Running head: PROFESSIONAL REFLECTION 1

Professional Reflection
Laura Crispin
OTL502: Learning Theories and Modules of Instruction
Colorado State University Global Campus
Nella B. Anderson, PhD
September 28, 2014










PROFESSIONAL REFLECTION 2
Professional Reflection
In the last eight (8) weeks, I have gained so much insight on how to become a better teacher.
Implementing and applying The 12 Touchstones of Good Teaching (Goodwin & Hubbell, 2013) in my
lesson has helped me understand how to start my day with my students as well as how to fully engage
my time with my students.
When I started my lesson, I was somewhat worried because within my class, I have several
students with IEPs and 4 different languages, with Spanish being the dominant language. During week
3, I gave a pre-test in the form of a K-W-L chart. During this time, I asked essential questions such as,
How can we maintain a healthy body with hand washing and prevention of germs, What if nobody
ever washed their hands, and In our environment, where can germs land? The purpose of the chart
and questions was to identify prior knowledge of the lesson. Furthermore, I did not receive very many
responses during the opening of my lesson and I connected it to language barriers and IEPs. However,
in Goodwin & Hubbell (2013) it states that peeling back the curtain and make performance
expectations clear is very vital to any lesson because it help students identify what they are going to
gain and learn from the lesson. Therefore, during my lesson I referred to the rubric that I created,
because I taught my lesson with preschoolers and preschoolers cannot read. Therefore, the rubric was
based off the children ability to comprehend the concept as well as making progress in understanding
the concept of maintaining healthy bodies.
During the pre-assessment, I received very minimum responses from my students. In our
textbook, it explained the importance of unpacking the standard and allowing students to set their own
personal goals, therefore, in addition to the pre-assessment, I asked the students, What do you want to
PROFESSIONAL REFLECTION 3
learn about germs, and only 3 students responded. Unpacking the standards helped me, as their
teacher, identify the skills I wanted the students to master during the lesson. When teaching the lesson,
I noticed that visuals worked really well for my students. It immediately grabbed their attention and
they were hooked right away. It states in Goodwin & Hubbell (2013) that in the opening minutes of any
lesson, you need to grab the students interest. I have learned when working with young learner, visuals
work best because most young learners are visual learners. Implementing the learning activities in the
classroom stations assisted the students in understanding the concepts of the lesson. Each day, the
students had the opportunity to touch, observe, explore, pretend, sing, and read upon the concepts of
germs as well as how to maintain healthy bodies. In addition, during our large groups, I modeled what
happens when we sneeze into the air, by applying flour on my hand and pretending to sneeze. Again,
this was an opportunity to grab the attention of my students and it did. We discussed the importance of
catching our sneeze so germs will not fly in the air. Also, we practice getting a tissue, blowing our nose,
and disposing of it in the right place. With these activities, we sang a song that went like this,
Catch your sneeze/cough; catch your sneeze/cough, in your elbow.
Catch your sneeze/cough; catch your sneeze/cough, in your elbow.
Catch your sneeze/cough in your elbow and not in your hand
Catch your sneeze/cough; catch your sneeze/cough, in your elbow.
Blow your nose; blow your nose, in a tissue
Blow your nose; blow your nose, in a tissue
Blow your nose in a tissue and not in your hand
Blow your nose, blow your nose, in a tissue
Throw your tissue; throw your tissue, in the trash
Throw your tissue; throw your tissue, in the trash
Throw your tissue in the trash and not on the floor
Throw your tissue; throw your tissue, in the trash.

PROFESSIONAL REFLECTION 4
I included finger plays with visuals which made the concept more understandable to the students. At
the end of the week, we revisit our K-W-L chart to write down What we have learned about germs.
During the post-assessment, I asked the same essential questions and I received more responses from
my students. The graph below explains a visual representation of the students growth.

This data helped me identify which students understood the concepts and learning skills of the standard.
Feedback and re-teaching was given to students that did not respond. We revisit the hand washing
station to identify the skills that were taught during this lesson. I observed the students during this
process to see if they understood the process of washing hands correctly. In addition, they added
visuals to the interactive board labeled When should we wash our hands to ensure me, as their
teacher, that the learning targets were being met.
Integrating The 12 Touchstones of Good Teaching in this lesson, certainly helped me become
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Maintain a
healthy body
Prevention of
germs
Nobody washing
hands
Where can germs
land
Pre-assessment
Post-assessment
PROFESSIONAL REFLECTION 5
more aware of effective strategies that we as educators need to take in order to have successful
students. From this point on, this textbook will be a guide to my teaching strategies.















PROFESSIONAL REFLECTION 6
References
Goodwin, B. & Hubbell, E. (2013). The twelve touchstones of good teaching. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.