Chris Bang

BRMS TWS
March Reflection
In this reflection, I will be focusing on student teacher conferences, culminating texts,
and substitute teacher experiences. When I speak about culminating texts, I will focus on
consistency and accommodations; with substitute teachers, I will focus on my personal
experience with an unprofessional teacher. But first I will explore what I have learned about
implementation through Parent Teacher Conferences (PTC).
Let me start by saying that PTC went very well. My preconceived notion of PTC was
that the parents that came in were going to be short-tempered and upset with the teaching staff; I
found the opposite to be true. Most parents were on the side of the teacher, and were a source of
reinforcement in terms of class management. Most parents that came to PTC were the parents of
the students that do not need much guidance when it comes to class management, but about one
out of every five sets of parents were there to figure out how their students could improve their
grades. It was rewarding to see the parents of students that were failing show an interest in their
students success. I thought PTC were going to be a myriad of upset parent, but I was relieved to
see parents that were concerned. When I am to do PTC in the future, I will offer all students the
opportunity for extra credit, no more than five points, if they appear at PTC (with or without
their parents). This opportunity will be primarily for the students whose parent wont likely
show up to PTC. I will do this so that students do not feel overwhelmed by their grades, or lack
thereof, in the grade book. Now I will reflect on my experience with a culminating text for my
unit.
Culminating texts are designed to assess the implementation of content; that said,
constructivism allows for students to establish the rigor and progression of the curriculum. The
culminating text for my Twelfth Night Unit is modeled after the multigenre project designed by
Tom Romano. The culminating text is a project that aligns with Bill Reeds LISA program
(Loveland area Integrated School of the Arts). It offers students a myriad of options when it
comes to expressing their understanding of theme, character and other elements of literature.
Through this unit, I have learned that offering student choice is a difficult feat to do well. The
culminating text requires students to create either visual or creative writing texts in order to show
how an author develops theme. Despite being an extremely open-ended and student driven
assignment it is necessary to be explicit when modeling what is expected. I ran into many
problems with pacing, and with explaining how unsatisfactory submissions did not fulfill the
assignment requirements. In the future (with constructivist assignments like this one) it would
be valuable to offer previous submissions from students, or to create texts that satisfy the prompt
and the criteria of the assignments as a model for what is expected.
Lastly, I would like to share my experiences with a jaded and unprofessional substitute
teacher (technically this experience took place in April, but I would like to reflect on it now
while it is fresh in my memory). I will refrain from using the substitute teachers real name, as a
professional courtesy, but I will refer to him as Mr. Grey. Mr. Grey is a retired instructor that
came to substitute. He took it upon himself to record my class; the reason is unclear, but he
likely did so to document how unruly my class was. I was so surprised by this event, that I did
not know what to do in the moment. Afterwards, I went through the proper channels to ensure
that that substitute would not come back to BRMS. What I have learned through this experience
and the stories from co-workers is that substitute teachers have a reputation for being rather

clueless individuals. What I will do in the future to ensure that my substitute experiences run
smoothly is make my sub-plans as basic and foolproof as possible. Substitutes work hard, but I
fear that it is common for second-rate teacher to take on substitute positions, because they are
unlikely to be able to manage their own classrooms.
As I progress through this student teacher placement, I am learning how messy education
is, and how unlikely it is to become any cleaner.