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 3^rd grade.  After observing and teaching, I remembered learning some of the same things when I was in 3^rd grade.  As I originally thought the content would be difficult for me considering I have never taught in 2^nd or 3^rd 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 3^rd 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!

-the plaque I got my CT as a parting gift for being so helpful and kind