NEARING THE END
At the
beginning of my clinical experience, I had four main goals for myself. Approaching the end, it is now time to
reflect on these. The goal I am probably
the most happy and grateful I met is building a relationship with my CT. Words cannot describe how our relationship
blossomed in such a short period of time.
I have always had positive experiences with CTs, but I have never been
so close to one before. She even texts
me a few days a week to touch base and see how I am doing. She always has words of encouragement as
well. I am going to go about having a relationship
with my CT in student teaching as I did this semester because it seemed to
serve me well.
I have
definitely met my goal of becoming more familiar with 3rd
grade. After observing and teaching, I remembered
learning some of the same things when I was in 3rd grade. As I originally thought the content would be
difficult for me considering I have never taught in 2nd or 3rd
grade, I immediately realized this was not the case. The students really did not seem that much
older than I was used to. After spending
several weeks in this 3rd grade classroom, I would say I definitely
know what is developmentally appropriate and what is not. On the topic of early explorers in social
studies, for example, it would not be developmentally appropriate to have
children learn the dates of which explorers explored when. Time is very abstract to young students, so
more than likely, they would just end up memorizing these dates or years
instead of understanding what they actually meant. On the other hand, having students learn a
general timeline of who explored when (who came first, last, etc.) would be developmentally
appropriate.
I believe
differentiating instruction is something you never stop learning about, as a teacher,
so this is something I hope to get more experience with during student
teaching. I have become better and more knowledgeable
of this topic, but I know that the more experience I have, the better I will
become at this. There are several checks
for understanding tools I have learned about and implemented, and I think this
is a good step in the right direction of being able to meet all of my students’
needs by using tools like these.
My self-confidence
this semester improved because of several factors. My strong relationship with my CT, my great relationship
with the students, and the advice from my supervisor are all factors that fed
into this. Even week to week, I noticed
a difference in myself. I am so glad for
this because self-confidence has always been something I’ve struggled
with. This is another goal that I believe
I will get closer and closer to as I become more experienced.
During student
teaching, I will have similar goals to this semester. An additional goal will be to really push
myself all day every day in the classroom.
By this I mean I really want to take action and be involved from day
one. I really want to make an impression
on my CT, and I think doing this is a great way to do that.
One thing I learned
this semester that I think is important is that you never know who is
watching. My teacher had a sub during an
IEP meeting one morning, so she gave me full reign of the classroom. The sub and I had talked a little before school
started, but I did not know that she was a former principal and special
educator. My CT texted me that night to
let me know she gave me several compliments and was impressed, which is apparently
hard to come by for her. I really hope
to impress staff and others during student teaching because it could even land me
a job!
