One of the most important skills within the profession of a teacher is being able to be flexible in all situations. As a teacher, you will more often than not have lessons that do not go exactly how you planned so you have to think on your feet for the best way to reach your students in engaging and exciting ways. Teachers have to understand that every student learns differently as well and they have to adapt lessons and out teaching to assist students various strategies and methods of learning.
During my Student Teaching placement I had 5 total students in my classroom all day everyday. The smallness of this class allowed me to work with the students one on one, in a small group, and in a whole group setting. At the end of each day I was able to reflect and think about the best way for my students to learning new subjects the following day. Some concepts were a little out of their ZPD so I would decide that throughout the next day I would take each student one on one to introduce it in a way that would best benefit them and their learning. Throughout my student teaching I was able to use a variety of instructional strategies to help my students grow socially and academically. Within the kindergarten lesson linked to the right I was introducing subtraction. This was a new concept for both of the students in my small group. I anticipated a few ways that would best help them understand the concept (including play-doh numbers)! I also had back up plans just in case they were not grasping it. By doing this I am able to show that I can vary my teaching strategies to extend the knowledge of students in meaningful ways!
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Photo used with permission
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Close to Easter time in my Student Teaching placement I was able to teach a really fun Reading and Language Arts lesson for my students. The students had been working on short vowel words. My classroom already had some small magnetic letters that I was able to sort out using the vowels i,e,o, and a and then place (separately by word) within an easter egg. I put together 5 easter eggs with words inside for each student. To minimize arguments and confusion I divided the room into sections for the students. The rules were clear that they were not to open them up until they were told. You will read in the lesson plan about the specific order of the lesson. Overall the students had a really good time and I believe this might be one of my favorite lessons. It was challenging but definitely in the ZPD of each student. You will be able to see that on one of the students work they have sentences below. This student was an early finisher so I had him write sentences that used the words he found. Below you will see images of the work sheet and how they were to develop the word with their given letters. This lesson directly relates to Standard 7 because it allowed for each students to develop a deep understanding for short vowel rhyming words while making a fun and engaging connection to and Easter egg hunt!
The two images above will take you to two different lessons that I was able to teach within a 2nd grade classroom. I believe that these two lessons directly correlate with Standard 7 because they were both conducted in a small group setting. This method placement was a learning curve for me in my teaching. I designed lessons that aligned with the Utah Core Standards, but I had to differentiate my teaching depending on the group of students in front of me. The students were grouped depending on level. By knowing this, I was able to prepare different ways before and during the lesson that would best benefit each student.