Assignment 3B - Lesson Reflection

Introduction
I taught my students a lesson regarding figurative language and The Great Gatsby.  The biggest challenges for me were the same ones I generally have with teaching: time management and engagement.  As I move forward with teaching I know these are areas I need to work on to become a better teacher.  

What did your assessment(s) tell you?
My formative assessment was based on asking the students to define a set of terms.  I was surprised at how well most of my students did with this exercise.  Most students could easily define simile, metaphor, and personification.  Most students had a hard time defining imagery.  I adjusted my plan to spend a bit more time on imagery.  I did not spend as much time on the other terms as students seem to have that mostly mastered.  
In my summative assessment I was asking my students to do more than define terms. I was asking them to find a quote and show how the figurative language related to a theme of the novel.  This was a much more complex task.  Many of the students struggled with it.  I will keep working on this task and provide more examples and a model paragraph for the students.  I also think they need more discussion on the themes of the novel.  The summative assessment gave me ideas on where to take my teaching next.

What did you learn about planning?
Of course I found that planning helps.  Having a well thought out plan makes my classes go smoother and make better use of time.  I also found that I planned too much material for the class time given.  Going through the terms took longer than I thought it would.  I was not able to do the game that I wanted - but I felt like that was OK because the students already knew the terms fairly well, so it was not needed.  Planning helps, but I have learned I must be flexible and responsive to my students needs.  Plans have to change based on the assessments and the realities of the classroom.  As a new teacher I struggle with figuring out how long certain activities will take - this proved a problem for me again.  Knowing this problem, I need to plan even more flexibility into my lessons.

What did you learn about teaching (the implementation of your plan)?

I learned, again, that it doesn't always go according to plan.  I also realized that videos definitely capture my students' interest.  Engagement can be a problem in my class.  I found that students were engaged with the video in the beginning and enjoyed defining the terms because it was something they knew how to do.  But they got less interested in applying the quotes they found to themes because it was more challenging.  It's always hard to do challenging work.  I maybe need to break this up into smaller chunks to keep students engaged.  If the work is more scaffolded with material they already know and feel successful with they will be more likely to stay interested and on task.  If they are confused or too challenged - their likelihood of focus is less.

Conclusion

I am still learning as a teacher.  I am pleased with how I was able to keep my teaching responsive to what I found in the assessments.  Planning helps me be more responsive to students' needs.  I do have work to do on figuring out how to manage my class time more realistically.  I hope to get better at that with experience.  I also need to learn how to keep my students more engaged with challenging tasks. More experience and planning will help me with that goal as well.

Personality Test

After taking the personality test, I felt like I had very interesting results.  The first test said I was between INFP and INSP while the second test said I was ENFP.

How did your personality affect your choice of content area?

I love ambiguity and probably trend away from logic.  This tendency definitely works well for understanding literature.  I love the artistic part of the written word.  I detest learning to write by formula.  I love that there are no right answers when analyzing a piece of literature or writing an essay.  All of this feeds right into my personality type.  I like novelty and innovation - facets of great writing.

How does or will your personality affect your relationships with your students?

I tend to be an extrovert.  I think the older I get the more extroverted I become as I worry less about what people think about me and learn more about others.  This tendency made me interested in working with people.  I love to get to know my students and understand them better.  

How will your teaching and learning style affect your teaching and your students' abilities to be successful?

I definitely tended toward active and intuitive learning with more balanced results in the other categories. I need to make sure and consciously be more organized and methodical for my "sensing" students as this is very foreign to me.  I also feel that I need to add more time for reflection into my classes.  This has been a complaint from my students who are less active learners. I don't tend to utilize this time well, so I can interpret it as a waste, but this test made me realize how important it is to others - and, of course, many of my students.

The Journey

Here I am on my first day teaching at Inderkum in August last year.

I am a first year English teacher.  I teach five classes of 11th grade AP English Language and Composition at Inderkum High School.  As a first year teacher I have so much to learn, but I am enjoying my classes so much.  I love teaching American literature, and I love working with the extremely diverse group of students in my school.  I learn a lot from them.  

I am supposed to tell you why I chose teaching.  I come from a family of teachers, my grandpa taught drama in high school, my grandma taught elementary school, my mom taught elementary school, and my sister even taught fifth grade for a while.  I am sure that family tradition had something to do with my looking into it.  Since high school, I have been a great fan of literature.  I became obsessed with Leo Tolstoy in high school and college and even minored in Russian.  I graduated with a degree in Comparative Literature from Brigham Young University and an MA in Comparative Studies from Ohio State University.  I taught undergraduates for a couple of years at Ohio State while I worked on my graduate studies.  

The incomparable Leo Tolstoy, my favorite author

I always knew I wanted to do something where I got to work with my passion - literature.  I originally planned on getting a PhD and teaching college, but the further I went in my graduate work the less interested I was in that prospect.  I loved doing the research, but I felt like I was reading commentaries on commentaries rather than the original works I loved.  I realized I love working with people and introducing them to the classics I loved.  The high school context seems much more exciting to me than working with more experienced students.  

My sons

I eventually became a mom to two wonderful boys, and that has been my focus for years as a stay at home mom.  I also worked part time as a tutor to help high school students.  Last year I knew it was time to start working on becoming a credentialed teacher.  I started school at National and applied and got my first high school teaching job at Inderkum.  I am learning so much this year and hope to become a better teacher in each year of the future.  But I am very sure I am in the right place for me. 

I love working with students, helping them learn new things, and being a part of their lives at such a pivotal time for them.  My juniors are just deciding where they want to apply to college and feeling all those pressures of the future ahead of them.  I love working with them and introducing them to texts like The Great Gatsby or a Frederick Douglass speech.  Most of theme are experiencing this greatness for the first time, and even if they don't share my obsession, they can learn to appreciate them.  It's a great job.