Clinical Reflection

        For our clinical, my group had the topic of "Teacher Unionism Reborn." Going into the task, I did not think that it would be that difficult to present. After reading over the long and complex chapter, I was much more nervous about the lesson. As a group, we decided to focus more on the different topics that the unions must deal with because we believed that it would be more interesting for the class. I hoped that by choosing the different topics, it would help the class to see that they are not only controversial, but very two sided and therefore difficult for the unions to work with.
        I wanted the class to learn something about teacher unions and to become more informed on a topic that will soon be very relevant and real to students becoming teachers. Personally, I was not at all informed about teachers unions or the immense amount of criticism that they often receive. I think that the idea of a union is very good and also necessary for the public schooling system, but the current unions are not executing the task well. It has become very political and the leaders of unions seem to have the greatest concern for their wallets. In general, I see that the best solution would be to have the leaders of the teacher unions actually be  teachers! For the presentation, I tried to make sure that our group showed both sides of unions and to inform the class that it is a very complex topic. I was worried that we weren't going into depth about the reality of unions in schools and cities today, but I realized that if we had, there would not be enough time in the class period!
        I was disappointed that it seemed like we did a lot of talking and reading over the slides, but because it is not as widely known as some topics, we had to lay the ground work. I wanted the conversation to be more involved with the class, but I also understand that it was the last day of that class and people may not be as awake and interested as they typically would be. I am happy that the comments on the Post Its changed and that they went from mostly negative, with words like "strikes," "riots," and "negative!," to more positive words like "needs reform," "helpful for teachers," and "necessary." While it was not as interesting and engaging as I had hoped, I feel like we did the topic justice and introduced new ways of thinking about teacher unions for the class.
        If I could change anything, I would try to have students be more involved in the conversation all throughout the clinical. I am not sure how exactly we would accomplish that because it is something that we had to spend time to explain, but if I could do it again, I would work on more interactions. Also, I would have tried to move around the room more instead of having the whole group stand in the front the whole time. I am personally happy with my group and the job we need and I think that it went well, but I also know that there can always be room for improvement.