The Reflection Process

To say our unit plan did not go smoothly is an understatement. It was one of the biggest learning experiences of my graduate career so far. I thought the quote above perfectly summed up how I felt that day leaving Bishop Dunn Memorial School. I left with a bitter taste in my mouth about education. It took me a few days to understand the bitterness is a part of the entire experience. 

Carielle and I decided to focus on Henry Hudson as the main topic for our unit plan. Our direct instruction lesson was primarily made up of vocabulary words and looking back now I would have changed that. I would have focused more on the content of Henry Hudson instead of the important words the students would encounter. Due to the imperfections, I feel as though our lessons were not as profound as they could have been. We had this great plan in our heads how everything would occur, but as is life, it did not go as planned. Even though I feel our instruction could have included more content, the students were engaged. We used an interactive website from National Geographic regarding Henry Hudson to engage our students in the lesson. I feel this gave the students a visual representation of Henry Hudson's voyage into this region. 

I really enjoyed working with Carielle as a co-teacher. I feel we worked well together. We were able to get over the humps of the day together and work through the kinks. I feel we also balanced each other out when it came to instruction. Carielle would speak about a certain portion of the lesson and then pass it off to me. When it came to designing the lessons, we also worked extremely well together. We bounced ideas off one another and collaborated for the entire process. 

All in all, I feel we have much we could improve on. Yes, I did leave Bishop Dunn that night crying and feeling negative about my future as a teacher, but once I took time to reflect authentically, outside the moment, I realized I learned something. I learned that I need to take criticism better. I also learned I need to focus on content, even when I do not particularly care for the topic. Ultimately I will be teaching every content area so I need to be able to create lessons that are meaningful and intriguing for my students even when I am not confident in the subject area.