Reflective Narrative Observation

INTASC Principle 9: Professional Growth/Reflection The teacher is a reflective practitioner who continually evaluates the effects of his or her choices and actions on others (students, parents, and other professionals in the learning community) and who actively seeks out opportunities to grow professionally. NAEYC Standards: 5. Becoming a professional

The purpose of this reflection is to give me a more global look at my teaching and learn the most effective strategies by observing the reactions of the students to see what methods reach which students. The observation video also helped see skills that may need to be strengthen that isn't as obvious with traditional teaching reflections.

This artifact represents INTASC principle 9 and NAEYC standard 5 because this lesson has helped me reflect as a teacher to understand how important effective media communication techniques help students with active inquiry. The process of reflection strengthens teaching skills and how my teaching methods affect my students.

This lesson allowed me to connect with my teaching style to evaluate what strategies worked and what needs to be strengthened. I was able to see a bird's eye view of the reactions and classroom behavior of my students. This will help me put more efficient classroom management strategies in place. I also was able to reflect on my professionalism as a teacher and to see my growth this semester. A reflection that would have enhanced the student's learning was to use effective media communication techniques. Next lesson, I will provide an extension to my lesson by using an approved internet website that allows the students to write to another student in India to gather a more personal connection.

The students will be impacted by my reflection by new more effective teaching and classroom management strategies that will be more developmentally appropriate for the specific students in my class. The video observation will affect the students by knowing the limits of duration the students can focus on a task. I will tailor future lessons to a more appropriate time to help keep students on task.

Denyse Fiero ECED 342 Videotape Observation/Reflection Culture of India Content: The lesson that I selected to observe a lesson about the culture of India. I thought this lesson would be interesting to observe since it had a lot of hands-on learning in which my classroom management had to be excellent. I taught my lesson in a first grade classroom at Dundalk Elementary. The objective of the lesson was to learn about how people from the country of India meet human needs and contribute to their community. The purpose is to learn how other cultures live and the similarities and differences of our culture. The students were able to make personal connections to the way of life in India and their own. To help students get a better understanding of the culture of India; I brought in artifacts. I brought in a traditional Indian woman doll, money, clothes, jewelry, transportation, and photos of housing. Bringing in real artifacts kept the students engaged and helped the students get a better feel of the culture. The assessment for this lesson was to decide what objects were indicative of India or United States. The results determined that 19/20 students received a proficient on the material taught during the India lesson. This shows that the students were able to understand the differences and similarities between our culture and another culture.

Relationship: Through the lesson, I encouraged the class to discuss their thoughts and personal connections to the lives of the people of India. Some students made connections to the lives of the people of India by recalling people they have seen dressed in a Sari and now they could build their schema for individuals they met in their life from India. Another moment that I was

able to connect with was a student who was started to get over stimulated by his peers. Knowing that he sometimes gets anxious during carpet time when he has to sit in close proximity to the rest of the class; I asked if he would like to sit in a chair while participating in the lesson. Sitting in a chair would allow him to have a less stimulating environment to help the student be more calm and attentive. This observation video went better when it came to specific students positive and negative interactions. I watched in the video how I scanned the students and rearranged about five students who I have learned do not interact well together. It only took about two minutes but definitely a time saver not having to stop the lesson for crowd control. The class was so fascinated with touching all the artifacts that I needed a way for the students to focus on the content of the lesson. I told the students that I will bring out all the artifacts to recess if they remained on green. This worked for classroom management as well as bonding with all the students during recess. Many of the students from our class as well as other classes joined together to play with the Indian artifacts and ask more questions about India. I was able to meet new students that attend Dundalk Elementary as well as bond with my students during recess. We played the Indian dolls, Tuks, Tuks, money, jewelry and wood carvings. It was great exposure for all the students who have never been exposed to the Indian culture. Management: Overall, my classroom management for this lesson had really improved since my first video observation. The students were extremely excited to learn about India. I opened the lesson with a letter from a nine year old boy from India to children in United States. It was a good way to learn about the typical childhood in India. I could tell the letter was effective because all eyes were on me when I was reading the letter and they all were shocked when

they heard that many children in India aren't fortunate enough to go to school. It was a good way to learn about the typical childhood in India. I hid all the artifacts in covered baskets to help maintain good listening and less distraction. However, in the video you can see some curious children peeking in the baskets while transitioning to the carpet. In the next part of the lesson, I showed the students a globe to show the location of India compared to our continent. My plan was to show the globe and continue with my lesson. However, the students were so excited that it made it impossible to more to the next part of the lesson. I tried to move on but lost the attention of most of the class so I took a few extra minutes and took the globe around the perimeter so that every child could touch and look at the globe and they were ready to move on. I had quite a few artifacts and discussion questions for the students. The children seemed a little restless at the end of my lesson. In reflection, I would have taught the lesson and then showed each artifact in another way. I would have made exploring the artifacts a center or an extension of the less. That way the students didn't have to sit for a long period of time. This would have eliviated the classroom management issues that started to occur at the end of the lesson. During the sorting activity, I didn't enforce the quiet rule while completing the assessment. There was some whispering during seat work which then made my assessment's results questionable due to me not knowing if anyone shared answers. I went over the expectations of the rules for seat work and one of the students shared with the class the no talking rule or sharing answer rule. However, some students didn't abide by the rules. In the future, I will enforce the seatwork is silent rule. Otherwise, my classroom and time management really improved. I definitely feel that I am developing my teaching skills