Looking Back, Looking Forward

Taylor Childers Whisenant

April 25, 2014 ED 493

Whisenant Looking Back, Looking Forward Introduction In January, I began my internship filled a combination of anxiety and excitement. I was doubtful of my skills and abilities in regard to teaching, and I worried that I may find that I was not meant to be a teacher. However, my student teaching experience has been very successful, and I am sure that this is what I am supposed to be doing with my life. I have learned so much from the cooperating teachers and my students, and I hope that I taught them at least half as much as they taught me. I have learned about myself as a teacher and as a person, and I can tell that my teaching abilities have improved over the semester. I am looking forward to finding a job and refining those skills in the future. Both of my placements were located in Arab City Schools in the small city of Arab, Alabama. My first placement was a second grade classroom at Arab Primary School. This class was considerably small with 18 students, but the grade level was large with ten classrooms. This school had a welcoming and friendly atmosphere, and the administrators, teachers, and students all seemed excited to have me there. At this placement, I was able to collaborate with other grade level teachers as well as resource teachers, and I participated in two full days of professional development for math and reading. I will admit that I initially was not as excited for this placement as I was for my second placement, but I loved second grade and learned so much from my cooperating teacher and the students. The second grade teachers told me that I was a great resource for all of them, and I know that I was able to share several resources that will continue to enhance instruction in these classes in the future.

Whisenant My second placement was a second grade classroom at Arab Elementary School. This was my collaborative placement. I spent my time moving back and forth between a resource room and a general education classroom. The general education had a total of 23 students. These students stayed in this room for math, science, and social studies in the morning; they went to another teachers classroom for reading and language in the afternoon. I worked with five students with IEPs in the general education classroom in the subjects of math, science, and social studies each morning. These same five students went to the resource room each afternoon for reading and language instruction. Also, I worked with one student on social skills each morning. Two other students occasionally went to the resource room for extra support in math and reading when they were not working with a paraprofessional. Like Arab Primary School, Arab Elementary had a welcoming atmosphere, and the administrators, teachers, and students all seemed excited to have me there. At this placement, I frequently collaborated with the general education teacher on lesson planning and teaching. Also, I collaborated with other grade level teachers on reading and language lessons. At this placement, I had the opportunity to participate in a full day of professional development for special education teachers, and I went with special education teacher representatives to a regional training on writing standards-based IEPs. Also, I was able to chaperone two field trips during this placement. First Placement Experiences From the beginning of my placement, I tried to take learning styles and preferences into consideration. This led me to incorporate kinesthetic, tactile, auditory, and visual elements into my lessons as much as possible. I used videos, pictures, bodily movements, manipulatives and much more into various lessons in all four traditional core subjects. In addition, I utilized wholegroup instruction as well as partner groups and small groups based on ability and learning

Whisenant preferences after having students complete a learning style inventory. My two units for this placement were a science unit on frogs and a social studies unit on Helen Keller; the reading series stories reflected the content for these units. In my frog unit, I enhanced that particular weeks reading and math focus skills through the science lessons. For example, the reading comprehension skill for the week was comparing and contrasting, and one of the frog unit lessons had students use informational text to create a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting frogs and toads. The grammar skill for the week was using comparative and superlative adjectives to compare. To enhance this skill, one of the frog unit lessons included students becoming experts on certain frogs and teaching other group members about their particular frogs through a modified version of the jigsaw instructional model, ultimately using comparative and superlative adjectives to compare the various frogs studied. Overall, I think that this unit was successful, and I think that the variety of lesson resources and activities made the unit more fun and engaging for the students. In addition, tying this unit to the basal story helped the students make connections across curriculum subject areas and content. In my Helen Keller unit, I enhanced that particular weeks reading skills through the social studies lessons. For example, the reading comprehension skill for the week was writing facts and opinions, and one of the Helen Keller lessons involved students finding a fact and forming an opinion using text, video, and discussions about Braille. Another noteworthy aspect of this unit was the lesson on American Sign Language (ASL). This particular lesson utilized students learning styles determined by an interest inventory. The students in the visual group used a sign language decoder to determine a mystery word displayed in sign language hand signs. The students in the auditory group used a sign language decoder to draw the hand signs for

Whisenant a spoken word. The students in the tactile group used a sign language decoder to fold paper hands into the hand signs for a given word. Overall, I think that the students learned a great deal during this unit, and I think that the variety of lesson topics, resources, and activities made the unit engaging and exciting for the students. In addition, tying this unit to the basal story helped the students make connections between content across the curriculum, and the students seemed to gain some respect for people who are blind and/or deaf after learning more about braille and ASL. Second Placement Experiences As in my first placement, I tried to take learning styles and preferences into consideration from the beginning. This led me to incorporate many kinds of auditory and visual elements into my lessons, and I tried to include tactile and kinesthetic activities when possible, as well. I used several videos, pictures, web pages, and applets much more into various lessons in all four traditional core subjects. I utilized whole-group instruction as well as dynamic partner and small grouping arrangements. I modified some reading and math lessons to accommodate learning preferences after having the five students with IEPs complete an online learning style inventory. In connection to the students IEPs, I incorporated several comprehension activities into science and social studies. My unit for this placement was a science unit on light; light is the one topic for which AMSTI does not have a unit kit. In my unit on light, I used the ALCOS standard about light and expanded upon it, using content from a science textbook and the textbooks leveled readers on light. This unit focused on the topics of light as a form of energy, the electromagnetic spectrum, how light passes through objects, how light interacts with matter, and how the human eye works. The lessons on light as a

Whisenant form of energy and how light interacts with matter relied heavily on student discussion of prior knowledge of light. The lessons on the electromagnetic spectrum and how the human eye works included interactive Internet activities to demonstrate and help students visualize the focus concepts. The lesson on how light passes through objects included exploration activities that involved the students shining lights through various materials to determine whether the objects were opaque, translucent, or transparent. Then, the students had to determine advantages of making certain objects out or certain materials, levels of translucency, and whether certain materials absorbed or reflected light. These lessons had built-in comprehension passages and writing exercises for the students with IEPs to use to practice their ability to retell or explain what they have learned. Overall, this unit went well, and I think that my inclusion of various types of resources and learning activities helped the students grasp the content. Reflection on Candidate Competencies In my opinion, my two areas of strength are content and diversity. I am distinct from the average elementary education major because of my strong background in math and science. I have obtained twice as many science credits as required for my degree, and I have taken much more advanced math courses than needed for my degree. Because of this background, I am very comfortable teaching math and science and think that I can be more creative when teaching these subjects due to my familiarity with the content. This fluency in science content made planning my frog and light units fairly easy; I was able to focus more of my energy into finding a variety of resources that addressed various learning styles to incorporate into the lessons. Additionally, my level of comfort with the math content and the new emphasis placed on mental math strategies in the Alabama College and Career Ready Standards made math the easiest subject for

Whisenant me to plan and teach. Again, I was able to focus more time in extra resources and application activities because I was so comfortable with the content. I think that I am strong and getting stronger in the area diversity in my teaching. In my first placement, my lessons incorporated elements aimed at different learning styles from the beginning of my time there. As soon as I utilized an interest inventory, I was able to better incorporate activities for all learning styles while knowing which students needed which types of supports, even resulting in learning style-based grouping techniques. As previously stated, my lesson in my Helen Keller unit allowed students to apply knowledge from the lesson in different ways in regard to their different learning styles. In addition, the Helen Keller unit as a whole generated a lot of discussion about people with disabilities such as deafness and blindness. The students and I discussed how people with disabilities can still do things that people without disabilities can do, just in a different way; the students even connected these thoughts to a student who is blind at another school in the district. In my second placement, I continued to plan lessons that integrated various types of activities that addressed a variety of learning styles and preferences. My unit on light included videos, computer presentations, hands-on exploration activities, and reading and writing exercises. The reading and writing activities directly aligned with the IEPs of students in the class, and the online activities and experiments helped the students visualize the concepts presented in the unit. I think that my two areas of weakness are management and assessment; however, I think that I have improved in both areas throughout my placements. In my first placement, I felt overwhelmed trying to learn all of the management procedures in my cooperating teachers classroom. Also, I had some issues with knowing where my boundaries were as far as how much I was allowed to enforce rules and disciplinary procedures. Initially, I struggled with

Whisenant redirecting the students attention in my first placement, but I learned more about the Whole Brain Teaching calls and response phrases that my cooperating teacher uses to manage the class. Once I began consistently using these phrases, it was much easier to keep the students on task and to keep transitions quick. Over time, I learned how to improve transitions, wait time, praise, and redirections. By the end of my first placement, I was using the various classroom management systems in place consistently, making my teaching much more effective and efficient. I incorporated some of the call and response phrases into my second placement, improving how the students shared answers when going over classwork. Also, I quickly transitioned into the system of warnings and silent lunch punishments in this placement. I never had a student earn silent lunch while I was managing the class, but I did give verbal warnings. I also continued using praise, and I worked on using transition phrases to make transitions between subjects and learning activities less awkward. I would like to continue making improvements in the area of classroom management by familiarizing myself with more management techniques and philosophies. I think that assessment is another area of weakness for me. In my first placement, I initially struggled with creating formative assessments that I could use to quickly check a students understanding of a concept or skill. Over time, my formative assessments improved, and I was able to use them to plan and alter instruction, making me more flexible. I am still a little uncomfortable with my ability to create summative assessments; in both placements, almost every summative assessment was created by grade level teachers. I had little to no influence on most of the summative assessments in my placements, other than my unit assessments. However, the grade level assessments were still useful for me to see student understanding and growth. I would like to work on improvement in this area by finding opportunities to create more

Whisenant summative assessments and by continuing to find efficient and effective ways to assess student learning. Conclusion Now, I look back to my first week in the classroom in January, and I can see that I have grown and learned so much. My internship has completely reinforced my desire to teach; I am much more confident in my abilities now. I went into this experience planning to learn as much as I could, and I feel that I have taken advantage of many learning opportunities between the two placements. I will apply everything that I have learned into my future classrooms, and I will continue to reflect and perfect over time. I know my strengths and weaknesses, and I plan to take steps to improve in any way possible.