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Residency Evaluations (mid-term and end of semester

Midterm: Mentor & Resident

End of Semester : Mentor and Resident

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Scores

CST 116: *Pending

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Residency Reflection

This past year has been an amazing experience filled with incredible lessons, useful advice, and moments that will forever change me as not only a teacher but a human being. I was fortunate to be placed at an incredible school and with an even amazing mentor teacher.

My placement for the year was in Washington Heights. Its a fabulous area filled with amazing culture and wonderful people. Many of our students at the school, The Community Health Academy of the Heights, live in the area. This made the school dynamic really close knit and full of culture. In the year, I worked in the compacity of an ENL teacher, 6th grade Literacy teacher, and a 6th grade math teacher in a sped compacity.

During my student teaching I learned a lot of things:

You never stop learning. Even as a teacher. Especially as a teacher! You are constantly honing your skills, learning about new way of teaching, finding out new means of supports and technology, and having to stay current and adapting to the times.

Never stop trying. There is never one way of doing anything and teaching is no acceptation. Not all your ideas will land the way you want them to. Some will fail. There will also be times when students do not respond the way you want or even retaliate. Even in those instances, you never stop trying. There were times were I felt I was never getting through to the students. Things would never go the way it was planned. However, when something failed, I tried something new. And I when that failed, I tried something new. As a teacher, you never stop trying.

Knowing your resources is extremely important. This goes beyond just materials and curriculum. This includes your colleges! Your school should be your support system. My time in CHAH really showed me that we are a team. Asking for help is not a sign of weakness or incompetency. Wanting to better yourself for your students and seeking help is such a selfless thing.

These realizations showed up in many different ways during my residency that really shaped how I am in the classroom. When I think about all the literature I had to review, all the pedagogy I had to unpack, putting theory to practice was very challenging. This is where you never stop learning. I found that TC gives you an abundance of tools to strive for success in your own class. However, these tools need to be amended or you even have to find new tools . During my residency, there were a lot of times where something did not go as planned. And that happened a lot of the time. These occurrences challenged me as a student and a teacher. Instead of falling under pressure, I sought different answers, different and newer techniques and strategies, and ways to better understand the situation I was dealing with. When I student was unable to understand how I was teaching something and the content appeared to be inaccessible to them, I searched and figured out a way to make it so. I kept searching and trying until it was apparent that they were getting the content. That is the epitome of never stop learning and never stop trying.

I taught this 6th-grade literacy class this year. They are essentially the reasons for all 3 of my reflections. This was a class that came with a lot of challenges. Academically, they had such a wide range of literacy levels. Some read as high as 9th grade and some as low as 1st grade. Not only was this class crucial for most of them, but it was clear differentiation and scaffolding were a necessity for them. Socially, there were many challenges. Behavior was not as easy to deal with as I would like it to have been. There were many students who were disruptive, distracted, and on some occasions posed harm mentally and physically to the classroom. One might think this was the worst possible outcome for a first-year teacher. Nobody would ever want a class like this. Honestly, I was pretty thankful for such a class. It set me up for what might be ahead and gave me the experience to be able to handle it. In this class, you always had to be on your toes. Every day I was learning about a better way to educate these students. When something worked, it worked fair. When something did not work, it failed hard. So I had to learn strategies to deal with the successes and failures in the class.

Even when the behavior was so bad that the admin had to step in, I never stopped trying with my students. It is unfortunate, but many of my colleagues this year, seemed to have given up hope on these students. That is honestly, extremely heartbreaking. They would just let the students behave any way they wanted to. I think giving up on them was an extreme disservice to the students. Our job is not to give up on them. If it seems that you are unable to provide the things you need to educate a child or even a group of children, then you seek out ways to make sure they are getting what they need. Knowing where or how to ask for help is extremely important in this case but also generally. I learned early on not to be ashamed of asking for help when it comes to how can I better serve my students. At the end of the day, we have to make sure we tried our best by them.

Looking back on this journey, it through the good and the bad, it was all worth it. TR@TC has made me such a strong teacher, learner, and person. I do not think I would have been ready to teach had I chosen a different path. This was a once in a life time experience and I will cherish it forever.

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Letter of Rec

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Teaching Episode

Lesson: Here

This lesson was for my ENL high school class. The grades in this class ranged from 9th to 11th grade. For this lesson my co teacher and I wanted to really focus on possessive pronouns as we noticed the importance in using the correct pronouns as well as our students struggle in them. Linked above is all the materials used in the lesson which includes, worksheets, visual aids, and manipulatives to better support the learning of our ELLS as well as tackle different types of learners in the classroom.

Though my comments were very minimal, the take always from the feedback were eye opening. I am working with ELLS. They are in the beginning phase of their English education. Clear instruction is crucial. It is also important to understand that some words that we associate with instructions and tasks are completely unknown to them. Asking them the discuss, analyze, and identify are all things that we take for granted as we think this is something the students already know.

"The instructions for this exercise are not clear." This was extremely valid feedback that really has shifted how I approach instruction. This comment was a reference the worksheet where students were asked finish the sentence with the proper pronoun. The proper pronoun is associated with the items in the box. As you can see though, I thought that they would have understood the the layout and have been able to figure it out. However, that was not the case as they struggled to understand how to complete the task.

From this, as well as the entire observation feedback experience, I really learned the importance of being clear with my instruction. A classmate of mine said "repetition and abundance" is key. And this has been my mindset when I work on instruction and how I deliver it. Being clear and having consistency.

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Work Collection

Autobiographical Analysis

Child Study

Interdisciplinary Unit

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Instructional/Curriculum pages

Inclusivity

Inclusivity in a classroom is extremely important. There is highly , if not fully, impossible that you will have a classroom full of students with the same needs and support. It is extremely important that you make your best effort to promote inclusivity for all

In this assignment, the goal was to create not only an inclusive classroom but a lesson as well. There were many things to consider while coming up with the. This assignment supports those with intellectual and physical disabilities as well as English language learners. Many supports are put into place in the lesson to allow for inclusivity of daily instruction. These supports include but are not limited to language support and outcome differentiation. There are many supports in the physical space too to support not only learning but the emotional health of a child. Flexible seating, private areas, and accessible materials are some of the things I have implemented in this classroom to provide more inclusivity.

Accessible Curriculum

A major issue when it comes to teaching students, and especially English Language Learners, is that the content is not accessible to them. Language used in the content areas tends to be jargon and hard to understand. In this math lesson, I used many strategies and techniques to make the content more accessible. Those strategies included preaching and frontloading vocabulary and close reading to better understand what math problems are asking students. The questions is not"why is the student not getting it?" but rather "have I made the information accessible for them to get it?

Reflective Practice

Empathy and perseverance had been on my mind long before I was even in the classroom. I was thinking about the students and what were some things they would need when it came time for school. And of course I thought about the academic concerns and what they needed to succeed this year. However, when I started to think about the social and emotional side of things, that is when this lesson came to be.

This lesson allows for the students to reflect. They reflect on the ideas of empathy and perseverance and how it relates to them, their community, and the texts we read. Likewise, it allows them to see young people their age and reflect on that. That reflection is less guided but it allowed them to think about their lives, what they are thankful for, and what they have been taking for granted. At the end of the unit, I definitely so some positive shifts in perspective and how they interacted with others, content, and their community.

Family and Community Knowledge

This was one of the activities that were early on in the year. It was a creative way that allowed us to get to know the students and for them to share out about themselves, especially if they did not want to say it verbally. In this assignment, students were to make a puzzle like a heart, and in each puzzle piece put something that is a part of them. This includes their likes, dislikes, desire, family, friends, community, and so on. The hearts they created were amazing! I was truly a joy to see the amazing work that they had created and got to learn about them. It is never just the product they create that promotes understanding but the processes. The discussions we had were really something special. They talked about their family and community in all the lights. They highlighted the positives while acknowledging the negatives that came with it. Though you might look at this assignment and think its some kid art project to pass time, it promoted more meaningful discussion than I have ever seen with the most prompted lesson plan.

Literacy

Literacy is such an important component to a child's education. Many believe that a key to success is literacy competency. I would agree somewhat to that statement. It is important for students to be able to read and comprehend information presented to them.

This lesson was very interesting as it was created as a response to my hearing and gauging that my students did not explicitly know the parts of speech. This realization came during the mid-school year, which I take full responsibility for. Of course, it came as a little shock to me but as soon as I knew this, I went to work on the lesson. The lesson takes them through the major parts of the speech. It offers a visual representation of the parts of speech and gives them free time to work on it in small groups and then as a full class. The structure of lecture-try it out-come together and discuss really worked for this class.

Learning from and with children

My students were extremely passionate about certain topics that pertained to them and school life. I always had the idea of using a choice board for class but never knew what it would be about. That is when I bought the idea to my students and asked them what topics they were interested in discussing. While it is not always possible, having students interest in what is being taught is extremely important as it makes them feel important and promotes the willingness to engage.

The choice board gives students variety for engagement and autonomy on what they would like to share. It allowed them to talk about and express their thoughts on bullying in different ways. Likewise, this was completely student facilitated. When it came time to present or discuss, I left it to the students to lead, with me reminding them to come minor guidelines. If we are having an assignment like this, there is so much power in letting the students lead. Of course, I want them to know the effects and dangers of bullying. However, It is important to hear how they feel, in any way they need to express it. If you want to know what's going on in the schools, ask the students.

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Bio

Trevor Blu Pugh

Pronouns: He/Him/His

Trevor is a teaching resident at Teachers College  working towards his M.A In TESOL, with dual certification in TESOL and Special education. Completing his residency at the Community Health Academy of the heights, Trevor co teaches beginner ENL students in both middle school and high school.  He is also a proud co teacher a 6th grade gen ED literacy course as well as a 6th grade ICT math class.

Trevor holds his B.A in Linguistics and a minor in Acting from CUNY Brooklyn College.  During his time there, aside from immersing himself in linguistics and acting, he studied a handful of foreign languages including Chinese and Japanese.  He is the first of his family to graduate high school, receive a bachelors degree, and soon receive a masters degree.  In his spare time, Trevor watches queer themed television series and share his thoughts, critiques, and suggestions via both written and filmed media.