Teaching Experience

Overall, the teaching experience was great. Even though I made many mistakes, I'm glad I was able to make them now, get it fixed, and really work towards becoming a better teacher. I hope that my experiences in our 2nd grade classroom will encourage me to work harder and have confience while I teach. Thinking of each student, lesson plans of the unit were written to accommodate their different learning needs and help them learn the skill of comparing and contrasting. The skill of comparing and contrasting was not the easiest skill to teach. However, through careful planning and hard work, Gloria and I were able to teach the students to see the similarities and differences across Ancient Egypt, Ancient China, and modern world. “To be an expert teacher is to continually seek a deeper understanding of the essence of a subject to increasingly grasp its wisdom” (Tomlinson & McTighe). Since the students had already learned about Ancient China and Egypt, it was our job to help them understand how the two cultures related and how both cultures molded the world we live in today.

One thing I would change are the small group lessons. The students do not know how to work in small groups, which causes them to be off task. Therefore, I would modify the unit to have more large group and individual learning for the students. One mistake I made during my teaching was that I gave the students too many choices. I would give more explicit directions with the different tasks in the lessons. I also called on the same students over and over as I only looked for students volunteering to answer. However, I realized that I needed to call on different students. Even if they do not know the answer, I should give them the opportunity to answer a different question so that students are not discouraged. With the changes I would make, the unit would be a better learning experience for the students and a better teaching experience for me. Even though I would change many aspects of the unit and the way I taught each lesson, I am glad that I made my mistakes now, got feedback, and made changes for the next time I teach. I am being prepared to be a teacher in a classroom.