Community Service Reflection Paper

Ashley Stellmacher

From the beginning of this year until now, I have taken the opportunity to assistant

teach and student teach at the Fishback Center for Early Childhood Education, which is located

on campus at South Dakota State University. The Fishback Center provides early childhood

learning for families around the community. I am currently student teaching children who are

ages four and five, and this experience has taught me many skills that will help me advance in

my future of teaching. My experience has taught me how to create a lesson plan and arrange

the classroom specifically in ways that adhere to my lesson plan. The classroom is arranged in

sections that are designed to reach all developmental learning areas that a child needs

including, science and inquiry, mathematics, and also STEM. These sections include activities for

children to do to further develop in these areas so it has been very important to take time out

of my day to find activities to add to these areas that I know the children will enjoy, while

continuing to learn.

My experience at the Fishback Center has taught me that everything may not go as

planned when a lesson plan is written. There have been times when activities needed to be

changed and especially when working with young children, not every lesson that is planned will

be on time. This has shown me that it is important to be flexible when making a lesson plan.

Though certain areas of a lesson plan may need to be changed, it is still very important to make

sure that the key concept or lesson is still included throughout each day. With this, I have

developed one of the most valuable skills in teaching, having patience. My experience in a pre-
school setting has shown me the importance of patience because every child is different from

one another. I have experienced times while giving a lesson where children may be distracted

so it was very important for me to be patient with the children and motivate them to focus on

the lesson.

Assistant teaching and student teaching have also opened my eyes when viewing

children in a sense that all of them are different and each child learns a different way. Some

children may know all of their ABC’s while other children may not. Noticing that every child

learns differently has taught me of the importance of understanding all of my students and

giving them the education that they need and deserve in their own unique way. I worked with

two children who were each at a different point of their learning. One child could recognize all

of their letters and numbers up to ten while the other child could not recognize any letters or

numbers. By understanding where my students are at allows me to set specific goals for each

child to either help them get to where they need to be or beyond that.

My experience with assistant teaching and student teaching has strengthened my

organization skills. I have created folders for each of my students to make sure that all of their

files, including immunizations, records of a physical, and also enrollments forms are included in

these folders. By strengthening my organization skills and creating folders for each child, it has

made it easier to locate important information for each child. This is a skill that will help carry

over into my future in teaching. Having a well-organized classroom and making sure that child

information is organized will make it easier for me to locate things more easily in the future,

and even now. Knowing that my classroom is organized will also be beneficial for my students

in the future when trying to locate items around the classroom. Even with my experience at the
Fishback Center, the classroom has always been organized so children know where to find

objects around the room have also been adjusted to make things more accessible for the

children. The Fishback Center has brought many new skills and information that will help me be

prepared for my future career in teaching.