Meredith Bunderson

Lead Teacher Reflection #1

Please think about and answer the following questions about your lead teaching
experiences. The answers should be thoughtful and reflect the ability to evaluate
your instruction. Instructions to clarify some questions are written in italics.

1. What went well today? Provide 3 specific examples of childrens

actions/comments that occurred during self-selected activities. What
evidence do you have for your conclusion? DO NOT use the words, loved,
liked, enjoyed; rather describe the evidence of childrens reactions to the
learning experience.

The first activity we did for the field trip was running, skipping and jumping
around the track. Since we had only 3 children at the time, I let each child
choose what activity we should do around the track. Zayleigh was one that I
think was the most interested in doing this, as she was the most outspoken in
choosing what activities to do, and was telling us how she likes to exercise and
do sit-ups. Peter and Naomi would shrug their shoulders when asked what they
wanted to do. When it was time to run around a portion of the track, I would
ask do you want to run Naomi? she would shout yes! and take off, and we
would have to run after her. Running was the one activity that she would
participate in, as she wasnt as interested in hopping or skipping. I tried to ask
the question are you having fun? every so often to let them make the
connection that exercise is fun, and each of them answered yes during this
activity.

The parachute was probably the biggest hit out of all the activities we did. All of
the teachers and children gathered around the parachute, and we placed a ball
in the middle. We would start out by having the parachute on the ground, then
quickly lifting it. This would make the ball shoot up high into the air. Zayleigh
watched the balls with excitement while exclaiming wow! Naomi and Aksel
both started gathering all the balls around the court to put into the middle to
try more than one, and after each time, they would shout lets do it again!

As the children were tiring from doing the obstacle course, I pulled out some
mats from the side of the court, and we reviewed yoga that was taught in
Katies lesson the week before. I did not know a lot of the poses, and would ask
the children what pose we should do. Aksel and Averie both knew several of the
poses and would demonstrate them to us, and Aksel would say the name of each
pose. You could tell that both of them were very into the yoga, as they kept it
going by creating several of their own yoga poses, and demonstrating them to
everyone, and we would all practice.

2. How did your activities help the children meet the learning/development
goals that you set for them. Please address the specific actions of 2 children
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that you wrote goals for on the front page of your lesson plan. Did your
planning help them learn the things that you had targeted for them?
Five out of the six children that I wrote goals for, were children that did not
come that day. If they had come, I think that the obstacle course, running and all
types of physical activity would have helped Kaybri and Ethan in their gross
motor skills. Zayleighs goal was not one that was achieved or worked toward in
this field trip. Her goal was overlooked as I was touching up my final lesson plan
and would be something I would pay closer attention to in the future.

3. Evaluate gathering time. What were some positive aspects of gathering time?
What were the participation needs of the children and how were they met?
What would you change for next time?

Overall I think that the field trip was really fun and a nice change for the
children. I think that it would have been more fun and involved if there had been
more than just the five children there, but I think these children had a lot of fun. The
one on one, allowed us to spend more time with these children, especially where
they are ones that dont often seek attention. Since there werent as many children,
the interest level of the track, and obstacle course dwindled a lot faster than I had
anticipated, and I had to come up with some ideas and activities we could do on the
spot. Even though I had to do this, I thought that thing still went very smoothly, with
little lag time, while trying to figure things out. The children remained interested
and had fun the entire scheduled time, as activities were changed up. Had I not
added more activities or changed the direction of doing the obstacle course etcetera,
the children would have been really uninterested and not have had such a good day.

4. Evaluate small focus groups. What were some positive aspects of small focus
groups? What were the participation needs of the children and how were
they met? What would you change for next time?

I thought that small focus went pretty well. I think that the book really
demonstrated the ideas to be emphasized, that there are many ways we can
exercise and that it can be fun, and the children seemed interested, as they added
some of their own ways they like to exercise throughout reading it. I also think
the exercise dice was fun for them, because it was interactive, and allowed them
to get up and move, but it was short lived. Although we do coloring activities a lot,
I thought that the children did rather well in using their imagination to draw and
create different types of exercise and stuck pretty well to the subject of exercise.
Averie drew a picture of she and her mom doing yoga together, so it was fun to
see them incorporate what we had learned into their art.

5. How did you set clear expectations for childrens learning/ behaviors throughout
the day? Please tie this to the conversations you had in pre- and post- lab about
ways that you thought and shared with the other teachers about how to support the
children. This should also include information about set-up.
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The obstacle course was our main focus for set up as that is where the children were
going to spend the entire day. We discussed adding a few materials, so that there
was more to do, and I am really glad that we decided to do that. During pre-lab,
we talked about how we anticipated the children would run ahead around the
track by themselves, and all teachers were instructed that they would need to run
along with the children, and that children should not be running around the track
by themselves. We also talked about which children would be assigned to which
teachers as we walked over to the I-center, and reminded everyone that
childrens hands need to be held at all times.

6. What changes, or deviations, from the written plan did you make? Were they
helpful? Why or why not?
The trampoline is one activity I had planned to use in the obstacle course, and I
found out that it is no longer useable. In addition to that, I added several other
materials to the obstacle course. I added a balance beam, and a second tunnel. I
also deviated from the time schedule a little bit. We left a few minutes later, in
hopes that some of the other children would show up. I also ended the track
activity a little bit earlier than I had planned because the children were getting
tired faster, and stated that they were ready to go down to the obstacle course. I
also had to add some additional activities throughout the day, such as aerobics
and yoga, and laying out the mats to let them roll around and do somersaults. All
of these changes were necessary and overall helpful, as I was flexible and
followed the interest levels and needs of the children and tried to do what they
wanted to do, and overall it helped them to enjoy it and have a really fun day. As
we were setting up the dramatic play area, I originally had planned to have the
slide, but we were unable to find the base to it. Since the children were only going
to be in the room for 10 minutes, we decided to just have the mat blocks set out,
so the dramatic play area didnt really have any depth to it. The children werent
in there for very long, and activities were cleaned up when I returned to the
classroom, so it is hard to tell if this helped our hindered things. If I werent doing
a field trip, I would definitely have needed to add more materials and create roles
for them to play.

7. If you were to teach this plan again what would you do differently? A reflective
practitioner is able to identify those things that would make a lesson more effective
more engaging more appropriate for children as well as those things that went
well! Provide specific examples!

I would have more activities for the children to do at the I-center. I hadnt
anticipated so little children, and there wasnt as much interaction between the
children as I was expecting, and the children were getting bored of the activities
that were available. I had to improvise and add different activities, such as yoga
and aerobics. If I were to do it again, I would come up with more activities for the
children to do, and have a definitive plan of those additional activities that I could
use as a backup plan. Although things went smoothly, I wish I would have
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activities to do in mind, to avoid the stress of coming up with an activity, right

when I needed one.

8. What did you learn about yourself as a preschool teacher? What are some
specific goals you would like to work on for your next lead teaching day?
I have come to really enjoy preschool. I have learned that the children really look at
you to find out what type of expression and attitude that you have. I have learned
that I naturally tend to be positive and happy around the children most of the
time, and as I was really excited about this field trip and had fun expressions, it
helped the children do the same.