Ramona Marquez

English 1100
Professor Zawlocki

Reflection of Semester
During my time in your class, I did not learn as much as I thought I would; however, I
did begin the class knowing a lot about education already. One of the first things that I learned
was the different philosophies of teaching. I knew that teachers taught their curriculum in
different ways, I just did not know the formal names of each method. I was able to categorize
and classify the teachers I have had based on their method of teaching. I also now know which
philosophy of teaching I will fall into once I become a professional educator.
The next thing I learned, that I did not know before, was how the Common Core State
Standards worked. I had heard about this before enrolling in this class and I was not fond of it
because I did not think teachers were prepared enough to begin using this in their classrooms.
After class discussions, I found that the CCSS are not a bad thing, teachers just need to be trained
on it better.
I will use the information that I have learned in this class, daily, when I become a
professional educator. Even though we did not get through the TPA lesson plan assignment, I
plan on using the template to create many of my activities throughout my curriculum. It was easy
to understand and broke down the objectives and goals of each lesson.
Overall, I believe the class was very easy and ran at a slower pace. It was not very
demanding but I think that is because we had to complete 15 observation hours outside of the

classroom. I truly enjoyed observing a high school classroom. I saw many things that I want in
my classroom, as well as things that I dont want in my classroom. After completing this class, I
am absolutely sure that I want to become a professional educator. I felt this way before but this
class just confirmed my thoughts even more.
The content of the class was very useful. The only thing that I did not really find
interesting was our section about the history of education. I am not a fan of history and find very
little use for it so I was bias during that section. Everything besides the history of education I
found very interesting and helpful. If I had to grade myself, I would give myself an A-. All of the
work I turned in was Distinguished and well written/presented. The only thing, if anything, that I
would take points off for would be my attendance. I believe I missed five days and I know I
should not have. Two of them were excused but the other three were clearly my laziness/lack of
motivation. I know now how important it is to be at every class because I have seen how hard it
is to catch up when you fall behind.
I want to take this time to thank you for giving me the opportunity to participate in your
class. I learned many things that I will carry with me through life and my education occupation. I
hope you have a wonderful break and I look forward to seeing you for the Spring 2015 semester
of Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11:00am.