Reflective Teaching Journal

Riley Lathrop

Date of Lesson: June 21st, 2019 Unit: Unit 2 “My Relationships”

Lesson Taught: Unit 3, Lesson 1
Overview of the class (content and pedagogy)
● I began class with my own clapping patterns. I then moved on to clapping patterns
that were student led. One student at a time would come up to the front of the class
and choose a clapping or movement pattern for students to repeat.
● Next, I asked the students how they were individually. Then, I asked a few students
to come to the front of the class and ask their fellow classmates “how are you today
___?”
● Next, we practiced the circle dance, without me in the circle.
● We then completed our high, middle, low pattern around the circle.
● I introduced each emotion (happy, sad, excited, worried) to students through
writing each one and the Indonesian translation on the board. For each emotion, we
went around the circle and students would embody the emotion through creating a
gesture for the emotion while they vocalized the emotion word.
● Students then drew a facial expression for each emotion as they identifies three
times they are happy, three times they are sad, three times they are excited, and
three times they are worried.
● Students who were completed drew a self portrait on an index card
● The self reflection question for the day was: “I am special because ______”
● To end, we sang “head, shoulders, knees, and toes” however with our new body
parts of “hand, elbow, legs and feet.”
● We created a circle and sang “five little ducks” before leaving for the day.

Pre-Class Reflection
1. What will I offer to my students today?
I will offer my students my joy and awareness that I only have limited time with them.
From this, I will offer them my joy and passion in teaching. With the awareness I only have
limited time, I can shift to the goal of having joyful fun with students rather than focusing
on stress inside the classroom.
2. What am I most looking forward to for class today?
I am most looking forward today to see how students respond to how they feel with
different emotions. I am curious how students will express to me when they feel certain
emotions. I am curious if students have common themes of times they are happy or sad
across class.
a. What am I most concerned about? (Do I need a strategy for this concern?)
I am concerned about teaching alone today in relation to certain students who need
disciplinary help often. I will utilize the translator more, or have students sit out if I can not
provide them with thorough feedback in the moment.
3. What am I most curious about class today?

1
I am curious about how students will draw each emotion. I am curious as to how students
will draw the facial expression for happy and excited differently and how they will draw
the facial expression for worried and sad differently (or similarly).
4. What is a positive affirmation I can give myself today to guide myself in teaching
with passion and success?
I am grateful and passionate about teaching and am doing the best I can with the situation I
have been given.
5. Additional Thoughts

Post-Class Reflection

1. What went well? Why?

● Today something new that I added was that I asked a few students to come up in the
front and ask a few other students sitting in class “how are you today?” Generally, I
have been going around the classroom saying “how are you today (name)?” Here,
students have been answering with “good” however they have not been practicing
the question of “how are you?” One at a time, a couple students came up and said
“how are you today” and then inserted the name of a student. Students were excited
about this and showed me this through smiling when asking their fellow classmates
how they were today, and being eager to raise their hand to be chosen to ask the
question to the class next. Students impressed me with their ability to say “how are
you today?” Students looked to me as if they were proud after they were the
“teacher” for the moment. They enjoy leading the class, and I can provide more
opportunity for this. I have been introducing more ways for students to lead class
such as through having a student pass out the papers we are working with for the
day. Students are generally focused during these times of leadership. Something we
are still working on as a class is having students gain the attention of the class and
learn that their classmates deserve attention equal to the way the teacher deserves
attention.
● Another aspect of class that went well today was I had, like yesterday, students
come up to the front of the class and lead a clapping pattern like I do to receive the
class’s attention. While students were not as responsive to their classmates as they
are to me, I saw growth even since yesterday in students responding to their peer’s
clapping patterns. Students were eager to come to the front and lead and showed
this to me through raising their hands very high for the next turn. I called on
students who were not shouting at me for a turn, and students then turned quiet
once they realized who I was choosing.
● Today, students performed our circle dance without me. I chose a different student
to lead the class each time. The majority of students could perform the phrase
without having me even in the circle. Some students did disconnect or not perform
the phrase however. The students who did (the majority) both vocalized and moved
to each word in the phrase. This shows me they are vocalizing and moving
simultaneously, have memorized the movement phrase, and are self-motivated as

2
the teacher was not present in the circle.
● The introduction of emotions went well, and I had students go around the circle and
vocalize each emotion and perform a movement that represented that emotion for
them. Many students copied one another however many students did choose
original movements. For example, for “worried” one student put both hands and her
face, one student crossed his arms, one student grasped her hands to her chest, etc.
for excited, students showed thumbs ups, jumps, arms up in the air, etc.

b. When were the students most engaged? Why?

● Something that went well today was that I always had a back up activity for the
faster students, so students were more engaged consistently today. In the past, I
have told students to wait at their desk. Today, students always had a back up
activity ready for them when they were done. This created less chaos during desk
work. For example, Kusuma completed her emotions drawings and writing exercise
extremely quickly, however she was then engaged in drawing on bookmark
cardstock I brought for the rest of class. She also was able to begin her self portrait
early and still have free drawing time. Students without anything to do, typically go
around the others’ desks which is not always unproducitie, but often can be.

C. What was my best teaching moment? Why?

● Today, I was quizzing students on “in front” and “behind” through having students
come into the middle of the circle and go either in front or behind me. Ptuase and
Angga were going into the middle of the circle constantly when it was not their turn.
To adapt, I challenged them and gave them each a direction to be in. I would switch
it up by quickly saying “Angga in front, Angga in front, Angga begind, Angga in front”
and increasing the speed so they had to react even faster. Both the students were
fully engaged during this moment. This helped remind me that sometimes students
could benefit from challenge or I can adapt to what they are doing that I would see
as misbaehavior and adapt it into the class.
● Today, my best teaching moment was in the beginning of class, when we were
working on our high, middle, low pattern game. I noticed students were having low
energy when performing their level in space. I showed students with my own body
what I saw them doing, which brought laughter to class and also changed how
students were performing the level. Together, we all tried a low energy high level
and then we tried a high energy high level. This contrast helped students know their
own level of confidence and energy they were bringing because after practicing,
students had more energy as we went around the circle.
2. What were challenges that arose?
a. What did I do in the moment to adapt (or not) to the challenge?
b. What is a strategy that could help adapt to this challenge in the future?
When were students least engaged? Why?
● A challenge that arose today was that during independent work time while students
were drawing facial expressions that represent emotions as well as identifying
times they feel certain emotions, two students Novi and Ananta began crying, and
then Ananta began to hit himself very aggressively repeatedly. There were no
translators even outside the classroom visible so I sat with Ananta and touched his

3
back, which helped him regulate his breathing and calm down. He was shaking and
clenching his fists. I assume somebody could have said something to him that made
him upset, but when they speak to one another without an obvious tone I do not
know what they are saying. Nanda then started laughing and pointing at Ananta
because he was crying, which I could understand and I looked at him so he knew to
stop.
● Another challenge that has occurred throughout many classes but was especially
prevalent today is that students erase the strikes from the whiteboard. Novi today in
particular kept erasing strikes. Each day I will bring in a paper and write strikes
with a marker so students can not erase it, and put the paper somewhere up high.
● At the end of class, some students had moved on to drawing themselves on index
cards. When these students were done drawing themselves, I translated to them to
write a word underneath that describes them. Most students wrote one of the
emotions they had learned today. This tells me about class cohesiveness throughout
my own teaching. Because students had been working with emotions, they assumed
what I meant was for them to write a word that describes their emotions. I then
gave them examples such as “brave” “strong” etc. however students still focused on
emotions. I wanted to link this with the “I am special because ____” exploration. In
the future, I will devote a separate class to exploring adjectives, as emotions and
adjectives are very different. After emotions are explored, I want to begin to dive
into adjectives of self description.
● Nandini, the student who generally is slow to write, was not understanding the
question asked as a writing response which was surrounding times she felt certain
emotions. I am unsure if she could not think of anything to write, or if she did not
understand the question. I had other students come over to her to try and help,
however then Widi began to write in answers for Nandini without her telling Widi
what to write. Nandini stayed at her seat during break, and I told the translator to
tell her that she could go to break and finish when she came back, however she did
not feel she could leave for break without finishing this. In the future, I may have the
translator sit one on one with Nandini, so she can understand directions and also
have help writing if needed.

3. How did students respond to each piece of the lesson? (verbally and nonverbally)
● Reflections: I am special because _____
Pande: I feel very special when my parent bought me a bicycle on my birthday
Novi: because of study and flying
Nadira: meet with you, and meet my friend
Ananta: illegible
Adit: have a lot of friends
Duik: have a lot of friends
Nindya: meet with miss, meet with friends
Nungrah Eni: meet with miss
Widi: meet with miss, meet with friends, meet with family
April: when I play the game
Nanda: I have a lot of friends

4
Candra: when I play the game
Kusuma: I feel special because learning, I feel special because I have champion
Mei: miss Riley and miss Thao
Liana: when I study and play the game
Chasya: have a lot of friends
Dwi: taught by miss Riley
I notice a theme of students associating their own specialness with their relationship to
others, such as friends or a teacher, an interesting cultural element. I could ask students in
the future about something they are good at, or something that specifies more that it is
about them. I also notice students associating being special with myself as the teacher, I
wonder if this is most related to their age, me being their English teacher, or something
else. Pande’s answer makes me feel gratitude from him. Gratitude is something i have
noticed across this class. Even from the way all students all shake my hand and place my
hand to their head everyday to show respect shows me their awareness to gratitude and
thanking others.
4. What is the relationship between the content and pedagogy of the original lesson
plan and what actually occurred? Why?
How was modifying the original lesson plan content and/or pedagogy effective (or
ineffective) and why?
● Today, I added something which was giving students free draw time after they were
completed with their work. This worked well because students were always
engaged. I had not planned on this however I did bring extra paper that I was going
to have students write a word that describes them or why they are special on,
however students had been doing much writing throughout class. I made the
decision to allow free color time to the few students who completed their work.
Students were excited to keep their coloring and even stayed into break coloring.
The coloring was also exciting to them because today we had markers and often we
do not have markers in class.
5. How did students progress towards their student learning outcome? What evidence
do I have?
● Students created drawings of facial expressions relating to happy, sad, excited, and
worried.
● Students created an expression with their body and most of them vocalized the
emotion that they were expressing
● Students performed the circle dance phrase on their own without me in the circle
● Students vocalized the phrase “how are you today”
6. Were there any moments that were a big surprise? (teaching methods or student
response)
● Something that surprised me was that today, the typical students with
difficulty/challenge/ cause distraction were not here, however one student named
Pande who is generally quiet and attentive stepped into the role of those who were
missing. Pande was performing grand actions like tantrums or yelling at others. This
may be because he felt more comfortable when certain students were absent.
7. How did I provide feedback to students?
How did I differentiate for students? (special need, level/ability, etc.)

5
How effective or ineffective was the feedback?
● One main source of feedback today surrounded being confident and enthusiastic
about everything we were doing in class. I noticed when we were practicing our
high low pattern game, students were barely putting their hands up, mumbling the
words, and looking tired. This may be because of a variety of reasons (sometimes
unknown to me because speaking to one another makes them upset often but I am
unsure what they said). I showed them an example of what they were doing by
hardly putting their arms up, and they found humor in me being silly. Through this I
not only wanted to teach enthusiasm and show them that while in class outside
problems can be set aside, I also wanted to teach about being confident with every
movement and focalization in class. I showed an example of going “high” without
enthusiasm and another example of going “high” with enthusiasm. I had students
embody this with me and I was cycling myself around to students in the circle,
especially stopping in front of students who were not as engaged.
8. How did I create or reinforce a safe learning environment for students?
● Today I focused on ensuring students were guided towards happiness and joy
within class. I was sure to make eye contact with students, walk over to students
who were not engaged, and smile at students who looked unhappy at any point.
9. What was my own inner attitude and energy towards coming into class today?
(nervous, excited, tired, stressed, etc) And, How did/could it affect students and
teaching ?
● Today I was excited and motivated towards making Friday the best it could be and
ending the week with a peaceful energy for both myself and students moving
forward to the weekend. This impacted students because I focused on turning
moments when students were not engaged into moments of being silly so students
would increase their engagement.
10. How did I apply what I learned in my previous class to today?
a. How did it impact my teaching?
b. How did it impact student learning/engagement?
● Today, I brought most of my attention to changing the activity when students were
less interested. While students do need to do all different things in the classroom, I
noticed today students did not want to do the pattern game many times. I switched
and had students create repeatable patterns for the class to repeat.
● Also, I learned from previous classes that students are engaged and enjoy doing
certain tasks such as passing out the sheets for the class. Today, Pande took on this
role and showed me focus and confidence as he had not been focused during the
beginning of class.
11. How will I use the information I learned in class today to guide tomorrow’s class?
● Next class, I need to get to kinesphere even further along with reach space. I will do
this through having students move through reach space, even if in smaller groups
due to space, and also drawing reach space.
12. Additional Thoughts
Strikes today:
● Novi one and pande one
● I will be expanding and waiting to analyze the full results of student responses to

6
when they feel sad, happy, excited, and worried because many students did not
finish