The Graduate School
Florida Virtual School Reflection Report – Michelle Miller
Date(s) and Time(s) of Session(s):
Date
Time (min)
7/14/14
90
7/15/14
60
7/16/14
120
7/16/14
60
7/17/14
120
7/21/14
180
7/22/14
120
7/23/14
120
7/23/14
120
7/24/14
60
7/24/14
60
7/25/14
180
Description of Activities Conducted:
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I attended a Live Lesson with my mentor teacher Frances. In this lesson, we helped students
complete their collaboration projects in breakout rooms in Blackboard Collaborate. As
moderators, we are able to move from room to room and check on student progress. I asked
students if they needed help and answered questions as needed.
I graded many assignments submitted by students for grading. Assignments ranged from
Segment 1 to Segment 2. I used the Growth Mindset techniques I learned at the beginning of
the FLVS internship in my grading feedback.
I led my own Live Lesson covering the Segment 6.02 collaboration project that students needed
to complete with a partner. I met with my mentor teacher regarding this lesson beforehand and
spent time reviewing content in the lesson, my slides, and talking points before presenting this
lesson.
Reflections
Below, please reflect on your experience since the last report. What were your strong points? What do
you want to work on? What could you do next time to improve outcomes? What questions do you have
for your FLVS cooperating teacher and/or your UMUC professor?
Since my last report, I have developed even more confidence in the FLVS classroom. This week I
noticed that grading assignments now feels more natural to me, and that I am able to recognize many
assignments without referring to my grading cheat sheet. I also am more comfortable with creating my
own encouraging feedback for students. My main goal is to gently guide them to resubmitting their
assignments for a perfect score, even if they did a decent job and received a 70 or 80 percent. I think
FLVS’s policy of resubmission without penalty should be taken advantage of whenever a student needs
to submit corrections, and I noticed that many students would resubmit after reading my feedback. I
did experience frustration sometimes when students would repeatedly resubmit incorrect assignments,
but what I took away from this frustration was a renewed sense of purpose when giving corrective
feedback to these students. These were clearly the students that needed the most help, so I would try
to write detailed explanations with examples for modeling purposes in order to foster a better
resubmission.
During these two weeks, I also completed my first Live Lesson on my own. My Live Lesson
covered Segment 6.02, which was a collaboration project on ordering from a partner’s menu at a
restaurant. This was an amazing experience that really taught me what it is like to be an instructor at
FLVS, and the challenges and rewards of online education. There were issues with communication with
the other teacher present at the lesson, who did not know that I was presenting the Live Lesson for a
grade. However, the collaboration portion of the lesson went really well – because there were only five
students in the lesson and three teachers, we were each able to monitor a breakout room. In my
breakout room, one student was on a mobile device and unable to interact with the white board, so I
stepped in to help her fill in her answers and also provide feedback on her responses. I used positive
feedback and praise for hard work during the collaboration to motivate the pair of students I was
working with. These collaboration lessons are the only lessons that the Spanish department at FLVS
conducts during the summer, so while I would have liked to actually “teach” a lesson, I thought that this
format of lesson was also valuable in its own right. As I want to use a lot of collaborative work in my
own classroom, getting the opportunity to observe so many lessons with partnered activities has been a
great experience for me.
Questions for Dr. Scheira:
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What do you think the number one thing is that we should take away from this interning
experience at FLVS?
Will I be penalized for having taught a collaboration lesson versus a traditional content-based
lesson as my Live Lesson?
Questions for Frances, my FLVS cooperating teacher:
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Having been a classroom teacher and a virtual teacher, what should I take away from this
experience at FLVS for use in my own brick and mortar classroom?
Do you prefer working at FLVS to working in a brick and mortar classroom? What are the
perceived strengths and limitations of each of these classroom environments according to your
experiences?