Final Self-Reflection

If I learned anything substantial during the process of creating

this unit plan, it was how to overcome barriers and be flexible when
planning and teaching a unit. When we first started this assignment, I
thought I would be extremely well prepared because of the large
amount of time we had to complete it. I, unfortunately, was wrong. I
had a good start to my unit, and I was feeling pretty confident in my
work after I had finished my context, topic/theme statement,
statement of faith-based teaching and learning, and overview stage 1
which encompassed all the goals and objectives for the unit. At this
point, I had mostly gotten over the overwhelming feeling that had
come when Mrs. Sayre told me I would be teaching the scientific
method to first graders. Then, she informed me that I wouldnt be
teaching the traditional scientific method; that Breton Downs uses the
QPOE2 model, which is another model of scientific inquiry. I worked my
way around this first barrier by re-visiting these parts of my unit plan
and modifying them to fit my new, more specific, topic. The two arent
entirely different so some of my previous work still fit, but there were
still substantial modifications that I needed to make.
After Mrs. Sayre narrowed down my topic further, I realized that I
needed to first teach myself about the QPOE2 model. When I started, I
expected to be familiar with anything Id be teaching first graders, but I
needed to do some serious research about this model before I could

even think about teaching it to my students. Mrs. Sayre spent a few

minutes briefly explaining it to me, and gave me a handout, but both
were too vague to prepare me well enough to plan and teach a lesson.
The next barrier I encountered while planning was trying to
condense the material for first graders to understand. I found several
very good resources for teaching the traditional scientific method to
first graders, but there was absolutely nothing on the QPOE2 model.
Essentially, I was planning on my own with little help from Mrs. Sayre.
She really challenged me to do a lot of the work on my own, but it
became difficult at times because Id never planned a full unit before
and because Im not as familiar with the capabilities of first graders
and the degree to which they would understand the model.
Aside from barriers in the planning, barriers also arose while
teaching my unit. These were the times where I really learned to be
flexible. First, since I didnt start my unit until Monday, Mrs. Sayre said
shed take care of filling in the first science block of the week.
However, she chose to have the students do an activity that drew from
the traditional scientific methodthe one that I made an effort to steer
away from because it differed from the QPOE2 model and I didnt want
to cause any confusion. So, for my first lesson on questioning, my
students defaulted to the things they learned on that Monday.
Time constraint was another factor. Mrs. Sayre was asking me to
teach a lot of information in five days, and abstract information

nonetheless. Even before I started teaching my unit, I had a feeling

that time would be an issue, and was worried that I wouldnt be able to
fit in all of the things Mrs. Sayre wanted me to include. When I
reviewed my unit with her, however, she assured me that everything
looked good.
Yet another barrier while teaching came from Mrs. Sayre not
allowing me much time for whole-class instruction. I only got a total of
one hour of whole-class teaching for my whole unit. In first grade, each
class has Terrific Tuesday from 9-11 a.m. during which they rotate
through science, art, and cooking stations. For two of my lessons, I had
to adapt to the Terrific Tuesday schedule and cut down my lesson to
twenty minutes with three different small groups. For the other lessons,
on the days that I had planned to teach the whole class, Mrs. Sayre
would cut my time short and tell me that I needed to finish teaching
the lesson in small groups in the hallway. This frustrated me because
even though I checked with her multiple times about time constraints,
she assured me that I would have enough time to complete everything.
So, I was caught off guard when she suddenly cut me off. It also
frustrated me because instead of allowing me just ten more minutes of
whole-class teaching time, she chose to have me teach students in
small groups of 4-5, which took 4-5 times longer and often caused me
to run out of time or to stay much later than planned.

Teaching in small groups also brought its own complications.

While it seems that it would be easier, it proved to make things much
more complicated. Students get frequently pulled aside for individual
or other small group work in the morning. Some get pulled out for
reading, Spanish, or by the schools social worker. This caused me a
great deal of difficulty in selecting groups without leaving anyone out.
As much as I tried, there were always students who missed some of my
lesson or the whole lesson entirely and whom I needed to help catch
up the next day before we started the next lesson.
As aforementioned, my primary personal growth was learning to
overcome barriers and becoming more flexible when planning and
teaching. It was hard for me to accept that as a teacher, some days
just wont go as I plan them no matter how hard I try. My only option is
to adapt my plans and teach to the best of my abilities. I also learned
through this experience that I could improve my communication skills. I
admit that working out my unit plan with Mrs. Sayre was intimidating.
She didnt give me much direction or resources while planning, and I
was more nervous of teaching in front of her than I was teaching in
front of the students or Professor Sjoerdsma. However, better
communication and connections with her would likely have made
things easier for me.
Aside from all the road bumps, Id consider my unit to be
successful. It was far from flawless, but the important thing was that

my students were learning. As I assessed my students responses

during our open conversations about the things wed been learning
throughout the week, I was proud of their answers, and proud of their
openness to suggestion when they didnt quite grasp the concept. For
example, as I was leading a small group discussion in the hall, Principal
Dr. Cannons stopped by and asked what we were learning. Everyone
looked to me for the answer, but I turned it back to the students and
said, You tell them, first graders! They told her that we were
practicing being hydrologists, and she seemed surprised that they
responded with such a big word. She asked them what that meant, and
they informed her that a hydrologist was someone who studies water. I
then asked the students if they could tell Dr. Cannons the two types of
water we learned, and they responded with saltwater and freshwater
without hesitation. They learned what the word buoyant means, and
even used it in their explanation statements. A picture of Jaynas
project can be found in the See Our Work! section, and shows that
she properly used the word buoyant. Granted, her grammar isnt
perfect when she says I learned thet the salt food culring buoyant in
saltwater but not in freshwater, but I gathered that she understands
that buoyant means able to float. She recalled from our experiment
that the food coloring floated in saltwater but not in freshwater,
therefore the food coloring was buoyant. The majority of the class used
the word buoyant, and if they didnt, they were at least able to

convey their understanding of the experiment in other ways. Evidences

of my students learning in our conversations and in their written
assignments assures me that this unit was an overall success.