Ajla Kamenica
EPSY 5704 (002)
December 20th, 2020
Final Reflection Paper
I had gotten paired with a math teacher at a transition program in the Minneapolis
Public Schools district. Two of the math classes I was in consisted of around one to five
students, the teacher and a paraprofessional to help in the virtual environment. There was one
more class I joined which was Advisory, this class had more of an attendance of students
around ten would show up to the Google Hangout. This Advisory class consisted of the
students, three paraprofessionals and the teacher. The students in these classes ages ranged
from eighteen to twenty-one. This meaning these students were out of high school learning to
get past challenges in the ableist world. There was a wide range of disabilities, but the ones that
were consistent in many of the classes was Emotional and Behavioral Disorder. There were also
a larger population of students with learning disabilities. As mentioned before these classes
occurred on Google Hangout that followed the regular school schedule they had. They had a
total of five periods throughout the day plus Advisory. There was even a half hour break
between Google Hangouts to allow students and teachers to have lunch.
Previously mentioned, I had my placement with a math teacher in the transition
program. This math class consisted of math that is used as an adult after high school. It was
lessons on counting money, solving math problems, telling and adding time, etc. This allowed
the students to understand how to use math beyond high school and learning how to do it on
their own with little to no help. In my placement at Transition Plus, I was also able to attend an
advisory class. This class just allowed students broad example of life in the “real world” and well
as preparing them for it. One project we worked on was having the students create their own
Individualized Education Plan (IEP). This was specifically done to help them be able to advocate
for themselves and their disabilities in different settings such as a future job or in college.
During class time if there was a particular student struggling, the paraprofessional would go
into a breakout room with the student for some extra support in the lesson. These Google
hangouts felt more of a small group instruction rather than a large group instruction because
not very many students show up to the math classes. Throughout my practicum, I would say in
the math class there was little participation, but in advisory there was much more participation.
When looking at the math classes, the classes could range from zero to five students, but only
about one or two would engage in the lesson whereas compared to advisory, there was usually
around ten students in the class, but I would say about five of them engaged in the class
whether that was talking or commenting in the chat.
The lessons were done by the teacher, he had used a variety of different PowerPoints
when doing lessons. One he used quite often was Nearpod to do polls with the students. Due to
the students not participating much in the lessons or showing up to class in general, there
wasn’t much actually done in class. He would go through the lessons and try and get the
students to answer them, but if they were not able too, he would show how to do the problem
step by step to help them understand the problem.
When thinking of my placement and my teaching style, I would say the two differed
quite a bit. The teacher I had didn’t have very engaging content, it was more so of telling the
students to do the problems and if no one answered, he would do it. It also was difficult to go
through much of a lesson, he would spend quite a bit of time on one problem whereas I would
want to spend time on it to have the students understand it, but I would come back to it
another time, so their attention is still kept on the lesson. My placement teacher did help me
navigate through the Minneapolis Public School teacher site and showed me what to expect
with grading, attendance, etc. I have learned that I as a teacher really need to keep my students
engaged in the content being learned. I myself would get bored throughout the lessons and
would zone out or start doing other work because I was not engaged. As a teacher I want to
make sure my students are engaged as possible even online. Contributing to my placement, I
taught the teacher that I worked with many things with technology and how to make it more
efficient in the classroom. Overall my placement showed me how different many teachers are
and how engaging content especially in a time like this is important, so students learning is not
hindered.