Title: Early Childhood Student Teaching Weekly Reflections

Date: Summer 2014

Artifact Description:
In the summer of 2014 I completed my Early Childhood Student Teaching requirement at the
UW Platteville Childrens Center. During my four week placement, I worked in the two year
to three-year old room. During the first week, I was asked to lead calendar, story time, and an art
project twice, during my second week I was responsible for leading these activates three times,
and for the last two weeks I was responsible for planning and leading all activities for the entire
two week unit I created. The artifact is the weekly reflections I prepared from this experience.
Wisconsin Teacher Standard Alignment:
This experience aligns with Wisconsin Teacher Standard 9: Reflection - Teachers are able to
evaluate themselves. The teacher is a reflective practitioner who continually evaluates the effects
of his or her choices and actions on pupils, parents, professionals in the learning community and
others and who actively seeks out opportunities to grow professionally.
This experience best aligns with this standard because this was the first time I was truly in
control of student learning. Until you are in that position you do not truly feel how immense of a
responsibility this really is. Self-reflection allowed me to evaluate my actions as a teacher, while
considering strategies I had observed that worked well to develop an approach that would be
most appropriate in different situations and would allow for the best learning opportunities for
students.
From this experience I am more competent because it really took me reflecting on my word
choices and how I was reinforcing behaviors to realize that I had been focusing most of my
attention on the recurring negative behaviors that were taking place. Once I realized this, I was
better able to focus more attention on using positive reinforcement which has been proven to be
more effective, especially for this age group.
UW-Platteville Knowledge, Skills, Disposition Statement Alignment:
This experience best aligns with KSD4.a: Reflects on teaching - The candidate makes an
accurate and thoughtful reflection of his her teaching effectiveness, is aware of specific elements
of his/her teaching that contributed to successful instruction, and can offer alternative teacher
action to predict the future successes of alternate approaches.
This experience aligns best with this KSD because my self-reflection was such an important
processes to adjusting to teaching this young of children that at times are not always the most
cooperative. By reflecting on my actions as the teacher I, was able to recognize that my strategy
for dealing with an individual child was not effective. With this realization, I was able to consult
with my cooperating teacher and together we discussed alternative strategies that she found to be
most effective with this individual student. As an educator, it is important of be aware of the
effectiveness of a teaching strategy and be willing to find alternate approaches when something
is not working. Consulting with my cooperating teacher was a great way for me to find the right
approach that would prove to the most successful. By doing this, I committed myself to seeking
out, developing, continually refining my teaching practices to meet the needs of students.
I am more competent as a result of this experience, because during the time I took to reflect on
my teaching and what things went well and what things could have went better, I was able to
continue to develop and refine practices that addressed the individual needs of the students.
During this time, I also reflected on each child as an individual and identified alternative
practices that I could use as consequences of positive or negative behaviors.
Secondary KSDs:
KSD4.e: Grows and develops professionally
KSD1.b: Demonstrates Knowledge of Students
KSD2.c: Managing Classroom Procedures
KSD4.d: Contributes to the School and District
Personal Reflection:
What I learned about teaching/learning from this experience:
From this experience I learned to be a more effective educator because this was the first time I
really had full control over teaching an entire unit. I realized that the little things such as
transitions into another activity, especially in younger age groups, can be where issues arise that
you may not have prepared for. Without reflecting on these times, an educator may not realize
when a strategy is ineffective and may continue to struggle with a problematic area. In order to
makes positive changes to your teaching an educator must be committed to reflecting, assessing,
and learning as an ongoing process.
What learned about myself as a prospective educator as a result of this experience:
As a prospective educator, I better understand methods of self-assessment and problem-solving
strategies for reflecting on the practices I was using and how these influenced the growth and
learning of the children I was working with. I realized that without time for reflection a teacher
may not recognize that a certain teaching strategy may not be working for all students. Taking
the time to step back and analyze how a lesson, or in this case calendar time or story time went,
allowed me to pin point the areas in which I could improve upon or strategies that worked well
that I would use again.