Artifacts and Characteristics of the Novice Teacher #8

When reading over the Characteristics of a Novice Teacher, I was struck by the description for Characteristic #8: a reflective practitioner. This is something we have been told over and over in our teacher education classes, and I have recently been able to REALLY see classroom situations that have been altered based on reflection and discovery. This may be a little odd (and hopefully allowed), but I would like to analyze two artifacts for this characteristic; truthfully, I would like to analyze how the reflection in one lesson affected another lesson.

The lessons I want to analyze for Characteristic 8 include one on caring (which was the first lesson I taught my students this semester) and one on the census. The first day I taught a lesson in my new class, I had many contributing factors that combined to cause a very tough environment. There was a substitute, the room was exceptionally warm, the students had completed a number of independent and silent worksheets while sitting at their desks, it was half an hour until they went home, and this was the first day they had me as the leader of lessons. I read aloud Corduroy, discussed the idea of caring both in the book and in their lives, and had them write ways they showed they cared on a sheet that they could color. Unfortunately, I had a difficult time keeping them awake and on task. Many were either sleepy or antsy from the long day, and just about all of them were playing in their desks. The census lesson on the other hand went better in these respects because I had learned some strategies to control my environment. To begin, I had the students stand up and stretch to wake themselves up. Then, I had them clear off their desk tops and put their hands on top of the desks so that they would not be tempted to play with anything. Before the lesson started, I waited until all students had their eyes on me (and verbally stated so). As the lesson progressed, I used strategies to ensure on-task behavior and understanding, such as asking students to raise their hand if they were still confused and asking periodic questions to reinforce the facts presented. Also, I told them not to comment on the time remaining until they could leave because that was rude to me as a teacher. I did write formal reflections for these lessons after I taught them, so I have physical artifacts that can reinforce my identification with this characteristic.

I feel that this most definitely fits under Characteristic 8 because these two lessons show the essence of teaching. If teaching was simply presenting facts under ideal conditions, we certainly would not need 5 years to be proficient. We, as educators, must learn to identify a problem, brainstorm any possible solutions, attempt the most logical ones, and reflect on the (if any) impact that they had. I had many problems that I needed to attempt to alleviate regarding classroom management. I had tried a few strategies in the past, and I am still fine-tuning some of the most pertinent methods for the class at hand (classes are all different, so some strategies may not work for some students). This reflection did empower me as a teacher and improve the quality of learning for my students because I feel that I have more control to guide the learning environment.