Reflecting back upon my performance as a teacher, I found specific teaching strategies linked to bad, good, and great student learning results. Although there were few, several of the teaching strategies from which student learning results suffered appear to be; unidentified pre-skills in order to chart where each student is at, not allowing students to ask questions or respond during a lecture, and seldom eliciting student responses to check for mastery. Moving on to generally good student learning results, I found that timely feedback is a big component responsible for student learning. Regular learning-related feedback during instruction, such as encouragement, and praise when an answer is correct, and kind refocus when an answer is wrong, works wonders for keeping students on the track to mastery. For great student learning results, I found the main culprit, the most effective teaching strategy,  is clear, concise, organized, orderly instruction. When the teacher highlights strong main points clearly retention of the information is much higher. Also, if the lesson is organized and behavior is orderly students like to learn and want to master the information being taught. After evaluating the many aspects of successful learning comprehension I would say that my performance as a teacher was good, but could be improved. I feel as though inexperience has much to do with my struggles during my student teaching unit. I also feel that I used my host teacher as a crutch unconsciously which averted my independent direct action to student questions and improvisation during instruction. I think future actions for improved teaching might be researching more on lesson topics to give a broader view, developing a system for curriculum based on my preference, and continued communication with fellow teachers for advice and assistance. As far as my future actions for improved professional growth I plan on attending as many in-service programs as possible, studying to master several other certifications, and possibly going back to school for a Master’s in Education.

The learning goal for which my students were most successful was learning goal one; students will be able to articulate observations of the physical properties of matter. One plausible reason for this success could be proper instruction. For physical properties I was able to have a bunch more hands-on demos for students to apply to their reality. Another plausible reason for the success of learning goal one might be proper analyzing pre- and post-assessment for student learning.

The learning goal for which my students were least successful was learning goal two; students will be able to differentiate between physical and chemical properties. One plausible reason for this unsuccessful learning attempt might be the actual goal itself. When differentiating between two properties of matter, the matter in which is used should remain constant. However, in order to both with the same matter would take too much time. Another reason why learning goal two was unsuccessful might be due to my instruction. After going back and looking through my lecture PowerPoint I noticed that the one I have for Chemical Properties is a bit unorganized and confusing.  If instruction goes in the wrong direction true assessment isn’t possible.

In the future, I will do many things differently to enhance learning. For example, one improvement I will make to enhance student performance is to thoroughly research tried and true lessons and teaching strategies to further engage my students. Another improvement will be to actually teach students how to learn the material best before we begin. Another improvement will be to introduce each student to their learning assessment in a visual graph to give students better understanding and want to succeed. Also, in order to enhance student learning, I would provide more time and energy to my students then what I was allowed during student teaching. I think a more grounded foundation could benefit and enhance student learning.