Week 4- Critical incident

This incident happened during the day that I was not suppose to teach. It was a numeracy lesson and the outcome was to teach children how to take a way from a group of objects (subtraction).

Purpose: I needed to find the suitable way or tool to introduce this  idea to children because I used three different ways to teach them this concept

1- Using little blocks to take a way certain number of blocks and find out the answer

2- Using dry-erase pen and a small board for each child then to write numbers they chose to subtract.

3- Behaviouristic way of writing the same numbers all together to subtract.

 

Data: After this focus activity I reflected my lack of expereince to Ms. C. and after a small disccusion about what went wrong she said it is natural that I struggle in this area because subtraction is an advanced concept for children to get and it has to be either broken down using manipulatives or to keep modeling the activity untile children predict answers or something like that.

 

Analysis: No idea worked well and this group of children got board because of two reasons:

1- They refused to sit and continue the activity when I asked them and they were restless.

2- I took almost the 45 min to teach only one group rather that 2.

However, when I tried using manipulatives i.e little blocks, I noticed hints of comprehetion but it was after they got board and have had it with my ways of trying to reinforce this concept.

Conclusion:   I belive that I should have used little blocks at the begining because I wasted the time trying to do it perfectly.  I also agree with my mentor's suggestions (in the data).

WEEK 3 - Critical Incident

I presented a literacy lesson which was observed by both Ms. C and Dr. Hunt. I planned well and was so prepared and optimistic to teach. However, I faced a challenging situation which was at the beginning of the lesson with children wondering around the classroom and refusing to sit in the carpet area.

Purpose: I need to practice my authority as a teacher and be able to clearly state my rules in matters of telling children to stop sit and be ready to listen. This must help me to be organized and help children to understand that they can only participate after sitting and listening to the teacher.

Data: After my reflection and feedbacks with from my mentoring college and school teachers I believe that the issue was raised because I brought children from the music room to the classroom without leading them in to the classroom or being in front of them in the carpet area.

Analysis: Children need to be guided and lead by the teacher or caregiver and because of my short absence from the carpet area children assumed the teacher i.e ‘me’ will leave them alone in the classroom to play freely and choose their activity.

Conclusion: I have discussed this issue with both my mentors and I realize that I have to guide and sometimes lead their behavior in order to avoid their challenging behavior or any distraction my interfere when presenting a lesson.

Week 2- critical incident

In this week I faced a unique kind of issues which was in my planning for teaching the 60 % of the week. It seems that I am sitting to plan for ever because it is my first time to do such load of work on my T.P. However, I know in my sub-conscience that I will benefit from this experience in the future.

Purpose: I have to establish a professional, punctual attitude towards my planning and implementing of all lessons because it will certainly define my style as a teacher.

Data: I have noticed through my weekly planning that I am not spending enough time in planning which will effect on my teaching and preparation of materials needed to do activities. My MST is helping me step by step and she reminds me continuously  to plan my lessons well by allowing me to have a look at her lesson plans.

Analysis: I have read some of my previous teacher’s reflections from years 1,2,3 of this course. There were some comments on my planning that it has to be simple and match what I want to do during the lesson.

Conclusion: I have discussed this issue with My MST Ms. C and we both agreed on doing lesson plans as I understood it i.e points or built points. Also I recall that my MCT advised us to do lesson plans as we can refer to them and one detailed plan when he comes to observe us.

 

 

Week 1 - Reflective Practice

It has been a while since I was with K.G 2 children and this was due many elements such as the winter vacation and my maternity leave. However, I feel excited and fresh to teach a gain because now I get to try my free style of teaching 60% of the week.

Now, I realize that I have to look at what I do in the class room and plan it well in order to achieve a better learning experience for children. I also have to locate challenges and be able to reflect on what causes them so I develop professionally and personally. I believe that us as teacher to be can impact on not only the children we teach but also children in our families . Reflective thinking in teaching can also help us to conduct our higher education in the near future but it has to follow standard step which are:

1-      State the purpose of this reflection, in other words why is it important to reflect on this certain issue.

2-      Collect data i.e teaching diary, peer assessment (observation), assessing children’s output.

3-      Analyse which can be via thinking, talking to colleagues about it, refer to literature,..

4-      Conclusion by finding a solution or even praise yourself.

In this week the only dilemma I found was that children were restless and acting so active that sometimes they do not listen to the teacher or me even though they remembered me well.

Purpose: I have to establish rules so I can teach with minimum challenges of behavior, also to achieve the outcomes of ADEC during ten weeks.

Data: I have noticed through my day to day diaries that children’s challenging behaviors are accelerated when the co-teacher is teaching and this is because she is a substitute of Ms. Fatima who is in a maternity leave. I also noticed that many interruptions during teaching can dis-engage children from focusing at the teacher and therefore they well be tempted to wonder around.

Analysis: I tried to talk with Ms. C. about it and she said that the reasons are the same on my data collection tool.

Conclusion: I have discussed this issue with My MST Ms. C and we both agree on reinforcing the rules continually every time I see children even when I am not teaching. We also agreed that I have to be consistent and do what I say so children can take me seriously.