headed into the cafeteria area.

There were music, fun lights, food, drinks, and tables set up. There were some students dancing,

some sitting at the tables eating, and some standing off in the corner. One major noticing I had in the

cafeteria is that they were playing songs that were played at my middle school dances, and that the kids
knew most of the songs. I mentioned that to a Teacher I was talking to and she said that it was also the

same music heard at her middle school dances. Another thing I noticed was the amount of students in

their phones. A great majority of them were glued to their phones all night, there were many groups of

kids standing in a group texting instead of talking which really blew me away. It was interesting to see

that there were many similarities and differences in just a ten year difference of middle school dance, but

overall was a great observation opportunity.