Shauna Anderson

EDUC 450
PDS student at FCHS
Final Reflection

It is hard to believe that 4 months ago I was starting my 450 journey and today I will be
submitting my TWS and concluding this class in earnest. All the weeks of being in the classroom
with the Fort Collins students has been invigorating and challenging and so worthwhile. I
enjoyed my fellow CSU 450 colleagues and learned so much from them with the MTV strategies
they taught me and the coming together to share our experiences in the classroom. I truly feel
that we grew together as teachers and that we finished as a team putting on the awesome Cinco
de Mayo staff luncheon. I gained so much knowledge from the various Collins teachers that
came in and spoke to our cohort. Their passion, commitment, and experience was so helpful to
me and I have so many notes from those presentations. Something that really stood out to me
was 1. The MOST important thing as a teacher is to have positive and caring relationships with
students, and 2. Its totally OK to steal lesson plans and ideas from other teachers!
The mock-interviews were nerve wracking and so helpful. I appreciated the deans and
assistant principals and principal taking the time to sit with us and offer sound advice. For
example, Mr. Richy told us to draw on actual experiences/examples from our teaching when we
have our real interviews one day. He put each of us on the spot and asked us an interview
question. It was excellent practice. Mr. Eversole talked to us about dressing the part and about
when we actually do interview one day, writing down the questions our interviewers ask us the
minute the interview is over so that we can get better at honing in on what our real answers
are.

A huge asset to our 450 class was having 2 teachers! Elaine Holmes enthusiasm,
feistiness, humor, and sincerity were such an addition to our group and when she looked each of
us in the eye the last time she spoke to us in the staff lounge, I got choked up because she is just
the kind of teacher that I want to be. I want to be fiercely dedicated to my students, have fun with
them, be humble, and be myself.
And last but not least, Derek Decker. (Soon to be Triple D when he gets his PhD and
becomes Dr. Derek Decker!) The adjectives that come to mind when I think of this semester with
him at the helm: leader, motivator, inspirer, capable, generous, encouraging, patient, and to use a
French adj: gnial! I appreciated all that Derek incorporated into our 450 class the entire
experience was so powerful because there were so many components to it: classroom time,
teaching lessons, evaluations, working in groups with our 450 classmates, guest speakers, etc.
and it wasnt him just lecturing to us it was a rich and valuable experience as a whole because
of how he set it up to be truly rigorous and real.
I feel like Im at the starting line of a marathon that Ive trained for years to get to
where I am right now and Im just ready to run, to see if all my hard work and training have paid
off. The race official steps up and announces, On your mark! Get set! Unfortunately, I still
have to wait for the Go! until spring 2017 when I do my student teaching! Stay tuned