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Reflection Paper
Kyle Patterson
Mrs. Eastman EDUC 111
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Reflection Paper
Before I registered for Introduction to Teaching, I had a misconception of teaching. I just
thought that teaching was going to be an easy and fun occupation, but at the same time very
rewarding. I also thought that I was completely ready to enter the field. This conception wasn’t
completely wrong, but I now know I will have to add in some missing parts. Teaching is fun, but
at the same time it is very stressful. You not only have the school evaluating your abilities, but
you also have the student’s parents, and the students. Teaching is very rewarding, but it can be
hard at sometimes to get through to all the students in order for them to learn. Through this
experience I have learned that there were a few parts that I still need to work on while at
Manchester College and I can’t wait to develop them.
The first day that I was in Mrs. Griffey’s class I did a lot of observations on how
the students and teacher interact, and the classroom environment. Classes are a strange and
unique thing, like snowflakes, because each period of the day you have different personalities
and students, so no one class is alike. Because no one classroom is going to be alike, you have to
change and or add/subtract some methods of teaching and rules for the class. An example for
this is that one class might have a progressivism feel or that is the students are encouraged to
work in groups and have a free give-and-take of ideas, there is some order but not a lot. But for
the next period you might have to have a lot of order, have the students raise their hands, and
limit the group activities because if you allow these things the students can’t handle them and the
classroom turns into D-day all over again. It is very important to recognize how the students in
your classroom learn. Some might be linguistic, this means you will have to incorporate some
writing and speaking in your room. While others might be spatial or kinesthetic, so you might
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have to put some movement and objects into the class lesson plan. You can’t just lecture the
students all the time because that might only benefit half of the classroom population, while the
other half is bored out of their mind. The classroom environment isn’t just the seating
arrangements although that is important; it is also how you interact with the students. The
seating arrangement is the placement of the students. Some might work better in groups, so try
to incorporate some groups of desk. But there might also be those that would rather be alone or
with just one student, so arranging the desks in rows would be a good idea. It’s really important
to understand the classroom is a diverse place. Each student comes from a different home life.
What you might interpret as inappropriate behavior, in the student’s home life would be consider
acceptable behavior. In some ways the teacher defines the environment within the classroom.
The way the teacher interacts with the students formulates how the students feel about the class.
Some teachers make the classroom a hostile place, where the students can’t learn because they
are so focused on defending themselves against the teacher. In most cases the teacher can make
the classroom a fun and safe place where the students can learn because they are comfortable.
Classroom environment and student teacher interactions are vital in the learning processes of the
students. This is because you develop a relationship with the student where you can begin to
recognize how they learn. After developing a relationship with the student you can then
incorporate ways that will help them learn into your daily plan. Each class will have a different
plan because the classes are filled with different students who all have their individual style of
learning.
There were only a few lessons that I observed being taught by Mrs. Griffey,
because she was nice enough to let my fellow peers and I teach. But of those few that I
observed, I learned quite a lot. She told us it is important to have the students do some short
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work at the beginning of class that reviews the material that you just taught the day before.
This, for her, was a small writing activity, which they would later go over. The next thing that
she would do, was a lecture and would go straight into the new material. That way the students
could apply the stuff they just reviewed, while learning the new material. After the new material
was taught, she would then go into a group activity. The group activity allowed her to walk
around and help those that weren’t quite getting the new material or pass classes. But, it would
also allow the students the opportunity to work in groups.
When my peers and I were teaching, we tried to incorporate most of the things that Mrs.
Griffey did. We also tried some new things. Our day consisted of a memory game at the
beginning of class. This game reviewed past lessons that Mrs. Griffey taught. Our philosophy
was if we could grab their attention at the first few minutes of class, they would pay attention for
the rest of class. Upon the end of the review game, we would go straight into the new material.
This usually consisted of two or more of us teaching the class. We did this because we thought
that they would enjoy the change in having two teachers instead of just one. After the new
material was taught, we either played a game that integrated what was just taught. When we
taught them the new vocabulary, we had a few games we like to play. We tried to have a game
that was fun for all, but also had a focus on each way a student learned. One game was where
we would say, “Hay unasilla. ¿Dónde está?” (I’m a chair. Where am I?). Two students would
then have to race and point out the object we said. This helped those that liked physical activity
and learned visual. Another, example of a game we played for vocabulary was around the world.
We made up vocabulary note cards, and would have students go one on one against each other,
first to say what the vocab word meant went onto the next round. Both of these games were well
liked, and we thought focused the different learning styles, while still making it fun. The final
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thing our lesson plan contained was a group activity that included some sort of writing activity.
This was done toward the end of class, because if the students didn’t finish it, it would become a
homework assignment. Over all, I thought my peers and I did a great job while teaching. The
students seemed to open up to us, and even felt comfortable in asking questions. This was
something I didn’t observe in the lessons taught by Mrs. Griffey. I contribute the most to our
success to the environment of the class. I thought we created a fun and comfortable learning
environment, where students were challenged to review material while playing a fun game.
Throughout this whole experience, I learned a lot about what I did well and what I need
to improve on while at Manchester College. I felt that there were a lot of things I did well as a
teacher. It didn’t take a lot of time for the students to open up to me, and feel comfortable to ask
questions. I really enjoyed answering the questions each student had, and even teaching some
students how to conjugate verbs and use them. I also thought that I did a great job in
encouraging the students, and not letting them just slip by when I knew they were capable of
doing better. In one case, we all had to make a fool of ourselves by dancing to the alphabet song,
but I can guarantee that the students won’t soon forget the words to the song. In order for us to
dance they had to sing the words to the song loudly or we wouldn’t move. Another thing that I
thought I did surprisingly well was being aware of what is going on in the classroom, and who
isn’t working as well and focused, as they should be. I contribute this to the fact that I’m not that
old, and most of the things they were doing, I did not too long ago. There are a few goals that I
hope to achieve before leaving Manchester. The first one is to know more about my content,
mainly the vocabulary and speaking skills. The vocabulary review games were as much as a
review for the students as they were for me. Grant it, they were learning objects in the
classroom, such as a pencil sharpener and a computer screen, which aren’t stressed too much in
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speaking. If I want to teach a topic, I should try to learn as much as I can about it and never stop
learning Spanish, this is also one of my goals. Another thing I could learn more about, are
teaching methods, and classroom management. I feel that a reason I don’t know too much about
teaching is because I haven’t taken enough education classes. I should take more classes on those
subjects to improve my subjects. The final thing that I think I need to approve on is the fact that
you shouldn’t judge students by the way they act in the classroom because this may be accepted
at home. Rather I should try to help them see what they need to become successful in my class.
This whole experience has been a great eye-opener for me. It has shown me what I do
well as teacher, and also what I need to improve. It has been an emotional activity. It meant a lot
to me that students where saying “Hi, Mr. Patterson” in the hallway, after only knowing me for a
few days. I believe I have found my niche as an educator, and that is in an inner city school
district. Having not graduated from one, I thought that there were only students there that didn’t
care about learning, but I was completely wrong. I am very sad that this experience had to come
to an end, but also excited. I have enjoyed learning about myself as an educator, and can not wait
to have my own classroom. I’m also very excited to be teaching students a subject that I love.