Science Post 6: Fifth time in the classroom

Today was my last day at Brigham! Me and three other girls presented our Engineering Science lessons for the little preschoolers, a group of 10 students altogether. My thoughts before going in were all jumbled because we had little time to take our coats off and situate ourselves before we began the lesson. I was so grateful for my co-teachers for being ready to rock and roll when we got into the classroom. That really alleviated any stress that I had. As I have reflected from the preschool classroom before, I did not feel that I was able to really use my second language, Spanish, to aid in instruction because the students in the classroom were either English speaking or non-Spanish and non-English speakers. Knowing this beforehand, I was a little more prepared to use more hand gestures, inflection in my voice, and a combination of synonyms. I knew that these would be great ways to meet the students where they were at as well as further their learning throughout the lesson.

One of my goals this semester has been to help the students feel comfortable around me despite the language barrier when I am in the classroom, whether that is while I am teaching the lesson or simply assisting along the side. I really feel that I achieved this goal yet again by having prepared ways to help the students to be engaged as well as appropriately challenged during the small group times. I found that more of the students would participate when I gave them two options to pick from, essentially closed-ended questions, more so than when I asked open-ended questions. I noticed this right away and therefore quickly jumped to purposefully asking closed-ended questions. I am really happy that I caught this when I did because it totally matches up for preschool aged children! I feel that the focus of this lesson was difficult enough to begin with for 3-4 year olds as it covers the challenges of reasoning speeds and weights. I also feel that this instance shows great teaching because it shows that I was able to quickly adapt my teaching for the students so that they would be more successful.

My second goal for my time at Brigham was to simply be gentle with the students so that again they would feel comfortable around me. I would have to again say that I successfully achieved this from my time in the classroom today. I took a peek at the students’ names on the bulletin board outside the classroom before going in today and also remembered some of the students’ names. I used this to my advantage today. I made sure to call all of the students by their name when asking them questions and giving them directions. I think the students were surprised that I knew their names and that definitely had a small part I think in their extended interest in the lesson. I initially thought that this lesson did not go so well because I felt so frazzled, but upon reflecting and remembering what the students said and did throughout the lesson, I would have to say that this lesson was very successful. The students learned something new and I learned how I can be an even greater educator the next time!

That’s all folks, it’s been a slice!

-Alaina Murphy

EXCEEDS: Planning-included visuals in Lesson Plan. Teaching-gave lesson plan to Brigham teacher. Reflection-exceeded character count of 500