Self Evaluation
My field experience took place at St. Richards School of North Olmsted, Ohio. St. Richards is a Catholic kindergarten to 8th grade school. I was assigned to a 7th and 8th grade English classroom where students were able to incorporate technology a lot because there was an Active board and a classroom set of laptops and IPads they had access to. The cooperating teacher I was assigned to was Mrs. Dietz, who spent years at Elyria Catholic teaching high school English before moving to St. Richards School. I spent the mornings in Mrs. Dietz’s classroom. I had four different classes every morning. The first and second periods were 8th grade classes and the second and third periods were 7th grade classes.
I think my experience went very well. I taught a lesson on the author of The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton. In this lesson, I used a bio-poem and Prezi. I showed the students a Prezi presentation on S.E. Hinton’s life and accomplishments. Throughout the presentation, the students filled in the blank spaces on the bio poem handout with different facts about S.E. Hinton’s life. My students enjoyed the bio poem and responded well to the Prezi. Mrs. Dietz uses technology a lot with her class, which I really enjoyed. I like to incorporate technology into lessons and I had plenty of opportunities to during this experience. Technology worked really well in my classroom. The students were always excited to use the Active board so I used it in my lessons as much as possible. They also enjoyed creating Glogsters so I wanted to teach them Prezi as well. My classes had a great classroom community so I really enjoyed having class discussions with them. They seemed to benefit from the discussions as well. While they worked really well together, they also worked well independently.
In my first few lessons, I wish that I would have the students asked more personal questions. Once I learned different ways to relate the lesson back to my students, I was able to get more attention during my lessons. For example, during the second S.E. Hinton lesson, I asked the students what they thought about S.E. Hinton changing her name to make readers think she was male. The question sparked a larger discussion. There was not much that I would like to change about my experience. However, I wish that I was able to have more practice before teaching my students. By the fourth lesson, I was much more comfortable teaching and I would have liked to have felt like that for all four lessons.
I really enjoyed being in a middle school classroom. I was nervous about teaching 7th and 8th graders but I liked how I could write more sophisticated lessons with the older students. I learned so much over the past five weeks. I gained so much experience working with students and writing effective lessons. All the strategies I used, worked really well. I learned about them in class, but though teaching them I realized that they are very beneficial to students. I learned how to use a lot of different technology. I was able to practice on the Active board, and with different computer and IPad softwares. I also gained experience teaching using Glogster and Prezi presentations.
Aside from learning about instruction in the classroom, I learned about schools and administration. St. Richards School was experiencing budget cuts during my time there and seven teachers were going to be let go during the next school year. I enjoyed talking to Mrs. Dietz about the school because she was studying administration at John Carroll and had an interesting input on the situation. She gave me advise about finding a job and explained the difference between public and private schools.
I had so much fun on this experience. I learned a lot about being a teacher and working with students. I was able to practice writing effective lesson plans then actually teach them to a class. Through observing and talking with my cooperating teacher, I learned so many new strategies and all about being a teacher. This experience benefited me and I cannot wait for my next one!
I think my experience went very well. I taught a lesson on the author of The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton. In this lesson, I used a bio-poem and Prezi. I showed the students a Prezi presentation on S.E. Hinton’s life and accomplishments. Throughout the presentation, the students filled in the blank spaces on the bio poem handout with different facts about S.E. Hinton’s life. My students enjoyed the bio poem and responded well to the Prezi. Mrs. Dietz uses technology a lot with her class, which I really enjoyed. I like to incorporate technology into lessons and I had plenty of opportunities to during this experience. Technology worked really well in my classroom. The students were always excited to use the Active board so I used it in my lessons as much as possible. They also enjoyed creating Glogsters so I wanted to teach them Prezi as well. My classes had a great classroom community so I really enjoyed having class discussions with them. They seemed to benefit from the discussions as well. While they worked really well together, they also worked well independently.
In my first few lessons, I wish that I would have the students asked more personal questions. Once I learned different ways to relate the lesson back to my students, I was able to get more attention during my lessons. For example, during the second S.E. Hinton lesson, I asked the students what they thought about S.E. Hinton changing her name to make readers think she was male. The question sparked a larger discussion. There was not much that I would like to change about my experience. However, I wish that I was able to have more practice before teaching my students. By the fourth lesson, I was much more comfortable teaching and I would have liked to have felt like that for all four lessons.
I really enjoyed being in a middle school classroom. I was nervous about teaching 7th and 8th graders but I liked how I could write more sophisticated lessons with the older students. I learned so much over the past five weeks. I gained so much experience working with students and writing effective lessons. All the strategies I used, worked really well. I learned about them in class, but though teaching them I realized that they are very beneficial to students. I learned how to use a lot of different technology. I was able to practice on the Active board, and with different computer and IPad softwares. I also gained experience teaching using Glogster and Prezi presentations.
Aside from learning about instruction in the classroom, I learned about schools and administration. St. Richards School was experiencing budget cuts during my time there and seven teachers were going to be let go during the next school year. I enjoyed talking to Mrs. Dietz about the school because she was studying administration at John Carroll and had an interesting input on the situation. She gave me advise about finding a job and explained the difference between public and private schools.
I had so much fun on this experience. I learned a lot about being a teacher and working with students. I was able to practice writing effective lesson plans then actually teach them to a class. Through observing and talking with my cooperating teacher, I learned so many new strategies and all about being a teacher. This experience benefited me and I cannot wait for my next one!