My First Classroom

Create a Classroom

Above is the image I made of what I believe my future classroom will look like. The student 'desks' are lab tables that students will use for their labs where they will be working in pairs with a lab partner. There is both a projector screen and a whiteboard so that I can go back and forth between using powerpoints and drawing/ writing notes on the board. I have a closet and bookshelves to help store all of the lab equipment I am going to need, as well as books and magazines that students can browse in their free time. I also have my own lab table to be able to give demonstrations to the students for what they are supposed to be doing in the lab. Overall this is a very practical set up for a lab classroom. However, I don't necessarily want students to be sitting at their tables the whole class, I just didn't know how to incorporate something like that into this kind of design. The more active students are, the more they are engaged, the more they learn.

Peer Review

I believe that teacher peer-review is a multi-faceted system. There are positives and negatives. One of the advantages is that you are being reviewed by someone who has been in your shoes before, so they understand all of the struggles you are having with the new job. A disadvantage would be that they may not be completely qualified to review/judge your progress and efforts properly and administration might not fully accept everything they say for their review. This may cause it to be less effective because of the administration's trust in their word, and also if they aren't really trained on how to do it they won't necessarily notice everything they need to. I think I would love to have my first evaluation done this way so that my peer teacher would be more willing to help me fix the mistakes I made, and help prepare me for the real review done by the administration.

What makes a good teacher?

Recently I took a poll about what qualities a good teacher needs to have, and honestly every single item on the list I believe are incredibly important for a teacher to have. However, while the majority of people agreed with my answers, some people answered in ways I thought were very confusing. One of the items was "knowledge of the subject matter" which I thought for sure everyone would agree is incredibly important for a good teacher to have, and yet 1% of the people who voted said it was 'barely important'. Even though it is such a small percentage I would still like to understand what was going on in the minds of the people who put that knowing the subject they teach is not very important for a teacher. I believe that creativity, innovation, variety, organization, reflection, introspection, motivating, enjoying young people, and all of the other qualities all join together to make an amazing teacher.

Educational Websites

Early Childhood:
ABC Expedition
Looking at this site I don't believe it would be appropriate for my high school class, as it is mostly to teach children the different letters, and will not challenge them at all.

Elementary:
PlayTime Theater
This app could be more useful if students were doing a project where they can create their own video, but still would not necessarily challenge them to think and discuss without being prompted. There is also no author or email contact provided, and the institution supporting this app is unclear.

Middle School:
NASA
This site provides a large wealth of information that can be used in any kind of classroom, no matter the age or level. This website is helpful for students to learn on their own, and for sources as a teacher.

High School:
Marine Life Encyclopedia
This site would be perfect to introduce to a class of high school biology students. They would be able to use the information for projects, studying, and the teachers can use the articles as sources.

Digital Media:
ESchool News
This website is a good resource for educators to learn about new advancements in technology, but I don't necessarily see how it could be incorporated appropriately into a classroom. Still a very useful website.

Teaching with Google Classroom

50 Things you can do with the Google Classroom
This video is a wonderful way to educate teachers on how to use this wonderfully helpful and useful app. Alice Keeler shows teachers that using google classroom is not only easy but also has so many different ways that it can be incorporated into the classroom. She talks about how it is easy to incorporate other things into the website, and that it is not a replacement site, it is simply a place for students to be able to go and better understand what is going on in their classes. I think this is such a helpful video, and her blog posts and book is something that really helps teachers become better educated in using these new teaching tools.

A Letter to Me

Recently I wrote a letter to my future self using the website FutureMe about what I have learned throughout my education about teaching, and what it means to me. The letter I wrote is below:

Dear Future Daley,

By now you are probably off teaching somewhere and have forgotten that you sent this. I have learned so much at the Mount, and I am sure you have learned even more since I wrote this. So far what I have learned has been about how to be a good teacher, and how sometimes things that your teachers of the past used worked against contributing to your learning. One of the most important things I have learned is that teaching needs to be creative and imaginative. It's time to be done with boring textbooks and lectures. Students need to be excited and engaged in order to learn! Throwing information at them will not get them to learn. They need to be able to digest what they're learning, and it is your job to help them develop the critical thinking skills they need to be able to do that. This is where your strength lies. You have always been good at thinking of creative and even metaphorical ways of presenting information, and I am sure you will come up with many crazy ideas for your classes. You are also incredibly passionate about what you do, and I hope you never lose that, because that is what will drive you to be the best teacher you can be. Your weaknesses lie in getting overly involved in things that don't matter to you, so just be careful where this road leads you as a teacher. My advice is to continue loving what you do, even if that means you need to change what you are doing, and to always try your hardest for every single child in your class no matter what, because they need you and look up to you. You will make an amazing teacher.

From Daley (6/11/19)


I think this is a very beneficial experience because it allows us in the future to look back and not only see how far we have come, but also reminds us of where we were and what our expectations were. This can help our future selves remember where we wanted to be, and reflect on either how we got there, or whether we strayed from our path at all. I am excited to see what I think and where I am when I receive this letter.

The New World of Educational Technology

Today, there are so many different parts of diversity that make up a classroom. It is no longer just ethnic or religious diversity, but also learning disabilities, physical disabilities, emotional and behavioral problems, students with a lack of interest in school or in the subject, and also students who have English as their second language (ESL). Fortunately for us teachers, technological advancements can help us figure out the best way to teach these students. Brain research helps provide teachers with the how, why, and what of student's learning. This helps teachers understand what is happening in students brains and the best way to present information to get them to truly understand it. One of the recent approaches to this is the Universal Design for Learning or UDL. UDL uses technology to include all students in learning regardless of ability or background, and allows teachers to rethink critical elements in education, like goals, material, methods, assessments.