Reflecting on Winter Quarter

How have you grown as a blogger reflective teacher this quarter? 

• This quarter I feel like I have done the most reflecting so far in the program. I feel like I'm always reflecting to make sure my students are learning what they need to be learning. I'm reflecting on my own teaching and how the students reacted to it. I've tried new things in the class room, such as a self assess folders for my students, and continue to reflect on if it is an effective way to see how my students feel about a lesson. I'm constantly reflecting and changing and learning, and I think any outstanding teacher does this throughout their whole career.

How have you moved more deeply into the actual evidence of what your students are learning as you work with them? 

• This quarter I've looked more deeply at the data my CT has collected as I prep for building small group lessons. I also have used summative and formative assessments to see if my students are understanding the concepts I've taught with math. My approach for when I can see that these students are not fully understanding is to pull them aside after the lesson and reteach with a different approach.

How have you reached out to your audience to deepen your perspectives on your practice? 

• One thing I recently did to deepen my own perspective of my practice was to talk with the other educators in my family. My uncle is a principle at a middle school and I had him ask me questions he might ask during an interview and this allowed me to be able to communicate and also see where in my teaching I have lived my philosophy. I have also talked with my CT and other teachers about their own practice to see all the different styles that are out there. I created a teaching portfolio with my philosophy on each subject which was interesting to sit back and reflect on what I really believed was the most important thing for my teaching, my students, and my classroom when it came to learning. 

What's the one best post that demonstrates this growth? 

• I think all my posts this quarter was reflecting on how to engage students and all the great ways of learning. I had a blog post about the math tour we took around campus and Project Learning Tree and how it applied real life application to the concepts the students were learning. I think this is very important because it got the children engaged and by being engaged there was deeper understanding.