To prepare for a writing summative assessment on Zoom, I worked with some of the kids to enhance their writing by practicing their use of descriptive setting. First, I showed them an image of a forest and asked each student to think of three powerful words they can use to describe what they see. I also showed them a word mat to help them see the different adjectives they can use to descibe the image, just in case they were struggling to think of one. After one minuted, I asked each student to share the three words they came up with. Then, I asked the students if they were able to create a sentence describing the images using the words they or their peers have shared with the class. This time, I gave the students a little bit more time to think and write down their sentences in their notebook. As they read their sentences out loud, I wrote them on the screen so others could see. Based on their original sentences, I also gave them feedback regarding what they did well and what they can further improve. I remember in one of the sentences, the student mentioned that the trees were moving in the wind. I complimented her on visualizing the trees in the image, but then encouraged her to put in an adjective to describe the trees, as well as an even more powerful verb to describe how the trees move. Luckily, a couple of students were able to pitch their sentences to me and receive feedback before the breakout room closed.

I felt optimistic at the beginning of the breakout room. Previously, my mentor had briefly introduced the image in the main sesson of Zoom and had gathered some input from the students regarding powerful adjectives they can use to describe the image. Therefore, I felt assured that there wouldn't be a lot of confusion regarding what they needed to do or the adjectives they needed to come up with. I also felt a little bit inspired; this is because I studied my mentor's lesson plan and looked up different resources I can use during the breakout room to aid the students when coming up with different adjectives. I also practiced different teaching strategies before the class to figure out which one flowed better and would be effective. I was a little surprised during the breakout room because the activities I created were catered towards my usual Green group, but instead I received a different group of people. Therefore I felt a little anxious about whether or not it would go well or not. After the breakout room, I felt very proud of the students because it seemed like they really knew how to use descriptive setting in their writing, as well as myself because I was able to deliver an amazing lesson. This is because it seemed like the students were content with their work and receptive to the feedback from.

What was good about this experience is that I was able to see how capable the studets are. Previously, it was difficult to assess how the students are in terms of writing because not many students upload their work on Phoenix for the teachers to review, and even when they do it was hard to assess if the students did their work independently. Therefore, it was a breath of fresh air to see the students' work in real time. Another good thing was that I was able to work with a different group of people, and see how my method of teaching works on others. What went well in this situation is that there were minimal interrputions from the student. Usually, in my small groups, there would always be a kid who would interrupt whatever I say with irrelevant comments or delay my teaching because he was not prepared. Surprisingly, today he was prepared and when he shouted out in class it was actually productive the discussion we were having. This made me wonder why he exhibited such a change in behaviour and I realized that maybe he felt that today he was amongst classmates that he could actualy be productive in. After a while I realized that maybe, this entire time, he was just not being challenged enough. I recall the student barely did any wor and instead would opt to just make conversation with me, and when I tried to get him to focus on the work he would just ignore me. According to the Oxford Learning Centre, when students are underchallenged they beome disengaged in their learning experience, and instead seek a different or innappropriate outlet to express themselves (2019). I think another thing that contributed to the success of this teaching experience is because I was "cold calling" the students. Before this, I was reluctant to cold call students in class because many of my peers deemed it to be a harsh way to get students to participate. In fact, some say it his harmful for the students because it can cause anxiety in students and intimidate them, which does not bode well for safeguarding (Handelsman, 2013). On the contrary, I believe cold calling should be done in the classroom because it will help to stimulate other students to try and be engaged in the lesson and in return allow them to take responsibility for their learning. Before I adopted cold calling, I realized that only one or two students in the classroom would volunteer to asnwer a question, which does not necessarily bring about a good class discussion as it also encourages others to be disengaged. I realize it is most effective when done online. This is because when students learn online, the students are at home where there can be many disctractions; whether it be their family around them or a toy withing their reach. By cold calling the students, I can immediately capture their attention and redirect them back to the task. The emphasis isn't trying to solicit a correct answer from the students, but instead to reassure them that we want to hear from them and that we will value their opinions (Rush, 2018). Another reason why I think it went well was because my mentor was able to model what the kids needed to do. In the main session, my mentor had used Menti to get everyone to write down words they can think of that is associated to the image projected. The students weren't limited to adjecives, but instead they could just think of any words; it could be a noun, a sense, or even a full sentence. There were no restrictions; and because they had practice trying to conjure up a word and were given ample time to think about the images, as well as see the words created by other students. It also saved me some time to work with the students because I did not need to explain what they needed to do to deeply, so I was able to wisely use the remaining time to just focus on the student's ouput (Yussif, 2021).

What I learned from this experience is that what's most important in a classroom is the students' participation. When a student see other students participating, it gives them the confidence to speak up in class and participate in a discussion. It also helps that, when they see other students' work, they can begin to formulate their own ideas to because it lets them see how they should create a sentence. Therefore, it's important to cultivate an environment that is open and encouraging. in which the student. This experience also further reinforced my stance on cold calling students. I was really hesitant in adopting this manner of having students participate, because of the stigma behind it, but I learned that although it is not as nice as having students volunteer their answer, there are steps we can take to make it less threatening. This tactic will definitely be used in my futre teaching practice.