Reflection on Teaching

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Background My first semester student teaching experience took place in a 7th grade Humanities classroom at ICE, a 6-12 portfolio-based middle and high school. Throughout the semester I had many challenging and eye-opening moments, but I also had some breakthroughs and revelations about how I could tackle those challenging areas. Through the guidance of my cooperating teacher (CT) and supervising mentor (SM), and with the support of evidence I have gathered throughout the semester, I will demonstrate my growth in the following areas: 1) High: Getting the working ratio right between teacher work and student; Medium: Dealing effectively with “talking” and other distracting behavior; Low: Employing effective time management. 1) High Level Challenge: Getting the working ratio right between teacher work and student. This challenge area provided the most significant revelations about me as a learner, a teacher, and a person. It made me question and confront what I thought I believed about myself for most of my life. For the longest time, and the main reason why I pursued a career in education, I believed that I was a “progressive” teacher (and learner) – that the only way to get students to learn is if you focused purely on them and not on teachers. I believed this informal, active, student-centered environment would generate socially conscious citizens rooted in democratic principals. Fast forward ten years, in a classroom at ICE and all I can think about while standing in front of the classroom is control: how can I control the students to behave, to listen, to regurgitate the many facts that I spew out at them. And then, I found myself stumped, bewildered and very exhausted. I realized that I didn’t care about what the students wanted or what kind of learning environment suited them best; it wasn’t ever about them – it was about me!! When I sat down with my

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