WEEKLY SELF-REFLECTION ON PROFESSIONAL GROWTH WITH LINKS TO COURSE WORK

Week of November 25th to 29th 2019! Third week with the kiddos!
After my debrief with my university consultant this week, they wanted me to reflect

further about how I have embedded my teaching philosophy into my teaching throughout the

practicum. I knew at the time that a huge part of my teaching philosophy is all about forming

relationships with the students, and I feel like I have made a strong effort in doing this. During

morning reading, I have taken the time to read with a variety of students by sitting on the carpet

with them, and reading together, which has been a starting point to form the relationships with

the students. I have also made an effort to notice what the students are wearing, for example, one

boy was wearing a baseball jersey, so I asked him about baseball, and if he plays baseball.

Another student was wearing a toque for a hockey team and we were able to then talk about

different sports teams the student likes, and even about the student’s parents likes/dislikes for

sports teams. Sometimes forming relationships with students means singing along with them if

they are singing a song they have made up, so often times throughout the day I find myself

singing the words “it’s raining tacos,” with one of the students. To form relationships with the

students, I try to find meaningful ways to make a connection with the students. Since some of the

students are a bit on the quiet side, I try helping them out with different activities, or often times

when they don’t ask me to read with them, I ask them to read with me. Apart from forming

relationships with the students, it also means connecting with students through behavioral

strategies to work through moments with students when they are frustrated.

Sometimes the students have rough days in terms of emotional stability, so I do strongly

believe that sticking with resolving the problem with the student helps build that relationship

further. People have highs and lows in their moods, so I think it is important to stick through it
with the students to resolve any sticky moments because it actually does help build a stronger

relationship in my opinion because the two of you have to problem solve, and work through it

together. Working through problems with students also helps me discover different strategies

that work for each individual student, so it actually helps me learn and connect more with the

student. By doing this with the students when they are upset, or frustrated, I have shown how I

have integrated creating a safe learning environment for my students. Creating a safe, and

positive learning environment for my students is something that’s apart of my teaching

philosophy, so dealing with the various behaviors of students has allowed me to show the

students that I do indeed care for them, and it allows me to give them choices to work through

problems together to make that student feel safe. Also, by handling different behavioral

situations, I am making sure that the rest of the students are still learning in a safe, and positive

learning environment.

Another piece of my teaching philosophy is being passionate about teaching and setting

the bar high for myself to be the best possible teacher I can be. This was definitely prominent in

the past week, where being sick made it so some lessons didn’t go as planned. For example, in

gym on Monday, I could barely speak, and it was the combined gym class of 44 students, so my

co-teacher and I decided since the students were not listening it would be a good idea to head

back to class. However, I know there will be days where this happens in teaching, but I

personally think this was a fault on myself and my co-teacher. When planning the lesson, we

should have just done things the same that we normally do when we teach the classes separate,

but we thought since there were more students, we should change the structure of the lesson. I

was so disappointed in myself because I strongly believe it was my responsibility for why the

students were not able to participate in gym that day, and after the lesson I did a lot of self-
growth in what I could have done differently. Through this lesson, it definitely taught me how

passionate I am about teaching, and the high expectations I have for myself as a teacher.

With every lesson I plan, I am passionate about teaching the material to my students, and

afterwards really reflecting on what went well in the lesson, and what could have been improved.

If I had to go back and restart teaching the five senses with the students, I don’t think I would

have given them a five-page workbook on the first day of teaching the senses. Since using the

scientist coats, and the idea of the students being scientists have worked so well, to introduce the

five senses, I would have worn the lab coat on the first day of teaching the senses. I also think I

would have introduced the lesson with a KWL chart, by having the students help fill it out, and

then going back to it as scientist to discover all of the cool things we learned about the five

senses at the end of the unit. I also would have taken the students individually to allow them to

put the lab coat on and take a picture of them with their hands in front of them too, and had them

use this image in another lesson, so they could relate learning about the five senses to their very

own five senses. I also think this would have gotten them excited about being scientists. Hands

down, so far, the best lesson has been the lesson on exploring their senses with popcorn. I think, I

would have done this lesson sooner, since it was so structured and thought out, just to set the bar

at the beginning of the unit for the students. I also would have integrated a demonstration of a

checklist for how I was recording the student’s formative assessment. In every lesson I had a

formative assessment for the students, but I didn’t really think to have a running record of a

checklist to prove where the students were at with their learning. Going forward with each lesson

in week four, creating a formative assessment checklist of the students for myself is one of my

number one goals I want to achieve in both science and gym.

different classroom management techniques. However, I am still wanting to integrate more, and

my goal this week is to get a bit out of my comfort zone and try singing “I spy with my little eye,

lots of students learning, like (insert name), and (insert name.).” I have noticed how much my

TA really utilizes singing and how effective it is with the students, compared to continuously

clapping or saying, “hands on top, that means stop.” I also want to teach the students a

management strategy in gym class called “thunder, lightning, and snow.” I had tried doing a

drum roll on the gym floor last class with the students, but this week I want to teach them the rest

of the attention getter, and see how well it works in gaining classroom management in a gym

setting.