Practica Plans

One of my learning goals for this semester was to become better, or more detailed, at writing my lesson plans. I chose to focus on this learning goal because last semester my mentor teacher had a lot of input for my previously written lesson plans. She provided me with great ideas and guidance when writing lesson plans and I wanted to take her suggestions and make them my own. So far this semester, I believe I have made significant progress. I spend a lot more time with the writing of my lesson plans and my new mentor teacher seems to be pleased. I also take more time when revising my lesson plans, which I find to be very beneficial!
Reviewing my practica plan allows me to stay focused and achieve goals that I have set for myself. I have actually already accomplished a few of my learning goals and several of my activities. Now that I am spending more time in the classroom actually teaching, I have thought of a couple more learning goals to add to my list. For example, I want to be more comfortable with implementing sponge activities for the students. This classroom has a lot of independent work time and I would love to allow my students to participate in some fun learning activities.
To evaluate my own progress in completing activities on my pratica plan, I would have to say that I am doing very well. This practica plan allows me to be organized and to know when assignments are due. I can implement my learning goals into my teaching at my own pace, which I find to be very stress relieving. I am very glad the practica plan was assigned to us this semester because I believe it is beneficial to us, as students, and our mentor teachers.

Characteristics of a Novice Teacher

An effective communicator is one in who communicates and recieves ideas, messages, or information through appropriate spoken, written, and non-verbal forms. So far this semester, I have portrayed two different effective communication strategies with my students' parents. I have attended one parent-teacher conference in which I interacted with several parents, took notes, and made a few different comments to the parents. I have also written a welcoming letter to the families of my students explaining who I am and my hopes for the classroom this semester. I proved that I was an effective communicator through both of these artifacts because during the parent-teacher conference I was communicating one-on-one with the parents and recieving their messages. With the welcoming letter I was displaying effective communication by relaying my ideas to the families through written material.
A reflective practitioner is one who attempts to make sense of events in the educational environment and who critically examines choices to inform practice. I believe I have several artifacts of being a reflective practitioner, particulary my reflections at the end of every lesson plan. These reflections for each lesson plan provide evidence of my strengths and weaknesses as a teacher and what went well and didn't go well during the lesson. Also speaking with my mentor teacher about my lessons and taking notes on what she says is also a way to reflect as a practitioner. I can learn from my mentor teacher while reflecting on her suggestions and become a better teacher, myself. The reflections at the end of my lessons are excellent ways to be a reflective practitoner because that helps me to make sense of the choices I made while teaching. My mentor teacher's experience as an educator and her reflection's toward my lesson also help me to understand to a greater degree and influence my teaching each and every day.