This is my first ever teaching event in secondary school. I'm studying to be a middle school English teacher and these are my reflections on my first day. Luck for me it was in a really great school with one hell of a supportive mentor. I hope teachers everywhere can learn from my mistakes.

1. My Reflection On My
Teaching Event
Falustein T. Shoman
Edu: 513-A
University of Southern California
Professor Mary Anne Hillier
May 25, 2013

2. It Started In Failure
Mr.Brandon Murphy is an awesome teacher and I am beyond lucky to have him as my mentor.
When he suggested that I try my lesson plan out in the boys' classroom before I perform my
learning event on the girls' side, he really hit the nail on the head because everything that could
go wrong did...

3. IT'S NOT WORKING
For my motivational exercise, I had my 7th grade students (or rather Brandon's students)
discuss what they knew about discrimination and the Aztec Empire as a group before they
posted their knowledge online using voicethread. What I didn't expect was that I would have
technical difficulties which would take up 25 minutes of class time. Brandon asked me if I
had any worries about my lesson plan before we got started and I told him I was worried
about tech issues, So he helped me print out worksheets which I passed out to the students
who couldn't get connected. Now if you think that solved matters THINK AGAIN!!

4. PROBLEMS, PROBLEMS, PROBLEMS
AND MORE PROBLEMS
OMG, where to begin?! While I was teaching I knew my voice
wasn‟t as loud as it should‟ve been because I was camera shy. As
proof in the recording I sounded somewhat like Minnie Mouse. In
addition, although my instructions were clear, I forgot to scaffold
the use of the voicethread. Is there more? Of course there‟s more!
Technology was working against me. The students wanted to use
voicethread and I wanted them to use voicethread. So, we spent a
lot of class time trying until finally technology won out and I had
no choice but to ask the students to use the worksheets.
Unfortunately, not all the students were listening to me and that
resulted in another delay till they gave up trying as well.
Grade 7
K-L-W-R-H
Name______________________
Criteria Discrimination Aztecs
What do you know
about the following?
What did you learn
about the following?
What would you like to
know about the
following?
What did you find out
about the following?
How did you find your
answer?

5. BRANDON TO THE RESCUE
Of course if you think things were going great despite there being flashplayer
problems, you couldn't be more wrong. Upon reviewing my video, I realized to my
horror that I was not as present as I should've been, and when I say 'present' I'm
referring to Carol Rodger's version of present. I was in class but I was so focused on
trying to be nonchalant in front of the camera that I tried to avoid the camera‟s
direction and did not see the hands that went up on the table in front of the camera.
Poor Brandon valiantly came to his students aid after he realized that I was more
focused on the camera and the students at the other end of the room (who were
further away from he camera). He told them what to do and helped me in every way
that he could while I was distracted.

6. EUREKA!
Because It Was Brandonified
The next step after the motivational stage was the introduction and I imitated Brandon‟s
instruction (since I knew it was tried and true and I knew it was what the students were used to).
After all, there are no rules against imitating other highly qualified teaching professionals.
According to Harry and Amy Wong, a teacher‟s job requires her to beg, borrow and steal from
other educators. Needless to say, I was able to introduce the lesson plan the same way Brandon
does using the smartboard. I put up the agenda, objectives, success criteria and homework in the
same fashion the students were used to and I got them to take out their world history books as
was the norm. The students took turns reading and after each segment they took down notes that
I had prepared in advance using smartnotes. While they wrote I repeated what was written in
different ways and asked them if this sounded like something. They mentioned discrimination
against women and class discrimination. They also noticed racial discrimination which eluded me.
(They noticed that the Spaniards seen the Aztecs as slaves. They‟re a smart bunch.)

7. Note Taking
No problem. Except there
was one slight hitch. The
boys followed through with
their note taking and they
did a great job. But, I
messed up by using light
green in my powerpoint; the
result was the kids couldn‟t
see what was written in
green and had to crouch
near the board. On the
positive side, at least the
students were able to
answer the comprehension
questions I asked.

8. Class Discussion
The boys stole the show at this point. They were very
opinionated and only too willing to share their beliefs. They also
defined the images they saw on the board. The first image dealt
with the discriminatory ideology that Muslims are terrorists (I
deliberately selected this image because I knew it would be
something they can relate to). This got the ball rolling. The next
image was that of an Asian wearing glasses. Basil said, “It‟s
discrimination against people who wear glasses. People tend to
make fun of them. They think that they can‟t see because they
wear glasses.” The image depicting the “MY HAIR IS REAL”
was associated with “People who have real hair but it‟s like
everybody keeps saying that it‟s fake because it looks different.”
And Ali knew all about discrimination against African Americans
as well as discrimination against Caucasians. As for the picture
depicting a Mexican carrying the sign saying, “I Will NOT CUT
YOUR GRASS,” one student said the boy was Mexican but couldn‟t explain how he came to that conclusion. So
I taught them a bit about illegal immigration and the perspectives of Americans towards Mexicans who tend to
be perceived as menial laborers. My favorite discussion, however, was on gender discrimination. I knew that this
would be a big hit because I knew the Emirate culture would come to play as some boys explained their beliefs.

9. A Popplet CatastropheFrom the title you may have guessed what
happened here. Yup, another catastrophe of
epic proportion. I gave the students thirty
minutes for opening online accounts and
DEAR (because I was freaking out at that
thought of being judged on camera), forty
minutes for reading and note taking, and
thirty-five minutes for their class discussion.
In the end, I only had five minutes to show
my students how to use the popplet before
they went out for lunch. It ended up being
collaborative homework as opposed to class
work, and was scaffolded in a rush.

10. All‟s Well That Ends Well
Things ended up well in the girls‟ class where my REAL learning event was
supposed to take place despite things starting off badly on the boys‟ side. However,
my camera gave out and I didn‟t think of using my laptop which I had because I
prepared everything on it. But C'est la vie. At least I made it up to Brandon by fixing
my mishaps. It was like hitting a reset button. I just wish I could‟ve done that for the
boys. I was more „present‟ and more invested in the class.

11. My New And Improved Motivation
This time around I was free. I went into that classroom, prepared my stuff in advance as I did at the boy‟s side.
The instant they came in they opened their accounts and those that finished early opened their books to read but
unlike last time I didn‟t need time to breathe. So I got started as soon as everyone finished their accounts. I did the
same thing I did at the boy‟s side but made sure I was facing everyone. This time around I used my loud teacher voice
and really let my hair down. Unfortunately, if memory serves me correctly, I continually retreated behind the desk to
look at my lesson plan and change the slides of my smartboard as well as to scaffold my popplet and voicethread.
Nevertheless, I didn‟t waste time like in the last class. After the girls repeated my instructions, I asked the girls if they
had their laptops. Those who forgot to bring their laptops took worksheets along with those who brought ipads and
this saved a lot of time. I scaffolded how to create a voicethread properly by modelling it. However, I forgot to
remedy the link problem but a girl in class suggested I copy/paste it on another page of the smartboard which
worked out well. They are a clever group. The girls were done with their group discussions, threading and first part
of the worksheet within ten minutes. And this time when someone asked me to explain what discrimination meant I
didn‟t answer them but asked them to ask the members in their group. There was one table where no one was
familiar with the term so they used their technology to access information from the internet; just a taste of Bruner‟s
discovery theory to blend with Piaget‟s, Bandura‟s and Vygotsky‟s constructivist approach. After all, constructivism is
the glue that holds all the theories together.

12. Sharing Our Answers With The Class
After everyone filled in their „K‟ from the K-L-W-R-H, I had students share
their answers with the class. I didn‟t do this on the boy‟s side and I wanted to do
it because different tables could‟ve come up with different answers and I wanted
everyone to have a clearer idea of the concepts before moving forward, and I
was right because different tables did realize different things. The whole exercise
didn‟t take up five minutes and was beneficial for everyone.

13. Brandon‟s Strategy On Note Taking
Now before we reached this stage I had a girl ask me why I was bringing up two seemingly unrelated topics into my objectives and I
told her that we‟ll find out when we get to the reading. This technique worked the same way it did on the boy‟s side and like the boys the
girls mentioned racial discrimination without being asked but this time I had Brandon darken the light green part for me because I didn‟t
know how to do it although I tried. In addition, I added some factual questions related to the text to check their comprehension. Not to
mention, I almost lost my students when Brandon left me alone with them. Brandon thought he‟d help me and see if he can get me a
camcorder so he left me with the girls and they started playing up. Now I know it‟s not my class but I also know that I couldn‟t let it go or
Brandon might get in trouble if Mr. Morley, the assistant principal, who made his almost hourly rounds. So I told them that I was still
there and oddly that quieted them down rather quickly, even though I honestly couldn‟t do anything to them if they did get out of line.
Unluckily, two girls started up again so I went over to their table and gave them “the look.” I noticed that one of them was behind in her
notes so I left the notes on the smartboard to give her a chance to catch up. Again, the girl who was behind in her notes started talking
and laughing instead of writing. Recalling what we took on classroom culture and home culture, I decided to test her to see if she was
aware of the inappropriateness of her behavior. So I told her, “Your being disrespectful right now.” After she asked, “How?” I explained
to her that after seeing her behind in her notes, which should have been completed a while ago, I was waiting for her to finish so I can
switch to the next slide, and was making everyone wait with me. This got her to quiet down and finish her notes, and to get rid of the
awkwardness of the situation I had a student continue reading the text till she finished. I don‟t know if I handled this correctly and I
would definitely appreciate some feedback because I don‟t want to get the girl in trouble with Brandon for not listening and I would like
to know if I should have handled this differently. At the time, it felt like the right thing to do to keep order.

14. Class Discussion
The class discussion here went even better than at the boy‟s side. Before I got the boys to
talk about the images and their opinions on the different types of discrimination but at the girl‟s
side I took it farther. I tried to get their points of view across different perspectives. I asked
them to put themselves in place of a person who was hiring and asked them what would they do
if someone with a hearing disability came in. “Would you hire them?” One girl said, “No because
it wouldn‟t be good for the flow business,” and a lot of people agreed with her so I asked them
what if they were the ones who were hard of hearing, and they said they wouldn‟t apply. So I
asked if anyone would hire someone who as disabled and I had the same girl reply, “No, it‟s not
good for business.” Then, I asked her, “So what would you say, “I‟m sorry but you can‟t hear me
so I‟m not going to hire you?” She replied, “It sounds mean when you say it that way.” And I
asked her, “But isn‟t it mean?” For a couple of seconds there was silence until another girl said,
“I would hire someone who‟s disabled because it‟s not fair. It‟s not their fault.” (which was
interesting because she‟d sided with the girl earlier.) To add, they were just as surprisingly open
and honest as the boys were and they didn‟t make any attempts to hide their own discriminations.

15. The Grand Finale
Since I was aware in advance that not everything would work out the way it was supposed to
with the popplet, I immediately separated those with laptops from those without and turned them
into groups. I asked those students with laptops to start up their popplets while I instructed
everybody else on how to start their collaboration with each other by discussing discrimination and
choosing a different type of discrimination from their peers. They were then asked to create their
own graphic organizers on paper until they could get home and collaborate on their online
popplets. After that, I joined the table of students with laptops and got them connected so they
could start working and deciding which discrimination they wanted to work on. I modelled the use
of popplets on the board and the students got started on their popplets. However, as I was busy
with the laptop students, some of the girls would have side conversations on other things.
Fortunately, I had Brandon with me to keep them on task, and to help answer any questions. By the
end of class, almost everyone finished the project. Not a bad end to a terrible start.

16. Was There Anything Else I Would Change?
Of course! Nothing can ever be perfect when one is
just out of the gate. I realized afterwards that I asked the
students to complete their popplets and their
voicethreads but I didn‟t put the links in the homework
section and I didn‟t get the students links for their
popplets. I guess even when you try to improve your
teaching mistakes will still be made. Whoever said the
road to success was paved with gold lied. It‟s made up of
mistakes and lots of them.

17. References
Ormrod, J.E. (2011). Educational psychology: Developing learners. (7th ed.).
Boston, MA: Pearson.
Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (expanded 2nd ed.).
Alexandria, VA: Merrill Education/ASCD.
Wong, H.K. and Wong, R. (2009). The first days of school: How to be an
effective teacher (4th ed.). Mountain View, CA: Harry K. Wong Publications.