Final Reflection

As my final week of this experience rolls around, I have been asked to comment on how this experience went. This experience was amazing in every sense of the word. From beginning to end, student teaching taught me how to be responsible and well prepared. It taught me how to be responsible because I was dealing with teenage children that need the right and proper attention. These young adults feed off their teachers’ energy. If positive energy is transmitted to them, the young adults will respond positively.
I was fortunate to have such an incredible cooperating teacher. Mrs. DelaRosa guided me through everything with open arms. She took her time to help me develop my own style and at the same time, Mrs. DelaRosa gave me the creative freedom to develop my lesson plans. All the material that was used was approved by her and was always supervised by her. When it came for me to take control over the classes, Mrs. DelaRosa supported me and gave me the confidence to teach.
At the end of this experience, I also realized that I want to venture in other roads that life might have in store for me. I realized that one point in life I do want to teach, but not right now. I do not want to be selfish with myself and with the young adults that would be in my classroom. I want to have 100% certainty that this is the road that I want to take. The way that I am going to find out is trying other occupations.

Things learned

My students and I had a great relationship. Both parties did was expect from one another. I taught, they tried to understand and do their best. I respected them no matter what; they respected me as an adult and as an authority figure. The students did their best in learner a language that is not simple to learn. Even though most of these students are Hispanic, Spanish is not spoken constantly in their households. These students got to learn more than the language; they got to learn the culture a little bit better. The students were really fortunate to have 2 teachers that were both fluent in the language but that had also lived in a Latin-American country. My cooperating teacher is from the Dominican Republic and lived there for almost 20 years. I am a New Yorker raised in Colombia for 10 years.
From them I learned a lot. I learned that sometimes I had to be sympathetic to personal situations. Everyone at a certain point has difficulties. The students need someone that can maybe guide them through a rough path. That person might be a teacher. I also learned that I had to adapt to everyone’s learning style. Each student was totally different from the next. Each one had a special need; adaptation to everyone was a huge key to my success with them.
My philosophy of teaching has not changed much. I taught them with kindness, firmness, and respect. Every student got that from me day in and day out.

a talkative young man

He is in his last year at the high school. This student is a talkative young man. He is not as enthusiastic to learn the language but tries to enforce the discipline in the classroom. He asks the teacher for help but can give up quickly to certain tasks. He does believe if he would have tried harder in school, he would have a better grasp of the language. His personality helps him to be outgoing. He likes to present projects, even if he does not speak the language well.

another student that caught my attention

This student is a bright young lady, but with her the difficulty is creating lesson plans that are challenging for her. He has a vast exposure to the Hispanic culture and she is fluent in the language. She tries hard to contain herself and not be disrespectful to the class, but her attitude gets the best of her. She does bring an incredible knowledge to the class. The other students feed of it.

Advice for a student teacher

Student teaching is a great experience that everyone should enjoy. Student teaching has its difficult parts but nothing that would cause anyone to not enjoy the experience. I would advise a new Student Teacher to follow the rules from the school and the teacher as much as possible. If following the rules, the experience will run smoothly. I would also suggest to be polite to everyone but to carry oneself with confidence.

Biggest challenge

My greatest challenge will be getting the students to believe in my teaching style. As I have been teaching a couple of classes, the students seem to be responding positively. As I get all responsibilities, my lessons plans have to be on point in order to get my point across. Also, the discipline will be a huge challenge. I have to show the students that I am in charge and that I will help them and respect them as long as it is a mutual agreement. I want them to learn and to grow for my teachings and my experiences.

One student in particular

One of the students is male 16 year old football player. This student is enthusiastic in every way. He has an unbelievable personality and is willing to learn. He moves faster than other students because he practices Spanish at home and in other society settings. He gets impatient with the teachers’ teaching style. He feels that everyone should move at his pace. At the same time, he does not push students to go faster, he actually will take time to help other students, especially close friends that are not native speakers. He likes the culture aspect of the language. The student will always try to participate in any cultural discussions.

group work

This week all the students were working on a group project about the levels of human interaction. The students were set in a group of 4 or 5 people. The students had to read a poster on a specific level. When they were finished, the students had to translate certain important information to Spanish. Also, the students using magazine clipping, they had to create their own poster. With this, the students had to present to class and explain what their level of human interaction was. The students in the audience had to take notes and compare each one to their own.
The students’ behavior was chaotic at the beginning. The teacher had the group members’ names set up. The difficulty was to keep them in that group. A technique that she used to keep them in check was to deduct point how a specific person. If that did not work, she deducted points of the whole group. When this occurred the students would calm down and resume their task at hand. This was an effective technique because a specific student did not want to be at fault for the group failure.
The group project is an exceptional way to teach a lesson because the students can hear other peoples opinion and compare it to ones own opinion. If the groups work smoothly, the project will have and educational value and it also shows that the students are mature enough to help each other out.

Negative Experience 2

A second negative experience was when a couple of my students just stop during any kind of school work. Not only in my class but in all others. This was really absurd to me because a student has to like at least one class. But these two students did not participate or maybe did not even show up to school. I tried to find out what was wrong. They students told me that high school was not for them. They did not agree with the way high school was set up for students. They said that they wanted to be more hands on training instead of doing the language art and the science, etc. I uderstood where they were coming from. I asked them if they wanted to go to college and they said yes because it would be more focused on something they enjoyed doing.
I told them that college for the first two years would be structured as high school because of the requirements. I also told them that with just a little effort, the grades and the attitude would flourish more. They looked at me and said they would try but it just stayed as words said and not followed.

Negative Experience

One of the negative experiences I had was when one of my female students got into a fight in the hallway with another female student. I was hard for me to see beause I wanted to help her and try to seperate her from the fight but I was not allowed to because I was not a certified teacher. This was weird for me because my first insticnt was to go seperate the student but my cooperating teacher pllued me back and told me the rule. I guess she was right but I felt bad for my student because she got suspended anyway. Maybe that would had been the consequence anyway but I was the first adult to see but was not allowed to react. The teachers did the right thing in not letting me get involved in such situation. Maybe these helpful acts ca come and haunt me in the future. It is hard in a situation like this to really know what is right and what is wrong.

positive experience 3

Episode 3 was at the end of my student teaching. Finishing up with student teaching was amazing. I had worked hard throughout the semester to do the best job I could have possibly done. When the last day came around, I saw the students with a somber attitude. I asked what was wrong; they told me that they could not believe that the 4 months had been already up. They wanted me to stay until the end of the school year. They wanted me to spend more time with them. I was blown away by these remarks. They saw in me, something that I never thought I gave them, this was a friendship. I was strict and followed everything that my cooperating teacher wanted me to do. The students saw past that. They knew they had someone on their side that wanted the best for each and everyone one of them.

positive experience 2

Episode 2 was when I had a parent-teacher conference. I had to set up an appointment with a student and his parents. The student was improving tremendously since I had been there. Even with my cooperating teacher was teaching the class, the student had change in every aspect. I thought he should have been reward in front of his mother. The mother came to see my cooperating teacher and myself. The mother felt that I had shown something to her son that no one else had shown him. Being a Hispanic male in society is not easy. Through me, the student saw a way out of a stereotype emplaced by society. He was trying hard in every class and he thanked me for just guiding him and fellow peers to change. This episode thought me that perception is reality. If a person perceives you as a well mannered and well kept person that might show that person that you are well put together. I know what I want in life and I have a clear direction in my career, this student saw that and wanted that in his life also.

positive experience

Throughout this experience, positive episodes have occurred on a weekly basis since I have been at Hoboken High. The first positive episode was during the first couple of weeks of me having total control of the classroom. On this day, the principal, Dr. Cella had heard from the students that they were really happy with me being their teacher and how the felt a lot more comfortable participating in class. Later that day, Dr. Cella approached me and asked me a few questions regarding the student experience so far. After our conversation, she congratulated because she had felt I was doing a great job with the students. This episode taught me that giving it all unconditionally to the students will always be appreciated by someone, especially the students.

world language soccer tournament

During the semester, soccer was introduced as the worlds most popular sport. At hoboken high, the foreign languages that are taught are french, spanish, and italian. These 3 subjects combined themselves to create an in school soccer tournament against eachother. The purpose of this tournment was to become more familiar with ones culture and at the same time get to know other cultures.
During the preparation of the tournament, the students had to investigate how soccer was played at every culture participating. The would also look for food and clothing. Students would have to create soccer gear that look similar to the country they were representing. They would have to prepare food also for this huge spectical. The students had to also look up for an up to date roster of the national team that they were representing.
The students learned alot about soccer and how popular it is in the world especially in these cultures. They realized that american based sports are not really that popular around the world.

Movie discussion

My 8th period class loves watching movies that have a social issue to talk about. A few weeks ago, as a class we saw Under the Same Moon. A movie that speaks about a single mother that left to the United States to look for a better future and leaves her 9 year old son behind in Mexico. The boy grows anxious and leaves to look for his mother. This movie shows both sides of the spectrum when it comes to immigration.
The students all understood that at one point that could have been a family member or even them in some cases. This discussion was extremely important because it develops a sensitivity to immigration cases but it also shows of it effects society if an illegal immigrant is taking someone else's spot.
The students participated and very maturely understood that being an illegal immigrant is not good in the eyes of the law, but at the end of the day everyone is a human being and they should always be treated like one.

Students becoming mechanical

During my student teaching I found it interesting that the students at the high i am at do not enjoy creative assignments and projects. Back when I was in high school I hated sitting in a class where it was all lecture all the time. These kids rather be almost preached at everyday than preforming exciting and dynamic assignments. The students will sit and do handouts all day instead of doing computer assignment in group or even work stations. This really limits the student to become only good at doing handouts. This makes the teaching job easier in a sense but monotonous. After a while the job becomes boring and not self gratifying.

I love when students voice their opinon and stand strong by it in a discussion. I love when a student can watch a movie and absorb what is being shown. Now my lesson plans are reduced to handout and busy work.