SORAYAH G.
AIMS OF EDUCATION
-I believe the goal of education should be to enhance the development of children mentally, physically, emotionally, and cognitively. The three main things I would focus on having my students learn overall in my class would be how to treat others, establish their self-esteem, find an interest in pursueing what they are drawn to, and also gaining knowledge about the world they live in.
VIEWS OF KNOWLEDGE & LEARNING
- In my perspective, students learn through teachers that make it easy and interesting to. A teacher has to captivate their student's attention and adhere to their learning style to achieve optimal learning from their students.
IMAGE OF THE LEARNER & TEACHER
- My expectationos and hopes for students would be that they are confident in their capabilities as a student. I do not believe a child can perform well in school if they do not believe themselves to be a scholar and a good learner.
BELIEFS ABOUT CIRRICULUM AND PEDAGOGY
-After students in my class have left and moved on in their academic careers, I want them to first and foremost remember me. I believe the best teachers are the ones that children remember because they made learning fun and exciting or they had a great comfort level with that teacher.
INFLUENCE OF THE SPECIFIC CONTEXT
- I believe that classroom environment is everything! How a teacher decorates and forms her classroom will impact children greatly. Just because a classroom is located in a low socioeconomic area, does not mean the classroom has to reflect the conditions of what is happening outside of it. It is up to the teacher to provde an environment suitable for learning and creativity.
CRITERIA FOR EFFECTIVE TEACHING
-I believe a teacher can tell they taught well when the students are engaged and are wanting to know more about the subject or are trying their best to master it. There is a difference between teaching a lesson that makes the students want to do the follow-up activity or one that makes them anxious to leave and go to lunch or the bathroom.
AIMS OF EDUCATION
I feel as though my view on what education should be has remained the same. I have seen within my classroom how much physical, emotional, and mental factors contribute to the students willingness and ability to learn. It is the job of th teacher to always stimulate the students by making leanring fun and stimulating. It is also vital that students learn good social skills and also their own sense of self-esteem and self-effcacy. These skills should be learned, practiced, and enforced at a young age for students to thrIve in the future. Along with the mandatory cirricullum, teachers should also find ways of promoting the interest that students have. I have learned that this can be done through literacy and reading.
VIEWS OF KNOWLEDGE & LEARNING
I still have the same views of knowledge and learning. If the child isn't stimulated to learn, then the information they recieve from the teacher won't internalize in their brains. The students either have to have prior interest in the subject matter or the teacher has to generate interest in the subject matter to get the students to be involved. I believe that I have the ability to make learning fun and interesting. One way that I have learned to have students to pay attention to what you have to say is to gain their respect. I feel like when I am talking to the students in my class or teaching them something, they really listen to what I have to say because I see that they respect me. They respect me because I know how to position myself as a friend but also an adult figure to these kids that makes me relatable but also respected.
IMAGE OF THE LEARNER & TEACHER
To elaborate on my previous ideas about the learner and the teacher, I believe that teachers can greatly influence the learner's confidence and their capabilities. Through this internship, I have learned that a teachers job is to push their students to reach their highest capablity. Whether it is working with the students one on one or having them spending extra time on a learning concept that they have not yet mastered, it is up to the teacher to create an environment in which the students can strive for their best.
BELIEFS ABOUT CIRRICULUM AND PEDAGOGY
In relation to what I wrote about my beliefs concerning cirriculum and pedagogy, I now believe that students remember teachers that they have realized have made a difference in their lives when they reflect as adults. I do not think it is so important to be someone's favorite teacher because chances are, if you are doing your job correctly as a teacher, some students will not like you because of how much you push them and do not allow them to do anythng but ther best. I now see that it's not about being a student's favorite teacher now but that teacher that they remember when they are adults that instilled a value or virtue within themselves that otherwise would not have existed if it were not for that teacher being in their path.
INFLUENCE OF THE SPECIFIC CONTEXT
What I look forward to most as a teacher now would be how I would set up my classroom atmosphere and environment. I have pulled ideas of things to do and not to do within my classroom environment from my CT and other classrooms that I have walked by. Classroom environment is so so important to allowing children to focus and be stimulated in the right way. I realize now how important classroom tidyness, desk formations, and visuals are vital to having a classroom that will stimulate students correctly.
CRITERIA FOR EFFECTIVE TEACHING
I don't think that the students reactions to the lesson that you teach or the follow-up activity is always the best evaluator of effective teaching. I realize now that teachers can implement a lesson effectively and never gain student's willingness to want to do an activity. But, I also do believe that effective teachers switch up how they present their lessons frequently to create stimulus within their classroom.
ORIGINAL TEACHING PLATFORM
REVISED TEACHING PLATFORM
FEAP GOALS!!
Name: __Sorayah Geffrard____
CT Name/classroom grade level: __Mrs. Ware/ 4th grade___
Internship level (circle one): 4
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My goal is to understand the purpose of the different tests the students have to take and how it is beneficial to them or the teacher.
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FEAP(s) #(s) ___Accomplished Practice #4: Assessment.____
I will collect evidence of this goal by/through:
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Speaking with my CT and gathering notes about the different types of assessments.
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Analyzing the student’s different assessments and seeing how they help the students or teacher gather information on what they need to improve on.
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Saving copies of the student’s different assessments and comparing the results of the different tests.
Final FEAPS Goal Progress Reflection
Name: Sorayah Geffrard
CT Name/classroom grade level: Ware- 4th grade
Internship level: 2
My goal is: To understand the purpose of the different formative assessments the students have to take and how it is beneficial to them or the instructor.
FEAP(s) #(s): Accomplished Practice #4: Assessment
Why did you select this goal?
I selected this goal for many reasons. One being the continuous change in the student’s end of the year formative testing like the FCAT. Now the state of Florida has changed this test to what is now called the “FSA”. The students have to prepare for these tests and learn a particular way to plan, read, and write in order to test well on them. This takes time within the classroom to teach these test taking skills. For example, students can only use a one type of planning web on the FSA, have to cite their sources when writing and subtext important themes in the text that will help them answer the questions. I think that these are great practices are useful reading strategies that will be useful for students when they go into higher grades but I am concerned with how many students are actually comprehending what they are told to read. Most students still do not plan their writing properly even with the BMME (beginning, middle, middle, end) method. I chose this goal because I wanted to see whether or not the test prep/test taking is helping or hindering the students from learning to their fullest potential within a school year.
Describe several ways you grew in each of these areas. How do you know you made progress? Provide specific evidence (refer to videos, observation notes, student work, photos, field notes, etc.) to back up these claims of growth.
My goal was not based on my own progress as a teacher but as to if students were getting better in the aspects that they were being tested on. Some formative assessment that I gathered data on would be the running record. I conferenced with my CT and asked her whether or not she felt as if the formative assessments (and the preparation for them) made a difference in the student’s overall learning and development, especially in literacy and language arts skills. She explained that students did overall improve in formative assessments. As for tests like the FSA or formally known FCAT end of the year exam, she explain that students were masters at taking tests and the strategies used to answer questions but lack comprehension and actually skills. She explained that some of the students in her class just guessed and made a good score while others were anxious about the test and didn’t perform adequately. To conclude, it seems as though students excel with formative tests that do not have test taking strategies like the reading record. Students know exactly what is expected of them and how they can improve when they take it again later in the year. As for the FSA, students don’t know exactly what they are tested on and use strategies instead of knowledge and comprehension in order to answer correctly.
Where do you go from here? What are your future goals as you move toward your final internship?
To further my investigation on assessments on if and how they improve student achievement, I could see what helps students achieve more in depth. Would it be the teacher’s strategy of instruction? Or would it be the repetition of taking formative testing until a higher level of cognition is attained that shows to be what helps student growth? Does test prep really help students comprehend what they are essentially reading or would more emphasis on content help students develop more cognitively?