Video–Taped Lesson (Reflection)

Wednesday, January 20th

Today was my first day of teaching a Block solo and I was pleased with the result. The class started with a pop quiz over the map of Europe. Students were given a few minutes to study their maps and then they completed the quiz (approximately 10 minutes). This went well and the students followed all procedures required. After all students had completed the quiz, they swapped with the adjoining desk and we checked the answers. I then gave the class the accompanying percentage grade and I called roll with each student telling me their grade (students were allowed to walk up to the desk and tell me more discretely if desired). This also went well and all students continued to follow procedures and expectations that have been put in place by Mrs. Westerfield. I felt very comfortable administering the assessment after watching Mrs. Westerfield in the 1st block. The students have become comfortable with me and there is a healthy, mutual respect that has been formed between us. This is an obvious advantage in regards to the students performing for me as they do for the “regular” teachers. The next activity involved work on the Immigration Interview from the Geography Alive text. Students have a profile of an immigrant, they are responsible for answering four questions regarding push/pull factors and the affect their migration has had on the U.S. and their home country. Students are also responsible for creating artifacts for each answer. I was pleased with this activity as it took most of the block (60 minutes), and the students were very active in the learning process. Dialogue was good with both teacher/student and peer-to-peer interaction. This activity allowed students to be social while getting up and moving around, allowing multiple intelligences to be used.

After watching the video of the class I did have some impressions that I didn’t have prior to viewing. First off, I say hey, ya, o.k., and right too often. I hope to improve on my speech with more experience. I was pleased in my movement around the room compared to sitting at my desk and having the students come to me. I felt that I did a good job of interacting with the students and cueing them to higher level thinking with the appropriate prompts. The students were very social (which was desired), but it seemed for the most part that they stayed on task and most of the conversations were based around the activity. I feel that I delivered the lesson as was intended and that the students experienced a learning environment.