Reflection and Self-Evaluation DM1- Diversity Throughout my lessons I made sure to incorporate all students and better understand

their cultural background. One of the ways that I made sure to provide culturally responsive curricula is to get to know my students better. I have discovered that several of my students come from homes that do not include both parental figures. I have a student that lives with her grandparents and does not get extra opportunities to participate in outdoor activities. Another of my students has had exposure to many different things, including traveling and having an adopted sibling from Haiti. Lastly, I have two students from different ethnic backgrounds. These two students, one Navajo and the other Tongan, rarely complete at home assignments therefore I need to make sure that when planning lessons these two students are able to obtain the information and gain the practice needed to maintain the skills that are taught. Since the students come from various backgrounds and knowledge of the information I provided to them, I made sure to use various activities that help build their background knowledge. I also incorporated multiple opportunities for students to work together with students of various abilities and backgrounds. DM2- Effective Pedagogy Throughout the duration of all of my lessons, I utilize the smartboard. In addition, several students complete activities, after they have completed their assessments, on a computer. Another item that I have used during my lessons is the ELMO. I utilized both of these tools consistently for all lessons. These smartboard was used by both the students and me to help engage the students in the material. These tools were used to display videos, text material, manipulatives, and presentation of the lesson.

DM3- Subject Matter There were many aspects of this lesson that I feel I had a deep understanding of and could effectively explain to the students. However, one of the topics of this lesson I had a difficult time with trying to explain and understand for myself. During the line plot lesson, both analyzing and drawing, I would get confused with what the chart was telling me to do. I did make a mistake with my explanation but I was able to use my mistake to turn it into a teaching moment. I simply explained to the students that sometimes we need to refocus our thinking to understand what we are reading. The remainder of the lessons I was easily able to explain and provide the students with additional support when and if it was needed. DM4- Environment In my class, I have helped the students to feel safe both physically and emotionally by providing the students with care and understanding. I have created displays on the walls with many of the students work. The classroom is designed in a creative, colorful, and inviting manor in which the students take a lot of pride in. Since joining this classroom, I have helped to create a way for those students struggling to get assistance without felling intimidated. Starting with the unit I taught on graphs, we have implemented small math groups, which allow me to pull students to either reteach them concepts or to extend their learning. This has proven to be beneficial to both myself and to my students. In addition, we have implemented the use of table points. The students love this management tool. Each of the table groups, consisting of 4 students (one group has 5), work together to gain the most points by the end of the week. The students strive to earn points to earn class dollars and ultimately a prize. Lastly, my mentor teacher created and utilizes an individual management chart for the students to move up or down depending on the students behavior.

DM5- Reflection While this project was very time consuming I was able to gain a lot of information into my students learning and my teaching. I believe that many of the students had some prior knowledge of the information but, as evident by the students performance from the pretest to the posttest, the students were able to gain more information and build a deeper understanding of the material. This experience has shown me that the students love to complete activities and learn if the information is presented in a fun and engaging manner. This unit, that I taught, incorporated Kagan strategies, videos, interactive activities, and many formative assessments. I believe all of these activities help to keep the students engaged and increased the amount of material that they acquired. At the end of each lesson and each week, I met with my mentor teacher to gain a better understanding of what I am doing well and what I can do better. With this feedback, I made sure to incorporate that into my teaching and my lessons. DM6- Teaching Disposition I have found that through teaching in this lesson and many other lessons that I have become better aware of everything that the students are doing. I am also looking ahead and planning what can and could go wrong the lessons and with management. Prior to this experience when I was teaching a lesson I was only worried about the lesson at hand and did not pay as much attention to the behavior of the students. Now I am more aware of what the students are doing and make adjustments prior to and during the lesson. I feel that I have a better understanding and have developed my classroom management skills more from teaching the many lessons that I have taught since starting on this adventure.

I feel that my mentor teachers and the other teachers have as much respect and care for me as I do for them. I am a regular participant in team discussions and provide assistance to other members of the team when needed. I feel that I was able to really get to know my students over a shorter period of time. I have a better awareness of the students exceptionalities, interests, learning levels, and of their cultural background. Knowing this information provided me with a way to better plan my instruction. The experience of student teaching has been incredible and while I am happy that I am going to be graduating soon, I am saddened that I will be leaving the group of kids that I have been with over these last few months. This adventure has greatly prepared me to transition from pre-service teacher to in-service teacher. I look forward to the many adventures that this next stage in my career brings me.