Brett Anthony 001175074

Education 2500 Reflection

Reflection 7
March 14th 18th

Continuing from the week prior I set out this week to work on my skills in the classroom based
on feedback from my mid round assessment. Last week I spent most of the time outside of the
classroom as the kids were on field trips for both Tuesday and Thursday, this week was a more standard
week (if a standard day of teaching in fact exists that is). A topic of this reflection is how students are
empowered in the classroom something which is highly evident in our classroom. One of the big
things is if a student finishes a booklet (long assignments) they get a round of applause from the
classroom, but this idea of student empowerment is found in all the little things in the class as well.
When we go through our morning worksheet as a class, when a student answers with the correct
answer they get to go up to the board and write it for the class to see. When students are following
along with prayer my TA will ask the students who they would like to pray for and the students will
excitedly put forth a name. When a student is doing a good job on their assignment my TA will hold up
their assignment and praise their work additionally they will point out what specifically is excellent
about their work so other students can see what they should be aiming for; this practice is especially
common in our art class. Another big student empowerment example is the fact that each student has a
special day (or days; need clarification from TA), where they get to perform special tasks, such as show
and tell to their classroom. And it is kept in the back of the mind of that student and the collective minds
of the class, that it is their day. I could truly go on and on about student empowerment as it is such a
prevalent entity in our classroom. I have gotten used to seeing student empowerment in the classroom
from day 1 but I hadnt really taken the time to see how common it truly was, this is one of the many
reasons why I love the seminars and reflective journals; a lot of times you see something taking place
but its not until you really take a step back and analyze it before you see how important it is, and how
deep it runs in the classroom and the classrooms culture. A unique experience to this week was when a
student had something of bad day and how my TA handled the situation. The student in question had
always been shy and needing of a little more help with assignments than the other kids but regardless is
generally well behaved. On Tuesday however they threw something of a tantrum, something my TA
later elaborated to be caused by lack of sleep. At the beginning of the day they were clearly off from
their usual and had been refusing to participate in many activities, firmly saying that they hate this
activity (despite it bingo being one of the activities the kids get the most excited for). The student
also refused to eat candy that was given out as a part of this activity. This culminated in art class were
the student refused entirely to do their assignment and began to cry. It was at this point my TA (who
had already been mitigating the situation all day) sat down and devoted most of her attention to this
student. While she was with this student I took on more of an involved role than usual for art class,
usually during art I help alleviate any excuses or distractions from the students by keeping pencils
sharpened, supplies stocked, and students focused. But as my TA was more occupied than usual with
this student I also took on the job of properly evaluating their work and making judgment calls (based on
my TAs instruction) on how the student should proceed. So for me art was a lot busier than it had been
in the past but I certainly enjoyed it and of the student who my TA was helping; the last thing I saw
was him crying and then amazingly, in the middle of the class I see them run up to me with the biggest
smile on their face asking for more supplies now enthralled in the project. The next day I got to sit
down with my TA and ask them about their methodology behind getting that student working and in
such a good mood so quickly and from it gained more valuable information on how to help that student,
and students like them in the future. Finally this week I presented my microteach lesson, in this lesson I
taught my peers the basics of photography (primarily on how to expose a frame). Not much went
unexpected as I took the time on the weekend to run the lesson with my roommates (also university

Brett Anthony 001175074

Education 2500 Reflection

Reflection 7
March 14th 18th

students) who helped me iron out the timings. When I worked through the PowerPoint mentally I
expected the presentation portion of the microteach to take no longer than 8 minutes. But after running
it through with my roommates I quickly realized that this would turn out to be a 10-13 minute
presentation. I am grateful that my roommates took time out of their day to let me learn this as if I had
gone into microteach with my full 6-9 question booklet and this PowerPoint I would have quickly ran out
of time. I think the main strength of this lesson was the presentation although Ive yet to see the video
of my microteach the PowerPoint on its own used clear photos and an informative video to present the
information in an engaging and thought provoking way. The big change I would make if I was teaching
this lesson again would be time, I know for certain that I did rush things to some extent as it is a heavy
subject to cover in 20 minutes. I tried to keep things as fundamental and basic as possible but there was
already so much that I glossed over or simplified (the aperture and depth of field slides for instance
would take well over 30 minutes to teach on their own and even then Id only be scraping the surface of
the topic). For this reason I focused more on how change of input effects output, and less on why this
input effected output in this way. Throughout my life Ive spent a great deal of time tutoring people, and
an even greater time making online lectures (tutorials). With this experience I found creating and
presenting this lesson came fairly naturally. However something new to me that I absolutely loved with
microteach was the ability to have a clear set lesson plan (like a tutorial) but then be able to deliver
information metaphorically and more personally with each individual student (like tutoring). It truly
was the best of both worlds and gave me some insight on how in the future I could change my lesson to
better suit a class (something you dont get in tutorials or tutoring).