Reflection #3

“With the right focus and right energy, every child will learn. And as every child learns, the future of this country will never have been brighter,” (School Success 2007, p. 1). I have polar views when it comes to statements like these. I believe that every child should be provided the opportunity to learn, and I can say with confidence that in my classroom they will. But, giving someone the opportunity to learn and that person being capable of learning are two different things. On the topic of inclusion, I have seen first-hand the successes of a classroom with dynamic learners. It surprised me how much students were willing to help each other, especially the special ed kids. Seeing them grow more confidence in themselves and in interacting socially has made me a firm believer in inclusion. When it comes to addressing the needs of every student, I can honestly tell you that in the class sizes we have right now it’s not humanly possible. I don’t want to sound defeated, this is just something I have realized in a short amount of time in a classroom. For example, we have two classes of with thirty students in each of them and we only have 50 minutes a day to teach them everything they need to know. My teacher and I help every student we can, and we are also available at times outside of the regular day, but to accomplish what we want to accomplish with our students, we NEED the parents to be heavily involved in their child’s education. “Learn everything you can about your child’s school. You know your child best and understand his/her needs. Research shows that when parents and families are involved in their children’s schools, the children are more likely to succeed,” (School Success 2007, p. 3). 

Success Journal

Tweets throughout the week:

Monday: Helped my cooperating teacher through a rough day! #edsuccess

Tuesday: Caught up on grading and got good results back from benchmark testing! #edsuccess

Wednesday: Survived the last round of benchmark testing. #edsuccess

Thursday: Helped students become more prepared and comfortable for their quadratics test tomorrow. #edsuccess

Friday:  Prepared lesson plans for next week and set up an upcoming project. #edsuccess

Tweet Reflection

This assignment really helped me realize the little successes that we, as teachers, have each and every day. Even if, like my first tweet, the success for the day is simply surviving. I can only hope that my cooperating teacher, or any teacher for that matter, never has another day that was as tough as Monday was. I’ve learned sometimes just being there for another person that is struggling can be a major help. This applies to my students as well, many of them are bright students who suddenly become overwhelmed by information on benchmark testing days, which brings us to the first objective that I would love to improve upon.

Helping my students feel more confident in their test taking skills would be my biggest end-of-year goal. I would like to think that my teaching is so overwhelmingly awesome that no student could possibly fail a test, but alas I am human. When my students fail at something, especially objectives that we’ve covered in class, I can’t help but feel guilty. Another success I’m striving to achieve is to become a better classroom manager. Sometimes I feel like I lack the consistency to be a great classroom manager. I have to learn to hold all students to the same high standard.