Evaluating Teaching Skills Analysis

Question 3: Evaluate your teaching skills in each of all SEVEN of these areas.
1. Planning- In terms of planning, I would say that my skills were great. I am a very organized person; therefore, I was not struggling for anything that I needed. I had all of my materials prepped and ready to go the night before my lesson. I had extras of everything used in the lesson in case of emergencies (like the previously mentioned paint spill). I thought my lesson plan was comprehensive and straight forward. One thing that I was particularly proud of was that I had a lot of extra materials. This was especially convenient because many of the children wanted to do my activity over and over, so it was helpful that I did. Overall, I think planning would be one
of my higher rated skills because of my organization, preparedness, and time spent preparing.
2. Set-Up- Along with planning, activity set up was another strong suit of mine. I was given a very short period of 10 minutes to set up my activity between snack and center time. I had a lot to set up at my center including paint, brushes, signs, trays, smocks, chairs, , and figuring out where to store my extra copies of everything. In the end, my activity set up looked neat, engaging, and well put together. The only issue was that the art drying rack, where all the finished products are stored, was located in the hallway. This created an issue, but I had no control over it and had to adapt to the situation. Furthermore, my cooperating teacher was impressed that I used colors and their names in order to create a print-rich environment. The set up of my activity is pictured below.

3.
Communication with cooperating teacher/communication with students throughout the lesson- Both of my cooperating teachers were extremely helpful throughout the whole process. Ahead of time, we discussed potential activities and subject matter. When I explained my activity to them, they gave me suggestions because they had previously done an activity similar to my years before and had many recommendations. They preferred a hard copy of my lesson, so I brought copies in for them to read on the Friday before my lesson was taught. We spent nap time that day going through it and talking over what would happen. After my lesson, my cooperating teacher gave me very positive and useful feedback and even hung the final products on the display board. Communication with the students was a bit more challenging because they are three years old and their minds move faster than their mouths/bodies. I would ask questions regarding the shapes they were finding and the children responded accordingly; however, questions had to be asked several times in order to get a response. Furthermore, the children were very attentive and understanding of all my directions. Overall, I would rate my communication skills as high, but with room for
improvement.
4. Management- Management was by far the area in which I struggled the most. Personally, I have a lot of experience with this age group and was expecting it to be rather easy; however, I did not account for these specific learners and their needs. Although I have experience with children this age, I am still relatively new to this setting and have yet to know all the rules. I find it very challenging to go into a new classroom and understand the children, the expectations, and how to handle problem behaviors. I think that I did a good job at managing the children with the knowledge I had, but there is always room to improve. Also, there were a lot of children that I just met for the first time that day, so I did not know their names too well. I would not say that I have low management skills, but I would make this top priority on my list for improvement. In order to improve, I plan to have a discussion with my cooperating teachers about ways to best manage my center appropriately and effectively.
5. Transitions- Since the children are allowed to come and go to each center as they please, there is no set transition period. Therefore, I found transitions to be somewhat challenging. It was very difficult to clean up from the previous child and set up for the next one in a sufficient amount of time. I think this would have been better if there was a set time for transitions. This would provide some structure for my lesson and management skills, but the freedom the children had taught me how to be flexible and creatively think on the spot. When it is child-choice center time, it is very challenging to do a proper introduction, procedure, and closure with each student. This showed me how to adapt to the ever-changing center time climate. Furthermore, having all of my extra materials close by was very helpful at maintaining control and the engagement of all the student throughout the activity. Overall, transitions were not ideal, but they were not terrible. The quick transitions helped me to adapt my lesson, think on my feet, and make appropriate changes as needed.
6. Gaining and maintaining interest level- The students found my activity to be interesting and I thought they were very engaged with my lesson. I think I did a good job at piquing their interests when I introduced my activity as “hidden, magic shapes”. By making it their job to find the shapes for me, they stayed interested because children love to help out their teachers and uncover secrets. It is quite hard to say if it was me (a new adult) or my activity that kept the children engaged, but they were very interested in my lesson. A few children even wanted to do it multiple times! I asked each child questions and responded in shock when they found a letter. I think that my positive attitude, constant attention, and attractive activity made it very interesting for the children. Overall, I would rate my skills at gaining and maintaining interest level at high, but with room for improvement.
7. Flexibility- Typically, I find flexibility to be one of my weaker areas because I like to stick with the set plan. However, I surprised myself with how flexible I was during my activity. A few things did not go as planned (my assessment and the paint spilling all over). I found myself coming up with creative solutions on the spot to fix the situation. Instead of using my assessment checklist, I used a combination of teacher observation, conversations with each child about his or her work, and writing phrases about what each child found/saw/did on their paper. While this was not in my original plan, my cooperating teacher ended up liking this idea better. In general, I would say my flexibility skills in this activity were very high which, as I discovered, is essential when working with 3-4 year-olds. Overall, this activity was a great experience and really helped me to figure out where to make personal improvements.
Question 4: Name two ways you could adjust your lesson for children who are slightly