Teaching Reflection

(This reflection was written for the PHED 4900/1 course at MTSU) 

  Teaching Reflection 

  1.  During our dance unit at Reeves Rogers, there were a number of things that I learned. My peer coach had given me praise on a few things such as great enthusiasm and good cues while teaching the routines. Two things that I worked on with my peer coach, and tried to improve on, are different ways to motivate my students, and how to adjust and/or modify certain aspects of the lesson, if a student does not understand or can not “get it.” Another aspect that I worked on with my coach was trying to give more specific feedback. While discussing these couple things with my peer coach, she was able to tell me that although I used good cues while teaching, it might be helpful if I had a variety of ways to interoperate something for my students, other than just the one way or idea I came into class with. The more time we spent with the students, the better I got with these things. I put more thought on how I could teach the students something, and more emphasis on my cues, wording, and vocabulary. As for motivating my students, I feel as though I slowly got better at that also. The more I got to know them, the more I tried to relate to them, and the things they like, as well as letting them have input on the routines and what they think. I feel like they started to enjoy it more, day by day. Specific feedback was probably the thing that I needed to work on the most. I would always catch myself saying “Good Job,” instead of “Good job doing…..”. I feel like I improved by our last teaching lesson, but I definitely need to stay focused on that for the lessons’ still to come.

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  3.  In my opinion, although it started a bit rough, both of my students achieved the student learning outcomes to an extent. For Anna, the affective outcome was the hardest to achieve. She would cooperate, but at the same time, show that she didn’t really want to be a part of it. However, the very last day we taught, she was more cooperative then usual. For the most part, she remained focused throughout the lesson, and kept her focus on both me, and the routine. She was also very cooperative with her partner. I do feel as though she achieved the student learning outcome for the cognitive part of this unit. She slowly showed improvement with remembering dance sequences, and terms that were used in each lesson. By our last day of teaching, she really had most of the dances down, and hardly had to think about what was going to come next. As for the psychomotor outcome, she showed improvement in this area also. With every routine, she hardly missed steps, and most of the time, her movements looked smooth. I feel as though I helped Anna achieve these goals, by always trying to show her that dance is enjoyable, and acting enthusiastic about our lessons, even though she wasn’t. The other student I had, was Madison. She was pretty even as far as the psychomotor and the cognitive go. I rated her the same most of the time in those areas. With the psychomotor, she would occasionally lose rhythm or tempo, however, most of the time, her effort was there. As far as the cognitive aspect, she had some difficulty remembering the steps and sequences, especially when I asked them to perform the dance independently, without me doing it with them. On our last day of teaching, when we reviewed the routines, she had improved tremendously. Although a few times her performances were inconsistent, most of the time they were correct. It was great to see everything click with her a little more, and watch her grow, even just in the short time that we spent teaching there. I would say that the Affective area was by far Madison’s best. Most of the time, she was very willing, and tried to grasp everything that was being taught. She was focused most of the time on what was going on; although there were a few times that she did drift off and wonder what the other groups were doing. However, she was very cooperative, and followed direction fairly well. She had a good attitude about the dances, and even seemed excited about the routines at times. I don’t feel like I hindered either of my students learning or achievement. I tried to go about things in more than one way, and get them excited about what they were doing; as well as trying different cues.

  4.  This experience at Reeves Rogers was my first teaching experience ever. I feel like I learned a lot over the 4 lessons that we taught there. I went from overwhelmed and nervous, to just nervous, and then finally to a content spot.  Since I had no idea how teaching would be before this, I would say that the entire time we spent there, made me grow. For the first time, I learned how to use different cues and techniques, deal with less than enthusiastic students, and experiment with feedback; all of which I have never done. I feel as though I can only go up from here. Working with my peer coach helped me realize the things that I didn’t do, as well as the things that I can do better. Hearing advice from my peer coaches made me learn a lot. One of the things that I want to refine, and/or work on, is specific feedback. It’s something that is so important for students to hear, and I feel like I need to work on giving more of it. That’s my personal goal from this whole experience.