overall reflection
My overall clincial experience was extremely positive. Mrs. H taught me so much without her even knowing it. She has so much experience with teaching and has taught in many different school systems and different states. Everything Mrs. H did had a reason; she didn't do anything that was unnecessary. Her attitude to every interruption and spontaneous event was always positive. If things didn't go the way she planned, she automatically adjusted things and continued her lesson flawlessly. One big thing that I learned from her class was to push students away. Her students would constantly come ask her for answers and she would simply tell them that they had to figure it out on their own. She'd tell them that they'd go over everything at the end. She always told her students not to give up and that was very apparent in her classroom. Mrs. H treated them as if they were miniature adults placed in real world situations and I thought that was wonderful.
Mrs. H was very dedicated to teaching balanced literacy. She spent the beginning portion of the day focusing on different forms of literacy. Each day, everyone would start off doing word sorts. These word sorts were adjusted based on their literacy levels. They were then broken into groups so students with similar word sorts could work together. Once everyone completed their word sort, she would have students rotate between stations. There would be a station for new word sorts, a station where students took AR tests, and two reading stations. The students would be at each station for about 10-15 minutes and then they would rotate to a different station. Students rotate between these stations everyday. This exposed students to more forms of literacy. Students that struggled with reading would spend more time at a particular station with a special education teacher who came in everyday. The students with special needs were never treated differently. Mrs. H made sure that they were constantly involved and engaged in activities.
Mrs. H's students loved math. To accommodate this, she started each morning with an Excel Math Sheet as their warm up and would end the day with a math lesson. Her students were always so excited to learn math so they would always pay attention. They also loved to learn science. While I was there, the students were working on their class Science Fair Project. Each student had a specific job assigned to them. The students made sure that they were all on task because they wanted their project to win at the Science Fair. The students would see how excited Mrs. H would be about teaching Social Studies and they would reciprocate the same. It was great to see how one teacher's attitude towards a subject affected 19 children.
There wasn't a day when I wasn't involved with the students. From the day I stepped through the doors of Torrence Creek Elementary into Mrs. H's classroom, I was helping students out. The students were so warm and welcoming and invited me in as if they've known me forever. I let Mrs. H know that I've never worked with a special needs student so she placed two special needs students with me. By the way the two boys were acting, I never would've guessed that Josh and Chris(education alias) were special needs students. They were a little rowdy but every other boy in the classroom was as well. When I was working with them, John tested me to see if he could get away with not doing his work because I wasn't his teacher. I set my foot down and told him that I was Mrs. H's assistant and he had to do whatever I told him to do. From that day on, he never once question my authority. John and Chris were both a grade level below where their reading level should be. Mrs. H told me that they've improved so much since August and their love for reading as grown since they first stepped into her classroom. Everyday I was in the classroom, I would bring John and Chris to the reading area and have them read aloud to me. I would then time both of them to see if they were reading with accuracy at a good pace. I compared times from the first day I got there to the last day I was in the classroom and the results were astounding! They started off at 58 seconds and after two weeks, they were down to 42 seconds. Mrs. H was just as impressed so she gave them a free reading pass to read one day whenever they liked for 20 minutes. Both John and Chris were so excited. Mrs. H explained that each student has a obstacle that they have to overcome and our job as teachers is to help students overcome that obstacle and achieve greatness.
Mrs. H welcomed me into her classroom and allowed me to do anything that I needed to do with her students.
She gave me so much encouragement and gave me many ideas for lessons and my future classroom. Mrs. H always made me feel welcome to do whatever I wanted with the students and helping out.
I don't think my clincials could've gone any better. I was extremely happy with the way they turned out. At first, I was nervous to be in a classroom for 2 weeks and was not sure if teaching was for me but I proved myself wrong. Being in that 2nd grade classroom was the greatest thing in the world. Seeing children understanding the content and seeing those "ah-ha!" moments were the best. My cooperating teacher was very flexible and was always there to help me and provided so much feedback. She was a great model of what a perfect teacher would do. I've learned so much through being in her classroom and observing her lessons. I don't think I would use as many stations as Mrs. H did but other than that, I saw so many things that I would adapt into my own classroom. I've always thought writing instruction was important but seeing Mrs. H teaching, made it more apparent. This experience has made me so excited to start my yearlong next spring. I can't wait to teach all day everyday for an entire semester.
Mrs. H was very dedicated to teaching balanced literacy. She spent the beginning portion of the day focusing on different forms of literacy. Each day, everyone would start off doing word sorts. These word sorts were adjusted based on their literacy levels. They were then broken into groups so students with similar word sorts could work together. Once everyone completed their word sort, she would have students rotate between stations. There would be a station for new word sorts, a station where students took AR tests, and two reading stations. The students would be at each station for about 10-15 minutes and then they would rotate to a different station. Students rotate between these stations everyday. This exposed students to more forms of literacy. Students that struggled with reading would spend more time at a particular station with a special education teacher who came in everyday. The students with special needs were never treated differently. Mrs. H made sure that they were constantly involved and engaged in activities.
Mrs. H's students loved math. To accommodate this, she started each morning with an Excel Math Sheet as their warm up and would end the day with a math lesson. Her students were always so excited to learn math so they would always pay attention. They also loved to learn science. While I was there, the students were working on their class Science Fair Project. Each student had a specific job assigned to them. The students made sure that they were all on task because they wanted their project to win at the Science Fair. The students would see how excited Mrs. H would be about teaching Social Studies and they would reciprocate the same. It was great to see how one teacher's attitude towards a subject affected 19 children.
There wasn't a day when I wasn't involved with the students. From the day I stepped through the doors of Torrence Creek Elementary into Mrs. H's classroom, I was helping students out. The students were so warm and welcoming and invited me in as if they've known me forever. I let Mrs. H know that I've never worked with a special needs student so she placed two special needs students with me. By the way the two boys were acting, I never would've guessed that Josh and Chris(education alias) were special needs students. They were a little rowdy but every other boy in the classroom was as well. When I was working with them, John tested me to see if he could get away with not doing his work because I wasn't his teacher. I set my foot down and told him that I was Mrs. H's assistant and he had to do whatever I told him to do. From that day on, he never once question my authority. John and Chris were both a grade level below where their reading level should be. Mrs. H told me that they've improved so much since August and their love for reading as grown since they first stepped into her classroom. Everyday I was in the classroom, I would bring John and Chris to the reading area and have them read aloud to me. I would then time both of them to see if they were reading with accuracy at a good pace. I compared times from the first day I got there to the last day I was in the classroom and the results were astounding! They started off at 58 seconds and after two weeks, they were down to 42 seconds. Mrs. H was just as impressed so she gave them a free reading pass to read one day whenever they liked for 20 minutes. Both John and Chris were so excited. Mrs. H explained that each student has a obstacle that they have to overcome and our job as teachers is to help students overcome that obstacle and achieve greatness.
Mrs. H welcomed me into her classroom and allowed me to do anything that I needed to do with her students.
She gave me so much encouragement and gave me many ideas for lessons and my future classroom. Mrs. H always made me feel welcome to do whatever I wanted with the students and helping out.
I don't think my clincials could've gone any better. I was extremely happy with the way they turned out. At first, I was nervous to be in a classroom for 2 weeks and was not sure if teaching was for me but I proved myself wrong. Being in that 2nd grade classroom was the greatest thing in the world. Seeing children understanding the content and seeing those "ah-ha!" moments were the best. My cooperating teacher was very flexible and was always there to help me and provided so much feedback. She was a great model of what a perfect teacher would do. I've learned so much through being in her classroom and observing her lessons. I don't think I would use as many stations as Mrs. H did but other than that, I saw so many things that I would adapt into my own classroom. I've always thought writing instruction was important but seeing Mrs. H teaching, made it more apparent. This experience has made me so excited to start my yearlong next spring. I can't wait to teach all day everyday for an entire semester.