Student Teaching Reflection

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Engaging in student teaching is definitely not for the faint of heart, it takes focus, organization (of which I lacked at the beginning), patience, flexibility, and determination. I was once told, “If you are able to student teach and please everyone, then you will be an excellent teacher!” Now I understand what that person meant.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3134683/Teachers-shocking-confessions
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Going to two different placements I was able to really put that quote to work. First off, let me say I am so grateful for both teaching experiences! They have both helped me grow as a teacher and an individual. In my first placement, my site teacher was very laid back and easy going. He helped me hone my voice when it came to behavior management and guided me through the lesson plan process bit by bit. This was my first REAL experience with putting lesson plans to work so I really appreciated this collaborative process. I was definitely part of the team and attended data team meetings while also observing the faculty senate process. I think this placement really helped me grow as an educator by encouraging me to develop the procedural knowledge necessary to be a productive member of a faculty team.

In my second placement, my site teacher was very friendly but much more structured. I think this comes from the fact that there are 4 subjects that HAVE to be taught in 4^th grade in this county, where in 2^nd grade the focus is mostly on math and language arts. Regardless, in this placement I got down to the nitty gritty of teaching. While the 4 teachers on my team share lesson plans, so only one teacher has to do plans for one subject, I planned all 4 subjects for about 2 weeks. This was A LOT, I know that this much planning is common place at many intermediate levels, but let me say I appreciated when I was able to use the other member’s plans! When planning guided reading and guided math I made up my own templates to use, which my site teacher asked me to pass along to her for future use in her classroom, and these plans took up to 4 hours of planning for just one week. This was just the guided portion too, not the entire class period. Also, at this placement I participated in Guided Math training and the Literacy model training for the county. I really appreciated this opportunity, especially since I was attending with some of the first year teachers who have gone through 4 months of teaching and are just now receiving it. I feel like, at this placement, I learned a lot about myself as a teacher, became better organized, and gained A LOT of tools and strategies for the classroom!

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I am so grateful for both of these opportunities and I couldn’t have asked for better site teachers/mentors. They, the students and the other teachers made me feel like part of the team and embraced me as one of their own.

The students have also left big imprints on my heart. I know that when I have my own classroom I will be a HUGE mess at the end of the year, because after only 8 weeks with each group of children they have made such a large impact on me. Watching them struggle, working with them through their difficulties, and helping them achieve their goals set for each of the 9 weeks, is definitely something we will always share. I really enjoyed watching their growth from when I entered the classroom to the culmination of my experience. This has shown me that I am exactly where I’m supposed to be and I look forward to the next step in my teaching adventure.

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Differentiated Instruction

http://thinkafricabusiness.com/why-differentiated-instruction/

In the classrooms of today teachers constantly hear about differentiated instruction. YOU HAVE TO DO IT! IT MUST BE DONE! Educators just entering into the education program might wonder what it looks like to have a differentiated classroom, let me tell you it’s amazing. I am currently in a classroom where we engage our students in differentiated instruction on a daily basis. “What does it look like?” you may ask. Well it looks like a lot of things.

http://edtheory.blogspot.com/2016/04/differentiated-instruction.html

On the walls there are pictures and text so that students who learn in different modalities can experience what suits them. We engage our students in activities that require them to use visual, kinesthetic, auditory, and tactile techniques. This ensures that all students get what the need. Every day, we engage students in 10 minutes of activity through an app called GoNoodle so that they can stay engaged and awake, we do this after math when their brains may get a little sleepy. We ensure that they aren’t at their desks all day long, they are up, moving around the room and engaged in something. We include Think-Pair-Shares, quick draws, think and writes, reading, hands-on activities, you name it we try to do it. This is because we want to meet the needs of all learners which is why many people are in favor differentiated instruction, because they understand that not all learners learn same way.

http://www.mrstruittspage.org/differentiated-instruction.html

There are those that would disagree with differentiated instruction like Daniel Willingham  a professor at the University of Virginia, who is also a cognitive psychologist and a neuroscientist. Willingham argues that differentiated instruction increases educator work and frustration levels for the falsely believed ideology that students learn in different ways. He goes on to explain that though some people are better with visual, auditory, or kinesthetic things, when they h
ave to learn certain tasks that require one of these skills differentiation isn’t really helpful (i.e. when learning about a map all students have to learn it visually. According to Willingham, using auditory or kinesthetic tactics aren’t required here) (Bryant, 2012). There is a video that is included with the post I got most of this information from that is very compelling that I will include here: https://youtu.be/sIv9rz2NTUk but I have to say I’m not compelled to stop differentiating instruction.

              
 Though Willingham may have a valid argument and it is a lot more work for educators, the students appear to enjoy learning more when instruction is differentiated. If nothing else differentiation gets the students out of their seats and interested in learning! It makes a difference in the classroom I’m currently in and I will certainly differentiate when I obtain my own classroom.

References

Bryant, J. (2012). Is Differentiated Instruction a Useless Fad? Retrieved November 09, 2016, from http://edge.ascd.org/blogpost/is-differentiated-instruction-a-useless-fad

Student Motivation

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When looking at student motivation it is essential to evaluate each individual student. As an educator this can be hard when planning lessons for 25-30 students. So what do you do? Initially, get to know your students and try to understand their interests and how they learn best (i.e. are they kinesthetic, visual, or auditory learners?). Then, based off of this information, differentiate instruction. During my student teaching observations I can say that I have honestly seen quite a bit of differentiation, especially in my current classroom. It is amazing to see how differentiated instruction really engages all of the students. I’ve seen clear differences between the inactivity of students sitting at their desks with only a few participating and the engaged, active students working in small groups or even whole group activities, it is amazing. Differentiation does a lot for student motivation, essentially, differentiation sets up the classroom to be a motivating environment. Through the use of this concept students are provided with choices, interactions with others, collaboration, self-involvement in curricular goals, and development of real world connections.

That being said, personally, I include differentiation within my instruction. I ensure that there are different types of activities within my lessons for all learners. I also try to ensure that I provide my students with a safe space to share their ideas. I let them know that participating and sharing are essential in collaboration, even if they don’t have the right answer their participation is key. Additionally, I let my students know that I don’t know all of the answers either, I think it is important for them to realize that no one knows everything and that’s okay. If students understand that they have a safe space they will be more willing to participate and try. During my first placement I had a few students who were very quiet and meek, as we developed a warm and embracing classroom community many of them began to open up. During math lessons I felt that some of our lower students were struggling, at first they wouldn’t ask questions, but I stressed the importance that they tell me if they didn’t understand. I let them know that if they had any problems I wanted to answer them, I didn’t want them to get left behind and I WANTED them to understand. I literally spent 10 minutes explaining to them that I wanted them to ask questions, I NEEDED them to ask questions if they didn’t understand, that I wanted to see everyone’s hands in the air when I was looking for answers and if they couldn’t raise their hand to give me an answer I wanted them to tell me what confused them so I could help, from then on they felt motivated to ask questions. BOY DID THEY ASK! I was so happy though, my struggling students started to GET IT because I was able to spend the time with them that they needed and my stronger students could help assist as well. I think providing that support and letting them know that I cared promoted the motivation necessary to help create understanding.

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There is much more that goes into keeping students motivated, but I think the essentials are differentiation and a supportive environment. We must utilize differentiation to meet all students’ needs for motivation and instruction while creating a safe place for students to explore and question without feeling like they will be ridiculed.

Coping with Behavior Issues

Currently, I’m in a second grade classroom with students who are 7 and 8. These students are learning how to become more independent, getting to know themselves better, and they are honing the socialization techniques they have been taught in kindergarten and first grade. Bullying is definitely a big topic at this age level, this is due to the educators trying to prevent issues from arising as the students move to higher levels and become worried about peer approval. Luckily, in my classroom there aren’t too many issues. We do have a few students who are still learning to keep their hands to themselves and others who are very sensitive or going through things at home that they take out on their peers. These situations we handle by talking with the students, seeing if we can help, and, if necessary, having the student talk to the guidance counselor for assistance processing or expressing themselves. This doesn’t disrupt our class often and we deal with any situations immediately and with care.

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I must admit, however, that we do have a couple of students who have been identified with special needs in the behavior area. Without going into detail, to protect the students, I will say that there are many times these students disrupt the class. Be it screaming, kicking the wall, or throwing things on the floor the rest of the students can easily get off task when these situations occur. When I am teaching the class I just remind my students to pay attention to me and continue working on their assignments. When I use the prompt “Eyes on me” the students all turn to look at me, say “Eyes on you,” and continue following the lesson. We have a GREAT group of students that really stay on task and understand that disruptions may occur but they can still do their work. Both my site teacher and I praise our students when they can stay on task during these outburst and we praise our students who have been identified when they have an excellent lesson or day. We have actually had our students ask if they can say thank you to our identified students when they have a good day as well. We encourage this so that everyone feels welcome in the classroom. I can say I am in a great setting for learning about keeping students on task and coping with behavior problems when arise. We really do have an awesome group of students who support each other and embrace the diversity represented in the classroom!

Testing and a Self-fulfilling Prophecy

 As teachers, testing is something that is always on our minds. How will my students perform? Did they fall below, meet or exceed benchmark? Will the goals we set be attained? These questions and many more come to mind when thinking about testing as a teacher, but students at all levels of schooling usually just have one…..WILL I PERFORM WELL ENOUGH? I know that in elementary school and even middle school many students may not worry, I didn’t at these levels, but at the high school level reality begins to set in that, at least in the academic world, your lifeblood is performance on tests.

              
 Personally, even as an educator, I’m not a fan of standardized testing. Why, you may ask? Because I know how it feels not to perform as well as you expect and I know that these tests don’t test or show every level of intelligence. As a high school student I took the ACT three times before I just accepted the scores that I obtained. Yes, I graduated with a bachelor’s degree and yes, I will have my master’s in four short months but testing has always been an issue of mine.  

When I graduated with my undergrad I went to take my GRE, but remembering my poor performance on the ACT I found myself agonizing over the thought of testing. I stressed about it every day, I studied every night. Finally, the day came to take it, I tried to give myself enough time to get down to the testing site (which, of course, was two hours away), but what happened? TRAFFIC! Then I parked on the wrong side of campus and wound up walking half of a mile in the 95 degree heat. By the time I got to the testing center I was 15 minutes late, but thankfully they allowed me to test. While taking my test my computer shut off not once, but twice! After all of the stress and anxiety about taking the test, in combination with my series of unfortunate events, I could barely concentrate on the content. There’s a saying I saw somewhere “a negative mind will never give you a positive life.” Well I don’t have a negative mind in all aspects of life, but when it came to this test I think I set myself up for failure. The negative energy that I exuded because of my previous performance on tests made me enter into a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure. I know I couldn’t really control everything else that happened that day, but I definitely could have had a better mind set! Let me tell you, when I saw my score after everything I had been through to get to that test I just cried. I called my parents, disappointed in myself, and cried like a giant 22 year old baby! They consoled me, told me I was smart and that a test couldn’t tell me my intelligence or worth, but nothing they said could make it better. All of this testing really did mess with my head and throughout my life I’ve second guessed myself a lot because of it. THIS is why I’m not a fan of testing, it makes students who are intelligent and capable, second guess themselves and think they are less than.

Let me tell you, I’m still not a fan, but as a future teacher I had to take the Praxis exams. The anxiety set in again, I studied harder than I ever have, and prepared myself for taking them all again. This time, though, I told myself it was okay if I had to retest, I would just try again if I needed too. Guess what happened! I passed with flying colors!!!! I think this time, because I told myself even if I didn’t pass the first time I knew I eventually would, I gave myself the littlest bit of confidence I needed to do well. I know it doesn’t sound like much but just saying I will try until I eventually get it left me entering the test center with more confidence and less anxiety. So, what’s the point to this whole thing? Give yourself the benefit of the doubt, believe in yourself, and try your hardest to accomplish your goals! For the love of goodness SET GOALS! I couldn’t imagine traveling through life without them. I love the idea of attaining a goal and I always set a new one shortly thereafter, it feeds me and I feel like it gives me purpose. I hope this provides some                 motivation and hope for those who have a hurdle in life that presents difficulty. As the old adage from William Hickson goes, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again!


Clip Art Credits
"Success in life...." http://capitalsqua.re/blog-posts/2014/12/16/6-successful-entrepreneurs-who-failed
"If at first you don't succeed..." http://www.blogging4jobs.com/life-2/if-at-first-you-dont-succeed-try-try-try-again/#yLeOvo7SpFzy6ciu.97
"A negative minds....."https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/35/d6/d5/35d6d58f2d4638654bca352a5f6b57be.jpg

Great Expectations

Hi all! Well I have to say that student teaching is not where I thought I would be at the age of 32. Heck! I thought I’d be done with school all together, but here I am in a classroom, working with some of the most awesome little people I have ever met and living the dream! My name is Rachel Shaffer, I am a master’s student at American Public University, a pharmacy technician, student teacher, mommy to two amazing children and wife to one of the funniest men I have ever met. In 2006, I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and, though it took me a while to discover my passion in life, I can honestly say working with children is something I am meant to do.

A few more tidbits about me; I love family time, reading, traveling to new places (this was sparked by life as a military brat), trying different foods, outdoor activities and did I mention working with kids?

As I enter the school each morning, I find myself walking down the hall to my 2^nd grade classroom wondering, “What am I going to learn today?” This may sound funny to many of you, a 32 year old woman learning in a 2^nd grade classroom, but TRUST ME each day is a learning experience! Every day I learn new techniques for interaction, engagement, encouraging socialization, discouraging undesired behaviors, and even ways to console upset students that I’d never considered before. Living through the experience of student teaching will be something I remember for the rest of my career and I’m grateful to those who are participating in the process; my teachers for giving me guidance, my students for their insight, and my family for putting up with me after sleepless nights and to much caffeine.

Embarking on the student teaching adventure can be very daunting at first, mixed emotions abound, now that I’ve obtained my syllabus, met my teachers, and spent a few days in the classroom I feel a little more at ease. I intend to utilize the information I gain from this experience to encourage student achievement through research on, and implementation of, effective instructional practices and techniques. Also, because I have a very diverse group of students, diversification and differentiation will be an integral part of my instruction so that I can ensure I meet the needs of all of my students while also achieving the learning objectives set forth by the state and professional agencies. Additionally, I have observed a few behavioral issues over the first few days that I hope to address when I obtain more responsibility within the classroom.  I will be interested to see if my implementation of differing behavior management techniques will have a positive outcome on the few issues that have been seen.

I look forward to the next 15 weeks and I hope to learn a lot while sharing just as much!

               from: http://stunningmotivation.com/10-ways-how-successful-leaders-think/