Reflection week 4

University of Puerto Rico in Humacao English Department Shirlenne Peralta 842-07-6270 Practice Teaching Practice Supervisor- Dr. Nilsa Lugo

REFLECTION #4 September 8-12, 2014 Another week completed of my practice teaching. This week was filled with ups and downs. I’m in my third phase of practice teaching and I know I have improved a lot since my first class. Before the students would not listen to me, they would not stop talking, and I was struggling with group control a lot. I believe a lot had to do with the fact that I was a new authority figure to them and they were not accustomed to the transition just yet. I still have to be tough on the students that are challenging, but I’m not struggling as much as before and that’s awesome for me.

Some of the new things I’ve done with the students is that I introduced a morning song to the students that I looked up on YouTube as part of their morning routine and it’s a hit! The students love it, but their reaction the first time was hilarious. The first time I made them all get up and mimic the song and try to song it when they got a hold of it. They were laughing and I noticed that a few students were really shy and thought they looked silly. The great thing is that they had fun. Afterwards I wrote the lyrics on the board so they could sing along. The lyrics were left for a few days until they learned it. Now the students have learned it and enjoy it a lot. When the students arrive to the classroom the first thing they ask is if I’m going to put the song.

Another of the things I started officially this week is the star track. The star track is a poster I created by looking for ideas on Pinterest for classroom management. This poster has various requirements for the students to earn their stars such as: Stays in seat, stays quiet, does

University of Puerto Rico in Humacao English Department Shirlenne Peralta 842-07-6270 Practice Teaching Practice Supervisor- Dr. Nilsa Lugo

homework, speaks English, Raises hand to answer, follows instructions and has good behavior.

This seven qualities are actually rules I saw they did not follow and I tried putting them this way to see if they are controlled more. It works! Friday I gave the first prize to the student with most stars. The prize is you get to choose a coupon form the coupon form the Coupon Bucket. The coupons was also an idea I looked up in Pinterest. I saw the idea but I had to pay to download, so I just made them myself and modified them how I wanted them and they turned out pretty cute. I shared the document with one of my peers and my boss from the tutoring I give and they loved it.

Another interesting event this week is that I was evaluated. I was frozen when I saw Dr. Lugo walk in and say good morning. I felt my body warm up and the tip of my fingers freeze. I was very nervous but when I started my class I pretty much forgot I was being evaluated and just gave my class. I was introducing a new topic with the students which was sentence structuring. I gave in my lesson plan to the practice supervisor and she evaluated it as well. I had forgotten I had written that I was going to do a drawing on the board to introduce my topic so I did approximately half way in my class so I wouldn’t be taken points out for not doing it.

After being evaluated I went to the University to speak with the Professor and see my evaluation sheet. I was not happy at all!!! 33/60 is a horrific nightmare for me, especially because I didn’t think I did thaaaat bad at all. That’s like half the points +3. I respect my practice supervisor a lot but I believe a lot of things were not taken into consideration when evaluating, such as it was a little early for me and my practice teaching peer Jailene. Because of all the problems and changes in the school we didn’t start teaching the second week. We were evaluated

University of Puerto Rico in Humacao English Department Shirlenne Peralta 842-07-6270 Practice Teaching Practice Supervisor- Dr. Nilsa Lugo

and it was pretty much part of our first week teaching. Another thing is I was taken points out for classroom decoration, and in the comment section said I did not have students work displayed.

There is still no work to be displayed, so I didn’t think this one was pretty fair. Plus the display wall was already set up, we did have decoration in the classroom as well, just no display of our student’s work. The one thing I believe I deserve the least points and fairly is classroom management because I have 5 students that are from PEA, one has emotional disturbance, 2 have ADHD, one takes his medicine and when they don’t give it to him he’s impossible to work with, words form his own teachers. I didn’t expect my first evaluation to be flying numbers or a high score, but I still don’t agree that I did such a horrible job to receive half the points, even if I do understand that it is a formative score. I know that I’m going to do better but I’m a little worried that this first score is going to hurt me a lot by having to make up so much points. I feel overwhelmed, and at least this week, I did not enjoy my practice experience. I hope I’m able to express these same concerns to my practice supervisor by speaking, because I’m usually better at writing my emotions that expressing them orally. And as for my students, no matter how rowdy or crazy they get I am getting to know them more and building a relationship and a great affection for them. I hope to keep doing fun and great things with them and that we enjoy this ride together.