Kelli Crossin

EDUC 540
Dr. Megan Fritz
December 2020

Final Reflective Blog-Student Teaching Experience

Excerpt from my student teaching daily journal: “11/24/2020: Fun and positive day of teaching!
I have been reviewing and comparing my old lesson plans and realized how far I have come
and am feeling proud.”

The above journal entry was from the second to last day that I taught all subjects to the

students, before transitioning subjects back to my mentor teacher. It reminded me of how far I

have come. For my final project of this course, I reviewed several of my old lessons plans from

early September. My early lesson plans did not have a clear assessment to measure my

objective and provided little differentiation and engagement opportunities. Instead of checking

the pulse of the class as a whole throughout my lesson, I asked a few questions in which a few

students responded. Since then, I have transformed immensely. I have switched the way I plan

my lessons to make them “student-centered” and full of engagement opportunities and

student tasks. I have been able to do this by reflecting on each domain and improving my

planning and preparation, instruction, classroom environment and undertaking of the

professional responsibility that comes with being an educator.

In regards to domain 1, planning and preparation, I have grown immensely. I have

begun to plan more attention-grabbing and student focused introductions and have begun to

always introduce our objective for the lesson to circle back to at the end. I have worked hard to

plan meaningful conclusions to the lessons that allow students to reflect and think about what

they have learned. I have also begun to write down higher-order thinking questions ahead of

time for each lesson. I have also improved upon planning for differentiation. I have strategically
designed breakout rooms ahead of time and implemented peer tutoring during math and small

groups. I also plan which skills we are building upon to active prior knowledge in the beginning

of many lessons.

Next, I reflected upon how much I have grown in regards to domain 2; Instruction. I

began by reading to the class, I now engage the students and ask them to read certain pages or

sentences. I began by only asking questions that aim to meet the objective, now I aim to meet

the objective and always ask higher-order thinking questions. I have also begun to check the

pulse of the class constantly by using thumbs up and using the zoom chat. This allows me to

differentiate and keep students engaged. I have also grown to realize the importance of

differentiation and ways to do this such as using breakout rooms, and using pictures as well as

words for struggling readers. I also aim to call on as many students as possible throughout my

lessons. Lastly and most recently, an instructional focus for me has been students enjoying the

lessons and having some fun throughout them. I have learned to play upon their interests to

increase engagement and enjoyment and plan games that are relevant to the content.

I have also grown so much in reflection upon domain 3, the classroom environment. I

began by working with my mentor teacher to promote a positive classroom family. Once I

began to teach morning meeting, I was really able to engage with the students and take an

active interest in their lives outside of school. I have grown immensely and have become so

much more comfortable and confident within the classroom. I have always kept the classroom

environment extremely positive and have invited all children to share their work, thoughts and

ideas freely.
 Although technology can frustrate the students and I on a daily basis, I have learned to

always remain calm and professional while encouraging them to do the same. Domain 4,

Professional Responsibility, tells us we must remain professional and respectful of all beliefs

and cultures. Throughout my student teaching, I learned the challenges behind this. I was not

able to discuss any of my own beliefs and remained sensitive to all cultures throughout the

holiday season. As I prepare to run my own classroom in the future, I feel confident that I can

remain professional at all times while reflecting upon how I can be a better teacher each day.

Throughout this student-teaching journey, I have learned so much and I know that my

students have as well. When I implemented more engaging lessons, better differentiation

techniques, built a deeper relationship with the students and made my lessons enjoyable and

fun, I saw an increase in amount of student’s submitted work. I also saw an increase in student

participation and engagement overall; students became excited to answer and participate. I

have learned so much, not only about how to teach, but how to effectively teach. This journal

entry allowed me to reflect upon how much I have grown and how I can continue to be a better

teacher each day. Moving forward, my goal is to remember all of these important things and

use them as I continue in my teaching career. A second goal that I have set for myself is to

incorporate physical movement into my lessons more often and become more creative with my

morning meeting routine. I am so proud of how far I have come in the past four months and I

look forward to improving even more.