Final Reflection 4/21/2015

After not being able to go to China for the second half of my student
teaching, I continued to teach in Kindergarten at Rattlesnake Elementary. Since I
have been in this class since November, I have gotten to know my cooperating
teacher and my students and their families well. I feel like I am part of the
Rattlesnake community, and am very comfortable with everyone in it by now.
Getting to know my students, families, and teachers so well was very beneficial. I
was able to conduct a few of the spring parent-teacher conferences with parents
that I knew well, and this was a great professional development opportunity. I also
got the opportunity to see what the process is in hiring a new principal, and even sit
in on all-staff principal interviews, since the Rattlesnake principal is retiring at the
end of the year. Between these experiences, as well as attending other various
committee and staff meetings, I was given many professional development
opportunities throughout student teaching.
In assessing myself as well as being assessed by my cooperating teacher and
university supervisor at my midterm, we came up with a few goals for me to work
on during the second half of student teaching. These two goals were 1) to give
students more wait time to answer questions, make connections with books, etc.
and 2) to increase connections with the parents of my students. I believe that in the
second half of my student teaching I was able to achieve these goals. The principal
of the school came into the class to observe one of my lessons, and his feedback
proved that I had improved in giving students wait time. I have been working really
hard on remembering to do this, so it was nice to hear specific feedback that I had
improved. I also believe that I have increased connections with parents/families in
the second half of my student teaching experience. Through conducting a few

parent teacher conferences, assisting in creating the classroom newsletter, and

having conversations with parents on a daily basis, there is definite evidence that I
increased my relationships with families.
Towards the end of my student teaching experience I was able to go observe
other teachers in their classes. I observed all of the other 3 kindergarten classes, as
well as a 3rd grade class and a 1st-2nd grade combination class. I think that observing
other teachers and other grades is a really important part of professional
development both as a teacher candidate, and also as a classroom teacher. I took
notes during these observations about things I would do the same, and things I
might do a little differently. I learned different attention getters, schedules,
classroom decorations, and teaching methods. I plan on combining all of the things I
like from each of these classes into my own classroom. When I am a classroom
teacher I also think it will be important to observe my co-workers if I am able to.
Throughout the semester I believe that I have improved as a teacher. My
cooperating teacher and university supervisor both gave me constructive feedback
that I took into account and changed in my teaching. I was given many
opportunities for professional development, which helped me grow and learn as a
professional and see the other components that go into being a teacher other than
being in the classroom. Overall, my student teaching experience was wonderful and
I could not have asked for a better experience and I feel more than prepared to be a
classroom teacher next year.