You are on page 1of 9

LOOKING BACK, LOOKING FORWARD

A Reflection of Student Teaching

JESSICA CROWNOVER
UAH STUDENT TEACHER Spring 2013

During my internship, I was placed in two completely different worlds. My placements were in two different schools that were in two different school districts. Each school was made up of a different population of students and were on opposite ends of the socioeconomic status spectrum. The classes with which I was placed were first and third grade respectively, so even the content area was completely different. Going into the classroom for the first time, I knew that I was fully capable of the science of teaching or pedagogy, but I was really and truly there to master the art of teaching those things we cant necessarily learn from reading a book. I learned a lot about management (both of the classroom environment and of behavior), motivation, assessment, instruction, and learning styles. Not only have I learned about teaching, but I have learned about myself and my own strengths and weaknesses through reflections such as this one. One of the most meaningful experiences that I had were within the beginning of the year preparations. I got to experience those last-minute preparations, including the orientation for parents before school begins. Through my experience in the fall, I have learned how important setting up the structure of the classroom is within those first two weeks of school. As a guest in someone elses classroom who was far more experienced than I am, I felt it a little rude to question my cooperating teachers methods of management. I learned that consistency is key. For example, if you are going to use a clip chart for student behavior, it must be used every time and in quick response to the problem behavior; students should always start the day on a neutral playing field, and not at the very top of the chart where the only place for them to go is down. I did attempt to supplement her behavior management style with my own, more positive methods. For example, to help motivate students to stay quiet in the hallways during restroom breaks, we would play Quiet Mouse. Whomever was the quietest and following directions the

most became the Quiet Mouse. They would step out of the line, survey the rest of the class, and pass the role to Quiet Mouse on to another student. It was fairly effective, I believe. Also, there was a student who displayed problem behavior nearly every day. Honestly, I got tired of sending his behavior chart home every day with a negative color. I took him aside and asked him what he thought would help him the most. I made a deal with him that if he got on a neutral or better color every day, I would buy his ice cream on Friday. I explained to him that it would only last as long as I was there. I made a little blue ribbon for him that was big enough for me to write the days of the week. Every day he was on a neutral or positive color, I would write it on the laminated ribbon and give him a smiley face sticker. This seemed to work for a couple of weeks, but by the time I was full-time teaching, it had dissolved. The cooperating teachers use of time management seemed effective as there seemed to be little downtime, but it only allowed for reading and math to be taught. I never experienced anything related to science and social studies within the classroom that was not taught through their basal reader. While I find cross-curricular information a wonderful way to tie lessons together, I do not believe that it should be a students sole exposure to these subjects. I

attempted a unit on habitats which merely introduced the words and a few characteristics of each habitat. This seemed to get pushed by the side as per suggestions by my cooperating teacher. In contrast, I went into my second placement in January, so students were already wellversed in the teachers management style. They had to be reminded of the rules since they had returned for winter break, but it was easy for them to remember. This class had no clip chart or card pulling system. Instead, the teacher had a chart where she would mark students who were not following directions and remove time from their recess. There was a music box that she would open for group punishment; it was wound every Monday, and on Friday, any extra music

they had would go toward extra recess time. Group punishment was hardly punishment at all and only used when the majority of the class needed to regain control. The teacher suggested that I implement a new, positive system for behavior management. We brainstormed and I developed the Good Listening chart. The room was already divided into sides, so we initiated a friendly competition between these sides. Students would receive points for their side if they were quietly following directions, able to answer questions, for good deeds, or for critical thinking. When a side received five tally marks, they would get one extra minute of recess for their side of the room. This method worked brilliantly and students were always striving for those points. My cooperating teacher was wonderful with time management and she was able to get to all subjects almost every day this included science and social studies. I, unfortunately, was a little less adept at time management and often had to pick which subject was taught at the end of the day between science and social studies. I feel, however, that this helped students be able to develop the concepts and ideas a little more thoroughly than trying to squeeze both subjects in at the end of the day. I noticed more connections being made and more enthusiasm from students when we focused solely on science or social studies in the afternoon. My experiences with student motivation also lie on opposite ends of the spectrum. In my first placement, I felt as if many of my students thought they were only there because they had to be there. motivation. Personally, I felt as if the environment had the largest role to play in student The overall environment did not seem very inviting or conducive to student My second placement,

learning, despite my best efforts to bring excitement to learning.

however, had students who were excited to go to school. Nearly half the class was in the gifted program, so there was a combined wealth of background knowledge and critical thinking that

was brought to the class. Students made connections that were surprising to even us as adults and were more than willing to take that extra step to extend their knowledge. Assessment and instruction go hand-in-hand; the difference lies within the emphasis. Is it more important that the students learn the information and make connections not only to other lessons, but to their own lives, or is it more important for students to remember information for a test? I felt like I was able to experience both of these in my different placements, also. My first placement seemed to have an emphasis on assessment. There were no formative assessments given by the cooperating teacher. Homework would be checked for accuracy, the grade recorded, and then returned to the student without feedback or revisiting a topic. When I began taking over subjects, I would leave notes on answers that students answered incorrectly to try to push them in the right direction. I would also try to revisit issues during small group time, though it was only for reading. My second placement had more of an emphasis on instruction. There were many

formative assessments given that helped us to form our ever-changing small groups and intervention strategies. These were decided by homework accuracy, quick checks, questions, quiz scores, and anything observations that made us feel as if a student was not understanding the information given. Not only did we review information presented prior to the summative assessment, but we also reviewed after the summative assessment so that students could bridge any gaps that were left in their learning. In both placements, I tried to incorporate strategies that would help different students understand the information. For example, in my first grade class, we used Unifix Cubes often as we were learning addition and subtraction. In my third grade class, we used fraction strips and models as we were learning fractional equivalence. I would present information orally and

visually in both placements as often as I could to reach more students. My third grade class had the added benefit of the 1:1 Digital Initiative, so they were able to receive the information in yet another way on their own, personal netbooks. I was able to use a HASP kit in my second placement as we studied rocks and minerals. Students were partnered on social and academic levels, which is much harder than I thought it would be. They were given minerals in one lesson and asked to observe them, recording how they looked, smelt, felt, the colors, and we even got to perform a few tests that geologists used to identify minerals. I gave students a list of mineral characteristics and had them predict what their minerals were based on their observations. When we explored rocks, we did a similar activity where we examined the rocks and tried to identify their rocks group. Students were also able to make predictions based on their observations to predict which rock they were observing. This was a great experience for me and the students because they got to use critical thinking and hands-on skills that they dont get to experience every day in the classroom. I was able to learn from the amount of planning that this activity took. I definitely learned that time is the biggest factor in education. If I had more time, I would be able to reach more students more effectively; however, we only have a certain amount of time during the day. I now understand why my very first observation teacher told me Its like were stretched a mile long and an inch deep. There are a ton of cute activities that I would have loved to do with both of my classes. I realized, though, that I did not have enough time to get to everything that needed to be taught and include the extra, fun, cute activities. I also learned the importance of teaching routines to students. In my first placement, there were no routines in place since it was the beginning of the year. My second placement had already progressed through winter break, so the class was well-versed in routine. Because of

this, the class was able to do independent centers daily and progress through many different activities that focused on several different learning objectives. Those two weeks at the beginning of the year will feel like a pain, but in the long run, it will be worth the pain to have a sense of independence through routines. I believe that my cooperating teachers and I would both agree on the two competencies that were my strongest: communication and content knowledge. I have always been a clear communicator when I take my time to collect my thoughts; the in-depth lesson planning that was done helped me to prepare myself for communication with my students. This isnt to say that my communication skills with students were flawless; there were times when I realized that I was explaining things in still too advanced of a way and needed to remember my target audience. I also tried to foster the communication skills with my students as well as we explored ways to avoid conflict by communication and introducing my students to new words. Content knowledge was another strength, according to my cooperating teachers, and I feel that I would have to agree. I am a lover of learning as it is, so if there was a topic that I felt I needed a bit of refreshing on, I had no qualms with pulling up a website to update my knowledge. I feel as if adapting content knowledge to students developmental stages is also a form of communication; the information doesnt change, but the presentation does. Unfortunately, I think my largest flaw would lie within pedagogy simply for the time and classroom management skills. While I progressively got better, we would often lose track of time as I wanted to ensure students had thorough understanding of the information. Other times, we would spend so much time making connections with other subjects or our background knowledge. In my first placement, the time lost was based on behavior management issues; the second placements time lost was based on on-topic discussion. While I have often been told

that time management comes with practice, I am not holding that as the only plan. I also plan on setting timers for myself and students to help me stay on time and help them stay on-task. My other weakness from student teaching may have to be within diversity. While I do recognize my students different backgrounds, learning styles, and other differences, I had less time to display these during my short time with the classes. We would bring in relevant background knowledge when it was acceptable, but we did not have time to focus on each student while I was there. I also feel that I could do a better job at making accommodations for students with IEPs. In my first placement, the two students with IEPs were only in the classroom for the socializing and always had aides with them. Many times, though, they were out of the room. My second placement had only one student with an IEP, which required only visual cues, additional time, and socializing classes. I feel as if I did not do a great job with creating classroom accommodations for my students with IEPs in my first placement due to the fact that there was always someone there to help them. I feel as if I met the IEP goals of the student in my second placement. As I reflect upon my first placement, even at the end of it, I can tell that I still needed a lot of improvement. I was still pretty nervous at the end of my first placement; I never quite felt like I got my bearings. Now, at the end of my second placement, I can tell that I have grown so much. I am confident now and I feel like I have a good set of tools in my teacher tool-box. I feel a lot more prepared for my first classroom now that Ive completed my internship. I know that it wont be easy the first year or even the second year for that matter but if I continue to learn, reflect, and better myself, the easier it will become. I am terrified of getting my first classroom, seeing the empty walls, and all the furniture piled in the center of the room. At the same time, Im wildly excited about taking that blank

room and shaping it into a positive learning environment. I am excited to be able to call myself a teacher.

You might also like