Clinical field experience B Supporting a Positive Student-Centered Culture
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Grand Canyon University *
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520
Subject
Mathematics
Date
May 24, 2024
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docx
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Uploaded by hudnalldanielle
Reviving the Professional Culture
Danielle Hudnall College of Education, Grand Canyon University EAD-513
Dr. Willimas
April 3, 2024
Reflection of observations: For this assignment I observed Miss. Pettigrew’s 3
rd
grade math class and Mrs. Barbers 4
th
grade ELA class at Dr. W.J. Creel Elementary. Miss. Pettigrew is a first-year elementary school teacher but has held different positions in the school prior. She transitioned from an office secretary to a 3
rd
grade math teacher this school year. In 3
rd
grade this year the classrooms are departmentalized, so she teaches three groups of students with class sizes ranging from 14-21. Upon entering Miss. Pettigrew’s classroom, the first thing you notice is the daily slide that list what the students are expected to do in a step-by-step list each morning. In addition to the daily slide, there is also a daily schedule on the board off to the side that lists the times for all the different blocks of the day. Students are seated in mixed ability groups throughout the lesson. The lesson starts as a whole group math lesson with a hands-on activity. After the lesson and activity students move on to the independent work portion of the lesson, while some students are working at their seats Miss. Pettigrew pulls 4 students to her table to work in a small group through the independent work. During the lesson and independent work students were engaged in the lesson and knew what the expectations were for them throughout the time that they were in
the classroom. The second class that I observed was Mrs. Barbers 4
th
grade ELA class. Mrs. Barber is a veteran teacher and has a great relationship with not only her students, but students in
other grade levels as well. As with 3
rd
grade, 4
th
grade is departmentalized and has 3 different class rotations. For the class that I observed Mrs. Barber started out working with her tiered intervention groups and then the other studnets were working on their computers doing their work on assigned learning apps. Once intervention was completed the studnets moved into the whole group portion of the lesson. During this lesson there was a point where students were told that they needed to have a discussion with their tables, there were a few groups of students who
did not participate in group discussions and they were not discussing the posed question at all, they waited to have other groups answer the questions. While groups were having discussions Mrs. Barber was walking around monitoring some of the group discussions to ensure they were on topic conversations. The only recommendation that I would have is for the ELA classroom to have some sort of written aspect to go with the group discussions to hold all the groups accountable during the discussion time. In having a group writing assignment everyone would have to participate or there would be no grade because they would have nothing to submit. The writing doesn’t need to be long, it could be a quick write on a sticky to answer the discussion question. Description of the strategy and its purpose and implementing the strategy:
I think that my suggestion to both teachers would be to move torwards a more student-
centered approce in the classroom. In shifting torwards student-centered classrooms students are held more accountable for their learning while the teacher is able to monitor the room more and help to clear up misconceptions that might arise in the room throughout lessons. In both classrooms there were pockets of students throughout who were not activly learning, in moving to student-centered lerning there is not a chance for studnets to not be active learners because in a way they are in charge of their learning. According to an article titled Student- Centered Learning the author states “The teacher is considered a “guide on the side”, assisting and guiding
students to meet the goals that have been made by the students and the teacher,” (Overby, K., 2011). This idea stuck out to me because I liked the idea of calling the teacher the “guide to the side” because that is really what the role of the teacher is in student-centered learning. It will be hard at first for tecahers to take that step back and take on more of the facilitator role, but in the end it will be very benificial to all students.
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Anticipated effects of the strategy and how the recommendation aligns with the school’s vision:
At Dr. W.J. Creel Elementary our school vision is “As a school family, Dr. W. J. Creel's mission is to empower each other to S.O.A.R to greatness!” SOAR stands for Saftey, Ownership,
Achievement, and Respect. In moving tom more student centered classrooms, this would really have students showing thoese SOAR expectations each day. Student-centered classrooms really make the students show ownership because they have to take ownership of their learning as they will be the ones that are responsible for their learning day in and day out. I also think that this will help with achievement because, as I stated before, students will not be able to sit passavily and be non active learners. In forcing students to become more active learners, it will in turn increase their achievement because they will be taking in more information than if they were zoned out during a lesson. Finally, there will be respect show because students will have to ework together and if they do not respect each other not a whole lot will get done. In my opinion,
I really do think that shifting to student-centered learning would increase academic success in many settings. Reflections: Looking at the PSEL standards, standard 5 where it states “building and maintaining a safe, caring, and healthy school environment that meets each student’s academic, social, emotional, and physical needs,” (NPBES,2015) really stuck out. This standard ties back to our school vision
in many ways and will for sure be an idea I keep in mind as a future leader. We have to ensure that we are helping teachers reach their full potential in the classeoom but still ensure that their main focus is their students every day. As I move forward in this journey I want to ensure that I
am always helping not only the teachers in the school but also the students to ensure that we have
the best school culture possible. References
National Policy Board for Educational Administration (2015). Professional Standards for Educational Leaders, 2015. Reston, VA: Author http://www.npbea.org/wpcontent/uploads/2017/06/Professional-Standards-for-
Educational-Leaders_2015.pdf
Overby, Kimberly (2011) "Student-Centered Learning," ESSAI: Vol. 9, Article 32. https://dc.cod.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1375&context=essai