Haley Williams

Betty Okwako-Riekkola
EDUC 432
November 20, 2015
Reflexive Folio
When I began my student teaching experience my hope was that
I would learn as much as possible so I would feel ready for when I had
my very own teaching job. I normally have a hard time seeing how
much I change over a period of time but I can confidently say that I
have grown so much from when I first began my student teaching.
Thanks to my mentor teacher, who constantly pushed and challenged
me to be better, I was able to learn from all of my mistakes and
become more fearless when it came to my teaching.
At the very beginning of the year I was timid and unsure of what
to do if my mentor teacher ever asked me to get in front of the
classroom. There was one instance, the day before my second week of
school, where I was sitting in my apartment and freaking out about
how I had to teach classes the next day. I finally told myself Stop! The
kids are not going to eat you alive and you are twice their size. Its
going to be okay and you can do it! (Haley Williams Journal 2). I
needed to accept that this semester is a time of learning and that I
needed to be willing to jump head first into anything my mentor

teacher was going to throw at me because in the end, it would make

me a more successful music teacher.
I was always afraid to fail because I wanted to be able to be
really good at teaching right way. But I learned very quickly that that is
not how teaching works. I not only heard from my mentor teacher, but
also from teachers around the building, about how not everything they
have tried has always worked in their classrooms. The best thing to do
when something doesnt work out well is to strategize for the next
class and move on. There were many times during my student
teaching in which the way I was doing my lesson was failing or my
classroom management was failing and my mentor teacher had to
jump in so the class could keep flowing smoothly. It was really hard the
first couple of times this happened but after a while I started to learn to
embrace the failure and then figure out what to do for next time.
Towards the end I was beginning to be able to quickly turn a lesson
that was failing by using tricks that my mentor teacher uses to keep
the students on task.
As the year went on I became much more comfortable in front of
my students and teaching them the material. After I failed in a few of
my lessons I was starting to figure out what worked for my students,
and me, and what didnt work. A big problem that I had was being so
worried for my students to like me. This really put a halt on my
classroom management at times because I was afraid to be too strict

in fear that my students would not want to listen to me because they

would think that I was mean. When I started to fully take over the
classrooms is when I really got the flow of classroom management and
Once [my classes] saw that I wasnt going to let them walk all over
me, they took me much more seriously (Haley Williams Journal 8). My
mentor teacher taught me that you dont need to be your students
best friend. What students need is structure. If you create structure for
students and stick firmly to your own rules, they will respect you and
understand what is expected of them in the classroom.
My mentor teacher was also a huge help when it came to getting
better at lesson planning. My mentor teacher told me to write [my
lesson plans] like a script so when it came to actually teaching it I have
an idea of what I want to do (Haley Williams Journal 6). Towards the
beginning of the year my lessons plans were not a huge help to me. All
of the main ideas were on the paper but not any of the details. Then on
day my mentor teacher asked me what happens when that doesnt
work? I could not answer her question at that time so she had me
change the way I wrote my lesson plans to a more script-like lesson
plan. Once I began thinking of my lesson plans as a script to my
lessons, it became much easier for me to write them and teach them.
After I wrote out everything that I thought I wanted to say and teach,
getting up in front of the class was much easier. I was able to do the
things I wanted to do because my brain has already thought about all

of the processes. This also helped my transitions and my classroom

management because I had already thought of what to do when my
lesson didnt go exactly how I planned it to. When I know my end
goal I dont let anything get in my way of getting my students there.
After writing my lesson plans I had to be ready to apply them in
my classrooms. During my student teaching I was placed at three
different elementary schools. Having this experience really forced me
to think more about my lesson plans and how they would work for my
students rather than just writing out what I wanted to do. I needed to
be ready to adjust my lesson plans for my different classes at all of my
different schools. What worked for one of my third grade classes at one
school, did not always work for the other third grade classes at another
school or even at the same school. Once I began to know my students
and classes better this became much easier for me. Knowing that each
class, and school, all had their own personalities, I had to work really
hard to get to know my classes so I could teach them in the best way
so they could maximize their learning.
I believe that the greatest insight that I have developed during
my student teaching is that teaching the material isnt the most
difficult part of teaching; the most difficult part was being able to
connect with my students. When I first began, I had a difficult time
teaching my students partly because I was not super confidant and
partly because they didnt fully trust me yet. They often questioned me

or would look to my mentor teacher to make sure what I was telling

them to do was correct. This was because all of my students had a
great relationship with my mentor teacher and looked at me as an
outsider. As the semester went on, and I started connecting with
students and becoming more confortable in front of them, teaching
became much easier because they viewed me as one of their teachers
rather than a stranger in their classrom. At the very end of the year I
knew I had made an impact on my students lives because I received
many goodbye letters, pictures, and hugs from all of my students. I
wasnt sure how well I was going to be able to develop relationships
only being in the classroom for a semester but I think I impacted all of
my students in a positive way.
Throughout the semester I was asked to reflect on my teaching
based on the five habits of mind. By using these to think about my
teaching I was able to look deeper into what I was doing in my
classroom and therefore, make my teaching better. By constantly
reflecting on my teaching I was able to become a better critically
thinking risk-taker and problem solver. I was able to figure out what
went wrong, what went well, and what I needed to do for next time in
order to make the lesson go even better. My mentor teacher and I
constantly discussed what I needed to work on and how I could make it
better which allowed me to become better at being a perspectivetaker, seeking out, valuing and incorporating different viewpoints and

positions about learners, learning, teaching, and subject matter. My

mentor teacher not only made me think more about what exactly I was
teaching my students but also what was best for them in order to get
the best learning experience. Once I actually started teaching in a
classroom I realized that students must come first especially when it
comes to lesson planning. Keeping this mindset while I was lesson
planning allowed me to become a better child and youth advocate,
desiring a more fair, equitable, and democratic society. It also allowed
me to become a more thoughtful and caring learner-teacher, open
and eager to know, be known, and respect self and others. Putting my
students at the forefront of my mind during my lesson planning made
me think about each students and how this lesson could benefit them.
If I didnt think my lesson would work for them I would think of ways to
make sure that it worked for them. I am not just teaching my students
but also working with them in order to create the most enriching
experience for them in my music classroom. By the end of my student
teaching I definitely think I have become a morally, ethicallygrounded deliberator, living and working with diverse individuals with
integrity. I not only work with a diverse group of teachers but also a
diverse group of students. Each school, class, student, and teacher has
their own personalities and being able to work with all of that in order
to teach the best lesson I can has really honed my skills to work with
diverse groups.

I have learned so much during my student teaching experience. I

was able to develop my fundamental teaching skills to apply in and out
of the classroom in order to be comfortable with the content that I am
teaching. But one of the most important lessons I learned is that my
students come first. It was hard at first to apply what I have been
learning in my classes to real life teaching, but after collaborating with
my mentor teacher and finally getting comfortable in front of my
students, I was able to let the inner teacher out. I learned so much not
only from my mentor teacher but from my students as well. I hope Im
able to take what Ive learned and be a successful teacher in my own
classroom.