Co-Teachers: Isabel Fernandez and Delaney Kjellsen
Friday, September 10th, 2021 at Lopez Elementary
On Friday, September 24th, 2021 I got the opportunity to actively apply the changes that my co-teacher and I made to our lesson plan, based on how the first opportunity went on 9/10, with a new group of second graders at Lopez Elementary.
I was much more confident in our ability to manage time this time because the first lesson went so well. This opportunity was absolutely rewarding and furthered my love and passion for teaching. This lesson really made me excited to have my own classroom that I get to teach in everyday, though I am aware I may not always have this level of success and will still need more and more reflection and practice.
What went well:
Overall this lesson went incredibly well and was super rewarding. The expectations were super clear, and that was demonstrated in every students final sidewalk chalk drawing fitting perfectly into the assignment parameters. I was super proud when I individually asked each student what they were drawing and how that fit into their school community, and each and every student was able to share why they drew what they did with me.
Student engagement was also fantastic, this group was super social and thoroughly was interested in sharing their insights and who they were with us and the class. During our ideation and probing process where students explored school community, identity, and who they were in school, they were happy and literally bouncing in their seats to share their answers. This time my co-teacher and I made sure to actively do better in asking more follow up question to push student's thinking forward and make sure they truly understood the expectations. However, I think the student engagement in this class was very helpful in this case.
What did not go as planned / Needs work:
The management of this class definitely took much more work than the previous because students were so excited, however, a quick response or recall seemed to do the most in keeping students on track.
In the chaos of teaching, I think that sometimes bits and pieces of the lesson may be forgotten to be mentioned. In this instance, my co-teacher and I got so excited with the students that we almost forgot to mention exactly what material to use for their sketches. Next time, I would make sure to be vigilant on being as clear as possible and maybe go over the plan of action before class a few extra times, so that instruction becomes instinct.
There was a moment or two that I stumbled over my words while teaching, and I am worried that can be distracting. I will work on this by making sure I thoroughly think through a thought before saying it aloud to my students. I want my instruction to have the most clarity as possible so that I can do everything I can to ensure student success.
At the end of the class, I decided to ask students what their favorite part of class was because we had a few extra minutes and every single student raised their hand. In response to this excitement I had every student share. This was super successful and a super simple way to assess student learning, therefore, I will be needing to add this to my lesson plan for future success. Some other questions we found were successful, were "what is blending", and "what did you draw for your school community".
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