End of Student Teaching: Reflection
Student teaching was an amazing experience. I was invited into Saint Gregory the Great Academy, a Catholic Pre K-8 School in Hamilton. Mrs. Muccia took me into her classroom and allowed me to teach 5th grade Social Studies, 6th grade Social Studies, and 6th grade Language Arts. I also had the opportunity to watch, observe and interact with Chinese classes, Technology Classes, and 5th and 6th grade Science classes. I learned a lot about not just pedagogy but about content and professionalism as well.
I remember writing a blog post about how excited I was for Student Teaching. This still stands to be true. My cooperating teacher allowed me to observe her the first week of student teaching. I took a lot of notes and understood the style and culture of teaching at SGGA. She then allowed me to take on 5th grade Social Studies. I was then allowed to take on 6th grade ILA and then the last class I was able to take on was 6th grade Social Studies. Saint Gregory the Great’s Middle School had a different approach in teaching then what I had observed from Rider. We taught very traditionally with a lot of teacher instruction. I changed it up and added a lot more technology and integrated group work. The 6th grade Social Studies class was already utilizing a textbook online that included videos and games for the students to play during their instruction. I really liked the textbook and the fact that the middle school all had one to one chromebooks.
I started student teaching believing that student centered activities and group work was the best way to go all the time. But I was able to see both sides. I saw traditional teacher instruction and then I utilized collaborative group work with the students. I now believe that for some subjects students need direct student instruction. And for other subjects or topics student definetly need group work and cooperative learning opportunities. I think that there needs to be an integration of the two. More so the group and collaborative work, but teacher instruction needs to be thrown into the mix at some points just to get the main topic across to students if students are just not getting it through inquiry based lessons. I was able to see the change in how students interacted with one another and utilized group work as an opportunity to create bigger and better assignments. They were motivated and a lot of students started going above and beyond in assignments that I gave them. I allowed for creative work and options, therefore students were able to pick and choose options and be in charge of their own learning.
At SGGA I was also taught professionalism in terms of team teaching. I had never experienced team teaching before and I did not understand how it worked. I now believe that if you are in a community of teachers that like to collaborate you are not alone. I do not shut my doors at the end of the day or the beginning of the day. I allow teachers to come in and out of the room give me suggestions on my teaching and I give them suggestions. Many times teachers have given me videos or worksheets to utilize (not just my co-op). At the end of my student teaching I could see that the teachers respected me and they even took up some of the projects and assignments that I was utilizing in my classes. I learned that through team teaching communication is key. Teachers need to talk about their students, their tests and assignments and where they are in the curriculum. At SGGA teachers teach multiple subjects and we try to keep each of the subjects and matching grade level on the same pace so that one group is not further than another group. We also need to communicate so that students don’t get overwhelmed with homework or assignments or tests. Lastly, collaboration and communication is key to having better lessons, assignments and classroom management.
I was able to interact with many students that had IEP’s. This was something new for me. I had been in classroom with mostly on target students, however at SGGA the students are very much integrated into the classroom. I am not a special ed Minor but I was able to interact and differentiate my instruction based on students’ IEPs. I helped these students by creating study guides, guided notes, modified tests and assignments. The group work also helped out when differentiating the class because not only could I manipulate the groups based on student readiness but also I was able to travel from group to group and help out groups if they needed more help.
Many teachers had taken me in at SGGA and allowed me to observe their classes. I was integrated into the Chinese classroom every week for 3 classes. I taught and substituted Chinese classes. I observed Science classes and I observed technology classes. What I learned throughout that experience is integrating subjects. I observed the teacher and how she taught and I picked up on certain classroom management skills that I liked and utilized it in my classroom. However, the best part was that I was able to see what subjects the students were learning and I was able to integrate it into my social studies classes and my language arts classes. At the end of my student teaching I really believe that integrating subjects is how students will see how important and connected all of the subjects are with each other.
My time at SGGA was wonderful. All the teachers helped me and I was able to learn not just from my cooperating teacher, but through the community as a whole. My cooperating teacher guided me in the classroom and let me make mistakes. She allowed me to get comfortable in the classroom and let my own style of teaching come out.
I remember writing a blog post about how excited I was for Student Teaching. This still stands to be true. My cooperating teacher allowed me to observe her the first week of student teaching. I took a lot of notes and understood the style and culture of teaching at SGGA. She then allowed me to take on 5th grade Social Studies. I was then allowed to take on 6th grade ILA and then the last class I was able to take on was 6th grade Social Studies. Saint Gregory the Great’s Middle School had a different approach in teaching then what I had observed from Rider. We taught very traditionally with a lot of teacher instruction. I changed it up and added a lot more technology and integrated group work. The 6th grade Social Studies class was already utilizing a textbook online that included videos and games for the students to play during their instruction. I really liked the textbook and the fact that the middle school all had one to one chromebooks.
I started student teaching believing that student centered activities and group work was the best way to go all the time. But I was able to see both sides. I saw traditional teacher instruction and then I utilized collaborative group work with the students. I now believe that for some subjects students need direct student instruction. And for other subjects or topics student definetly need group work and cooperative learning opportunities. I think that there needs to be an integration of the two. More so the group and collaborative work, but teacher instruction needs to be thrown into the mix at some points just to get the main topic across to students if students are just not getting it through inquiry based lessons. I was able to see the change in how students interacted with one another and utilized group work as an opportunity to create bigger and better assignments. They were motivated and a lot of students started going above and beyond in assignments that I gave them. I allowed for creative work and options, therefore students were able to pick and choose options and be in charge of their own learning.
At SGGA I was also taught professionalism in terms of team teaching. I had never experienced team teaching before and I did not understand how it worked. I now believe that if you are in a community of teachers that like to collaborate you are not alone. I do not shut my doors at the end of the day or the beginning of the day. I allow teachers to come in and out of the room give me suggestions on my teaching and I give them suggestions. Many times teachers have given me videos or worksheets to utilize (not just my co-op). At the end of my student teaching I could see that the teachers respected me and they even took up some of the projects and assignments that I was utilizing in my classes. I learned that through team teaching communication is key. Teachers need to talk about their students, their tests and assignments and where they are in the curriculum. At SGGA teachers teach multiple subjects and we try to keep each of the subjects and matching grade level on the same pace so that one group is not further than another group. We also need to communicate so that students don’t get overwhelmed with homework or assignments or tests. Lastly, collaboration and communication is key to having better lessons, assignments and classroom management.
I was able to interact with many students that had IEP’s. This was something new for me. I had been in classroom with mostly on target students, however at SGGA the students are very much integrated into the classroom. I am not a special ed Minor but I was able to interact and differentiate my instruction based on students’ IEPs. I helped these students by creating study guides, guided notes, modified tests and assignments. The group work also helped out when differentiating the class because not only could I manipulate the groups based on student readiness but also I was able to travel from group to group and help out groups if they needed more help.
Many teachers had taken me in at SGGA and allowed me to observe their classes. I was integrated into the Chinese classroom every week for 3 classes. I taught and substituted Chinese classes. I observed Science classes and I observed technology classes. What I learned throughout that experience is integrating subjects. I observed the teacher and how she taught and I picked up on certain classroom management skills that I liked and utilized it in my classroom. However, the best part was that I was able to see what subjects the students were learning and I was able to integrate it into my social studies classes and my language arts classes. At the end of my student teaching I really believe that integrating subjects is how students will see how important and connected all of the subjects are with each other.
My time at SGGA was wonderful. All the teachers helped me and I was able to learn not just from my cooperating teacher, but through the community as a whole. My cooperating teacher guided me in the classroom and let me make mistakes. She allowed me to get comfortable in the classroom and let my own style of teaching come out.