Looking Back, Looking

Forward Reflection
Bria Burnette
Columbia Elementary
Fall 2015 Internship

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Final Internship Reflection
In the Fall of 2015, I completed my student teaching internship at Columbia Elementary
in Madison, Alabama. Columbia is one of seven elementary schools in the Madison City Schools
district. It houses approximately 790 students in grades kindergarten through sixth. Also, it is
maintained and run by approximately 75 faculty members which include but is not limited to
administrators, classroom teachers, special area teachers, an instructional partner, instructional
aides, a school nurse, and an ISS teacher. During my student teaching, I interned in 2nd Grade
under Marcia Humphrey and Tonia Porter. I remained with Mrs. Humphreys homeroom
throughout the school day by teaching reading and social studies with Mrs. Humphrey for half of
the day, and teaching math and science with Mrs. Porter the remaining half. Their shared class
consisted of 17 students with 10 girls and 7 boys. Also, I interned in 5th Grade under Savannah
Demeester, Kelly Johnson, Lisa Grice, and Miranda Bolden. I followed Mrs. Demeesters
homeroom class throughout the day to their four classes. Their shared class consisted of 26
students with 15 girls and 11 boys. Throughout my internship, I taught interdisciplinary units in
both placements that led to reflective insights about my pedagogy, relationships with my
students, and my overall strengths and weaknesses.
While in my first placement, I taught a 2nd grade unit titled All About Animals. I decided
on this topic for my unit because our basal reading series was scheduled to cover pets and our
next standard to cover in science was characteristics and body coverings of animals. Based upon
this, I built two simultaneous units in writing and science. My writing unit was a two week
writing workshop in which students were asked to write a friendly letter about their pets. Writing
friendly letters was a skill my students had been working on but were struggling with; thus, I
asked Mrs. Humphrey if I could implement a unit that would strengthen this skill. I pre-assessed

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the students by having them write a friendly letter about a pet of their choice without reviewing
the parts of a friendly letter and without discussing what types of words they may use to describe
their pets characteristics and/or actions. This gave informative insight into their writing abilities.
From this, I was able to determine the type of minilessons I would need to teach throughout the
writing workshop. For example, I noticed that my students used what we called weak words in
their pre-assessment. I planned a minilesson on word choice that required them to use a concept
map to brainstorm more effective words in their writing. In addition to the minilessons I taught, I
implemented the usual steps of writing workshop such as peer editing and teacher conferencing.
In tandem with the writing unit, I also planned a two week science unit on animal
classifications. I administered a pre-assessment to gauge what they already knew in regards to
animal classifications and body coverings. Based upon the students results I implemented the
lessons I had planned and altered them to fit my students needs and background knowledge.
Some of the activities included utilizing graphic organizers to record information about each
classification, creating a foldable to sort images of animals into the appropriate classification,
using sensory objects to sort animals based upon body coverings, an interdisciplinary math
station in which students created an array of an animal of their choice, and an interdisciplinary
reading station in which students read an informative selection about ladybugs and used a
graphic organizer to record notes.
Implementing these two units gave me some much needed insight in regards to planning
and how to use assessment data effectively. I realized early on in my internship that I have a
tendency to overplan. I know that this is partially due to me trying to gauge what constitutes as
single days lesson. Also, I never wanted to run out of things to do. This came in handy when it
came time to plan my science unit because I planned for more lessons than we had time to do in

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class. However, I was able to pick and choose which activities would be most advantageous for
their learning based upon their performance on the pre-assessment. Furthermore, this also
allowed me to gain some valuable practice in utilizing pre-assessment data in the way in which it
is intended- to drive instruction. The lessons and activities I implemented as whole group
instruction and small group learning stations were largely based upon areas that students showed
need in on the pre-test. For example, I noticed that only a targeted group of students were
confused as to the characteristics of insects; thus, I planned a small group learning station on
ladybug research that that particular group of students had to visit and complete. Also, I noticed
that the class as a whole scored poorly on the pre-test on questions that required them to
differentiate between reptiles and amphibians. I planned a whole group review game that focused
specifically on these two classifications. Moving forward into my second placement, I utilized
these insights regarding planning and pre-assessment data to help inform all of my lessons and
unit planning.
In my second placement, I taught several units across the content areas. However, my
social studies unit on the 13 Colonies was perhaps the most all-encompassing. I decided to focus
on this topic because it was the next unit of study in the social studies scope and sequence given
to me by Mrs. Demeester. I began the unit with a pre-test to assess what student already knew
about early colonization. With the exception of one student that scored a 90%, the rest of my
students scored 60% or lower; thus, I knew that I would have to go into more depth than I had
originally planned with my lessons. Because the amount of content for the 13 Colonies could be
somewhat daunting, I decided to only focus on the push and pull factors that led the colonists to
America, the geographical features of the three regions, and the government systems of the three
regions. I was able to cover these topics, along with interdisciplinary lessons in the other content

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areas during my ten days of full-time teaching. A few of my interdisciplinary lessons consisted of
the following: a 13 Colonies Disease Center in science in which students had to research colonial
diseases and compare and contrast them with modern diseases, using a thinking triangle graphic
organizer in reading to summarize key information about the regions, and collaboratively solving
long-division word problems to reveal information about the natural resources of each region.
Overall, my students greatly enjoyed the activities that were implemented into this unit. One of
my main goals throughout my second placement was to keep my students engaged at all times,
and I feel that the lessons that included activities such as gallery walks and Colony Investigation
Agency learning stations did just that. From this unit, I learned a great deal of about the
importance of using formative assessment to determine if students understand a concept or if it
needs to be looked at again.
During my first placement, I had not yet experienced administering an assignment that
was executed so poorly that I had to throw it out and reteach the concept entirely. However, this
did occur during my 13 Colonies unit in my second placement. After completing the lesson on
the push and pull factors that led to the colonists arrival in North America, I administered an
activity that was meant as a quick formative assessment check of what they learned. Because the
students appeared engaged throughout the lesson and answered any and all questions correctly, I
expected this assignment to be completed with ease. However, I quickly found out during my
grading that nearly half of the class did not understand this concept as fully as I had thought. I
revamped the way I taught this concept, went back to school the next day, and retaught it
entirely. At first, I was frustrated that I did not teach it effectively the first time. I then reflected
and thought back to how many times I had to be retaught a concept before learning it thoroughly.
This insight is perhaps the most valuable I learned throughout my experience because I have a

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tendency to blame myself when students do not get something the first time. However, after this
lesson, I saw that it is perfectly okay to put a halt to preconceived plans to teach, reteach, and
reteach again to ensure that students are not going forth blindly into deeper content when they
are still unsure of the foundations of a unit.
Throughout my internship, I spent a great deal of time requesting quality feedback from
my cooperating teachers so that I could reflect on what I was doing well and what areas required
improvement. From those conversations with my CTs, I then engaged in in-depth self-reflection,
which is evident in my extensive weekly reflection journals. After looking back at those and
thinking back to my overall experiences, I am able to easily deduce my strengths and
weaknesses. First and foremost, I feel that I was able to implement formative and summative
assessments in a way that was timely, effective for student learning, and informative for
instruction. In my first placement, I formatively assessed constantly with methods such as
thumbs up/down to demonstrate understanding, quick checks in math, and turn and talks during
whole group reading instruction. Also, I attempted to summatively assess with methods other
than quizzes or tests. For example, I analyzed a writing sample to summatively assess the writing
workshop. Furthermore, I created a mystery animal project-based assessment to summatively
assess the science unit. Students were given six boxes that contained clues pertaining to the
characteristics of the mystery animal. They were then able to use any notes, foldables, and
graphic organizers they created throughout the unit to identify each animals classification. I also
used various assessment instruments such as rubrics and checklists to give students an idea of
what they should include in their work. Moreover, I continued to assess with the same sort of
methods in my second placement. I utilized KWLs, thumbs up/down, turn and talk methods, turn
and teach methods, and quick writes to formatively assess students content knowledge. Also, I

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created what I felt were creative and fun summative assessments as well. They included, but
were not limited tic-tac-toe choice assessments and an explorer diary entry. In addition to my
assessment methods, I feel that I also implemented activities that provoked critical thinking in
my students.
In addition to using assessment instruments and data effectively, I felt that I also excelled
in implementing activities and tasks that solicited critical thinking from my students. I believe I
was able to help my students engage in higher order thinking because I predetermined the types
of questions I would ask during my planning process. I knew which questions would simply
require a yes or no answer and which would require my students to reflect on what they know or
consult with a classmate to answer it thoroughly. I practiced doing this a great deal during my
first placement, and by the time I got to my second placement, I was able to more easily ask
those questions without as much explicit planning. Also, I intentionally planned tasks and
activities that were on the higher end of Blooms taxonomy. My students engaged in deep
analysis by researching and determining causal relationships in various content areas, they
participated in a debate that required them to evaluate Columbus motives and status as a hero or
a villain, and they created brochure to advertise Prince Henrys School of Navigation. As a
student, these were the types of activities and lessons that I enjoyed the most; thus, these are the
types that I want my students to experience as well. I did not even think of them as critical
thinking activities because I feel that this level of thinking, analysis, and creativity should
always be taking place.
In contrast to my my major strengths, there were also a few areas of weakness that I
attempted to identify early on so that I could improve them. I knew upon beginning my
internship that my classroom management was going to be the area that I would need the most

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guidance in from my CTs. Because I am incredibly soft spoken, I noticed immediately in my first
placement that my attention getters were not loud enough, my voice was not stern enough when
need be, and my students behavior was a direct reflection of my lack of strong management. I
tried utilizing the strategies and methods that my CTs used so that my students would have
consistency throughout the school day; however, their methods of managing the classroom were
immensely different than those that I knew would work for me. At first, I was apprehensive
about approaching my CTs and asking if I could try something different. I was concerned that
having three different teachers doing three different things to get attention and manage the
classrooms would be confuse the students. Yet, I realized that something had to be done if I
wanted to teach effectively. I came up with a positive behavior reward system that would
reinforce positive behavior rather than constantly punish negative behavior. Also, I found
attention getters that did not require me to use my voice at all. I found that these methods were
much more conducive to my personality, my teaching style, and the overall classroom
environment that I set out to achieve, More importantly, my students behavior significantly
improved. I carried my reward system over into my second placement, and although it required
some tweaks so that it would be age-appropriate for 5th graders, it was still incredibly effective. I
am still researching best practices and research-based methods to strengthen this area of
weakness in hopes that my classroom management is strong and effective by the time I have my
own classroom.
Secondly, I felt that differentiating for my various students needs was an area that I
struggled with and am still working to improve. In my first placement, there was such a wide
range of learners, especially in reading. My CT had yet to implement small groups into her
reading instruction. Thus, all reading instruction was given in whole group. I found it difficult to

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differentiate the content and process when I was instructing all students at the same time, and I
could easily see when students appeared lost or in need of deeper instruction. However, with the
depth and amount of content that needed to be covered, I felt myself struggling to do it as much
as I needed to. Furthermore, in my second placement, I still struggled with this area, especially in
math. Although the majority of my class were on grade-level or higher in math, there were
several students that required more intensive and sometimes one-on-one instruction. While I
knew how this should be done, it was difficult for me to ensure that every student that needed
such assistance got it for every step of the learning process. With 26 students and such a limited
block of time to cover the material, I also felt as though I was scrambling to teach the main
lesson, get the students started on their independent practice activities, and then check in on all
the students that I knew were in need of more guided practice. Although my CT, Ms. Johnson,
provided me with many resources for small group instruction and gave me a great deal of advice
as to how to structure the block to make time for everything that is necessary, I know that this is
an area that I will have to practice at, research, and spend more than a few weeks trying to figure
out. Moving forward, this is an area that I will indeed work on extensively so that when I have
my own classroom, my students will benefit from having all of their learning needs met all the
time.
Looking back onto my overall experience, I can pinpoint the days, lessons, and even the
moments that led to epiphanies and major insights like those that I have mentioned here. Those
aha moments had by myself and by my students are why I teach. They inform me when I have
made a connection or had a breakthrough with a student. They inform my students when they
finally have reached an understanding. Although it is so easy to look at the areas of weakness,
the downfalls, and the bad days, these moments are what we have to look for as educators. They

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are what inspire us and what motivate our students. As I think about my future classroom and
consider my future students, I can only hope that my strengths lead my students to such moments
of realization. I can plan to improve my areas of weakness so that more students can benefit from
what I have to offer as someone who lives to educate young minds. Lastly, I can decide to apply
everything that I have learned throughout the education program and my internship experiences
into my pedagogy so that I can be the best teacher possible so that I can encourage my students
to be the best versions of themselves.