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Looking Forward, Looking Back: My Student Teaching Experience

I completed my student teaching at Endeavor Elementary School located in Harvest, AL
and Legacy Elementary School located in Madison, AL. Normally, student teaching interns are
assigned one school in which to complete their student teaching internship. I participated in the
Early Start program offered at UAH which allowed me to do my last field experience
observation in the same classroom that I would have for my first student teaching placement.
Because of this, I was required to switch to a different school by the state department so as not to
remain at one school for a whole year. Endeavor Elementary School had approximately 793
students enrolled with a total of 53 faculty and staff members including: a principal, a vice
principal, a nurse, grade level teachers, and an instructional coach. Legacy Elementary School
had approximately 764 students enrolled with a total of 60 faculty and staff members including:
a principal, a vice principal, a nurse, grade level teachers, an instructional coach, intervention
teachers, and a speech therapist. I began my student teaching experience in January in the 3 rd
grade classroom of Mr. Tim Gels at Endeavor Elementary School. In this classroom, I had the
pleasure of teaching a total of 17 students which consisted of eight boys and nine girls. After
eight weeks of student teaching in 3rd grade, I moved to Legacy Elementary School to join Mrs.
Molly Howard and her 1st grade class of 21 students: nine boys and twelve girls. My experiences
in both classrooms helped to shape me as a teacher. I learned so many things about myself and
my abilities. I was also able to grow as a teacher by reflecting upon my strengths and weaknesses
during this time.
During my time with Mr. Gels class, I had the opportunity to create and teach a crosscurricular science unit about geology. I chose to do this particular unit because an AMSTI kit
about rocks and minerals had arrived the same week that I had, so I took this as a sign and

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decided to plan a ten day unit about geology (specifically about rocks and minerals). I used the
student science textbook to structure the lessons and the AMSTI kit as an engaging,
supplemental resource for extension. Before starting the unit, I administered a pre-test to the
students in order to determine their prior knowledge with the topic. I used this pre-test data to
inform my instruction in such a way so as to focus on the areas that most students missed
questions in. After the pre-test, I taught the students a variety of things about rocks and minerals
including but not limited to: what a rock/mineral is, properties of rocks, what the three types of
rocks are, and about the rock cycle. I was able to create mock rocks that the students could
perform observations and experiments on. Based on the enthusiasm that I received from my
students, I chose to extend my unit to incorporate the Earths layers. I was able to do a variety of
activities with my students about the Earths layers including a play writing project.
The most significant insight that I gained from this unit was that students can become
more self-motivated to buy in to a lesson or unit when provided with exciting and relevant
topics. Using the AMSTI kit to strengthen my unit was a way for students to participate in
exciting, hands-on science that they enjoyed and learned from. Hands-on science allows students
to take knowledge that they learn and apply it to increase their knowledge of the topic. Students
use tools and materials to facilitate their learning. The downside to this kind of instruction is that
it requires more time and more classroom management. If I was doing an extensive hands-on
science lesson, I would have to allocate enough time for setup, the activity, clean up, and extra
time for unplanned disruptions. Often times, I would have to use time that was allotted for other
subjects. With management, students naturally were excited about performing experiments, and
sometimes this excitement would cause classroom management issues. These management

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issues brought to my attention the need for a solid classroom management approach which I
found in the Whole Brain Teaching method that I implemented.
During my time with Mrs. Howards class, I taught several writing units including:
figurative language, friendly letters, and poetry. I chose to do these writing units because I
wanted to see where the first graders were in terms of writing skills, and I thought they should
learn about these types of writing in order to start building a foundation that they could expand
upon during their later years of school. I really enjoyed these units and I ended up getting
wonderful student work. The friendly letter unit was relevant to their lives because Legacy
Elementary does a school wide mailing system called Monkey Mail. The poetry unit was great
because it allowed the students to use their creativity to engage in higher order thinking. The
figurative language unit helped them learn about what things good writers use in their work. One
of the greatest moments I experienced during these units was when students would come up to
me and show me examples of figurative language in their reading materials. Every time that this
would happen, I asked my students to write what they found on a post-it note and stick it on the
figurative language board. By the end of the unit, the board was filled with sticky notes!
I gained insight in terms of instruction throughout this unit. When I started in first grade,
I did not know the amount of explicit instruction that the students would need. Throughout my
field experiences, I was placed in higher grades so I never observed the type of instruction that
first graders needed. Throughout these writing units (and first grade in general), I learned that
explicit instruction is developmentally appropriate for 6-7 years olds. Instruction should be
tailored specifically to students learning and attentional needs. I could not just teach about what
a simile was or how to write an acrostic poem, but I had to allow students to practice these skills
in a structured setting. I was able to address explicit instruction through the use of learning

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targets which I posted every day for every subject. Part of our daily routine was to read our
learning targets before each lesson and after each lesson. After each lesson, we would discuss as
a class if we achieved our learning target. The students loved being able to say check when I
asked them if we had completed a learning target.
Throughout my student teaching experience I was able to identify my strengths and
weaknesses in regards to the teaching intern competencies. I believe that my two areas of
strength were management and professionalism. The management competency involves: creating
a positive learning environment, monitoring student engagement, developing and implementing
procedures and routines, organization, and positive reinforcement. Going into student teaching,
one of my goals was to create a sense of classroom community in both of my placements. When
I first started in 3rd grade, I was apprehensive about where to begin with this goal. I knew that I
needed a method that I was confident would work and that the students would respond well to.
When I discovered Whole Brain Teaching, I was wary. I thought that the repetitiveness of this
method would not go over well with my older students. When I tried it out, I was delighted to see
that the students responded positively to it. I was able to use this method to establish most of my
procedures and routines in both 3rd grade and 1st grade. By the time I got to 1st grade, I was fairly
confident in the Whole Brain approach and I hope to have a chance to implement this approach
in my own future classroom. I feel as though organization has always been one of my strengths
and I was able to test this strength in two different classrooms. I was able to organize my space,
materials, and time especially to maximize teaching and learning in both classrooms. I am fairly
confident in my management skills and I expect them to grow even more as a full time teacher.
My second area of strength, professionalism, has multiple components including:
collaborating with school personnel, creating productive relationships with parents,

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demonstrating the ability to communicate effectively, and acting as an advocate for all students. I
strived to conduct myself in the highest manner with fellow teachers, administration, parents, and
students. Simple things like offering to help other teachers or sending positive notes/calls home
to parents allowed me to expand my professionalism. The goal for any teacher is to put the
students first before anything else. Collaboration with school personnel and parents is one way to
be an advocate for the students. I loved being able to call my students parents and brag about
how wonderful their child was that day. Talking with professionals about how to differentiate
instruction to increase student achievement was always a priority for me. And of course, I try to
grow both personally and professionally so as to always be up to date on the best methods for
teaching students. I hope that I continue to grow in my professionalism.
My two weaknesses going into student teaching were assessment and diversity. After
taking college courses in both of these areas, I thought that I would be prepared to perform these
in a classroom setting, but boy was I wrong! Learning about assessment and diversity is different
than actually applying these principles, as I soon found out. With assessment, I had difficulty
deciding when to assess, what type of assessment to administer, and even what to do with my
assessment data when I had it. I was very lucky to have two cooperating teachers who helped me
grow steadily in my assessment abilities. With my 3 rd grade class, I was able to administer a pretest, a post-test, several formative assessments (quizzes), and other summative assessments
strategies including performance assessments. In 1 st grade, I was able to take the assessment
skills I had developed and expand on them. In 1 st grade, I once again administered summative
assessments, but I was also able to learn several quick formative assessment strategies like
thumbs up/thumbs down, glass-bugs-mud, turn and talk to partner, and blow the answer in your
hand. In both placements, I learned how to administer a pre-test and then take the data and

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inform your instruction based on the results. One of my shining moments of assessment was
when I had administered a quiz about fractions in 3rd grade. My students had either done really
well on the assessment or really low. I used this information to my benefit and I was able to reteach the lessons to the low students so as to help them understand better.
In regards to diversity, I found it difficult to design instruction that was appropriate to
students stages of development, learning styles, cultural background, and IEP requirements.
After discussing this competency with my two cooperating teachers and university advisor, they
assured me that it is a skill that often comes with time. I kept this in mind as I attempted to
differentiate instruction in the following four areas: content, process, product, and environment. I
would differentiate instruction mostly in content and process. In 3rd grade, I differentiated the
content during math instruction and reading instruction. I differentiated the process during small
group instruction and tier intervention. 1st grade was similar to 3rd grade in that I differentiated
content and process. In the future, I hope to expand my differentiation skills to incorporate
product and environment. I am confident that with experience and research, I will be able to
differentiate instruction to aide all of my students.
As I think back on all of my student teaching experiences, I feel like I took the
information I learned in my college courses and I was able to apply them to a real world setting. I
had many successes and some failures, but I always felt prepared to handle every situation.
Student teaching gave me an opportunity to grow as a person and professional and to start to
build confidence in my abilities as a teacher. I enjoyed working with parents, teachers, and of
course all of my students to help me reach this finish line in my college career. This experience
solidified my desire to become a teacher and I cannot wait to learn and grow with my own class!