Reflection #3

As a student teacher, I love the idea of inclusion.  I think it is wonderful for all students, even though they may require modifications, to be in a regular classroom.  However, I see some downfalls to it as well.  I have a deaf student in my class and he is wonderful.  He is super smart, and enjoys the atmosphere of a regular classroom.  On the other hand, I have a special needs student in my classroom that does nothing.  Him and his parents insist on him staying in our class, but he definitely needs the aid of someone with a special education certification. Meeting in the needs of students is obviously crucial in order for all students to be brought to their full potential.  I will continue striving to do so this semester by learning students' interests so that I can relate material being learned to stuff the students enjoy and understand.  Also, with a lot of guided practice, I am able to see where the students are struggling and which needs are apparently not being met.

Inclusion, is a wonderful idea but requires a lot of hard work and the distribution of attention to all students.  When executed correctly, I find inclusion to be wonderful.  It is important that we, as educators know the needs of our students and strive to meet them every day.

Success Journal

My first tweet for the week, on Monday was, "Created the lesson and taught all 6 classes."  This was a big step for me! Usually my teacher creates the notes with me, but this time she put it in my hands and I taught every class of the day. My tweet the following day was, " My teacher feels comfortable enough with my teaching and class management to leave the classroom."  When the teacher is confident enough to leave her classroom to me to leave the room to take care of other matters, it gave me more confidence too! Whether she was gone for a few minutes or nearly the entire class; I seized the opportunity and felt confident in my ability to run the classroom.  On Wednesday I tweeted, "Reaching out to the students that need it most and getting positive feedback >>" Wednesdays after school Central High School has R&R for math students who need extra help. My teacher gave me the opportunity to be in charge of it while she worked with other students.  The students were really responsive and we got a lot of work done!  Thursday my tweet was, "Finally comfortable with working the overhead."  While this seems small, it was a big success for me! Not working the overhead correctly can be a distraction and frustration for students. Finally, on Friday I tweeted, "Department was comfortable enough to let me have a class completely to myself with no teacher in the room." This was HUGE.  It was such great encouragement that not only did my teacher have the confidence in me, but the department head also felt that I would do just fine.  It was only one class out of six, but it went well and really got me excited for teaching in the future.

This week's assignment made my student teaching experience even more enjoyable that it already was. It showed me the little and big successes and progress I have made since the beginning of this journey.  As a teacher, I self evaluate myself a lot.  It is easy to focus more on the negatives than the positives.  There are some more successes that I plan on achieving.  I have a hard time managing two of my classes, I would like to do better at managing those classes.  I also am hoping to feel more confident in my teaching style and fingers are crossed that EOSL 2 goes great this week!