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Gabriella Erestain

Dr. Flannagan

UED 496.01

March 17, 2024

Weeks 9 and 10 Reflection

During Week 9, I began my second Student Teaching placement at Princess Anne High

School. I am working with Ms. Conrad, who teaches Core and Honors English 10; Journalism I,

II, and III, and a study block. In addition, she is the advisor for the school newspaper, the literary

magazine, and the Writers’ Club. My placement thus far has been focused on her two English

classes to whom I have been teaching short stories and literary analysis.

In both English classes, there are students with 504 and IEP plans, allowing me to further

understand how to help students with accommodations. Sadly, the attendance of some of these

students is quite irregular, making it difficult for me to understand how to help them.

Additionally, Ms. Conrad’s classroom is filled with books, English posters, and lamps,

which are all items I wish to include in my future classrooms. The desks are arranged in groups

of four or five, with two single desks on either side of the room. This allows some students to

remain isolated, but I ask them to join a group when a collaborative activity begins. On the first

day I arrived, Ms. Conrad assigned each class new seats and has since been rearranging where

students sit. Similar to my first placement, I am learning that seating arrangements are never a

fixed solution and may need to be altered depending on the class or the day.
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Continually, I am also learning that Ms. Conrad and I have different teaching styles. She

is very calm and mellow—and she has even admitted to being incredibly laid back. She rarely

raises her voice and is an amazing storyteller. From her demeanor, she is teaching me how to

have peace amongst chaos, as well as the importance of taking breaks. After each class, she says

that we should have ten to fifteen minutes to digest everything, decompress, and work

independently. Afterwards, we come together and reflect on the lesson, discuss the next day, and

continue working. This process is quite different to my time at Salem, where Mrs. Williams and I

were always “on.” We took time to reflect on my teaching and what I was going to teach the next

day, but this process was still high energy.

However, Ms. Conrad is also showing me that her slower pace can be attributed to having

over twenty years of teaching experience. For example, she modeled how she graded the

students’ vocabulary packet, which primarily included checking for completion. She skimmed

the packet, subtracted the missing points, and totaled the score for all three pages in under sixty

seconds. I was astounded at how quickly she did this and told her I would have taken at least

three minutes to grade the entire packet.

In terms of my teaching style, I am finding that I am much more attuned to being busy

and doing things quickly, so I am discovering how to balance the teaching styles of both my CTs.

Especially as a first-year teacher who needs more time to understand the curriculum and create a

corresponding lesson, I am always busy learning how to be a teacher. Although I know it is

crucial to slow my pace and take each day one step at a time, there is so much about teaching

that I am learning and adding to my plate.

Similarly, I am once again learning how to adjust to a high school atmosphere. In all of

Ms. Conrad’s classes, the students are distracted by their phones, falling asleep, and mostly
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unmotivated. Upon speaking with other teachers and student teachers, I am glad to hear that this

is an epidemic among all high schoolers, not just in my classes. I am finding that as I float about

the classroom, I am always tapping on a student’s desk or asking if they are okay to wake them

up. To try to combat these student behaviors, I am implementing as many instructional strategies

that allow students to collaborate and move around the room as I can. I am also utilizing many of

the classroom management strategies I used in middle school, such as using proximity, waiting

until students are silent, and using the 5-4-3-2-1 attention signal. I have found that Ms. Conrad

often remains in the front of the classroom when she teaches, so floating around the classroom

helps gain students’ attention easily.

Similarly, the lesson planning process is different than when I was at Salem Middle

School, where I was given lesson plans and a pacing calendar that the entire PLC had to follow.

With PAHS following a 4x4 and A/B Day schedule, PLCs loosely following a pacing guide, and

10th grade having a long book/short story list, I must create each lesson plan from scratch.

Despite this being a lot of work, I enjoy teaching literature and implementing the instructional

strategies I wish to use. From both of my placements, I can use the experience of working in

lockstep with a PLC and creating my own lesson plans when I become a first-year teacher. After

speaking with administrators in middle and high school, I am learning that the main goal is for

students to learn with a great lesson plan. This should look like collaborating with a PLC to make

a lesson and scaffolding it to fit the needs of each classroom. If an activity or lesson works well,

there is no reason for all teachers to try it with their students.

As a Christian educator, I am learning to not allow my feelings to dictate my teaching.

Proverbs 29:11 states, “A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back”

(ESV). Sadly, I have the temper of my mother’s family, which causes me to become frustrated
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very quickly. Ecclesiastes 7:9 is also a great reminder that I should “Be not quick in your spirit to

become angry,” for my students deserve a teacher with self-control and the ability to have joy in

all circumstances (ESV). Although there are problems in the classroom that must be fixed and

addressed, I should not allow the “bad” moments of the day to affect how I teach or how thankful

I am to be in the classroom.