Amy Oliver

ED799

End of Program Essay

Subheading A:
I must admit; I was not excited about student teaching. There were so many

parts of getting to my student teaching assignment that made me feel unimportant. I did

think that this was just a hoop I needed to jump through to reach my license and my

degree but I was happily mistaken. I absolutely love my student teaching experience so

far. My experience has been difficult, upsetting, deflating, frustrating, eye-opening,

heart-warming, and fun. I love it.

I had come into student teaching knowing that I was deficit in classroom

teaching. I knew that I was nice and sweet, but I have been told that I may not have the

skill set needed to manage a classroom. That was a huge hit to my mind and my heart. I

was afraid of finding out that I was not made to be a teacher. Who knew being nice

would be a detriment? On the second day, I was in the classroom my mentor teacher

had a talk with me about focusing on showing the students that I am boss instead of

building a rapport with them. Hearing that on top of a previous experience was difficult,

but I was ready to learn. I took what she said to heart, did not get upset, and improved.

The students stopped a lot of their disrespectful activities to listen to what I had to say

and follow my directions.

I need to mention that the classroom I was assigned turned out to be perfect for

me. This second-grade teacher is the teacher that gets all the behavior issue students

because she can handle them. As such, out of 20 students, she has 14 that have

behavior issues. There is one student who is diagnosed with ODD (oppositional defiant

disorder) and one student that shows the signs of it. There is one autistic student who is

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sweet and smart, but needs support because she does not know how to be in a

classroom. I have one student who shows signs of a bully and, in fact, bullied me until I

figured her out. There are several ADD (attention deficit disorder) students and a few

ADHD (attention deficit and hyperactivity disorders) students. This is a busy class. I was

impressed at Valentines Day when my ODD student made sure that his mom bought

me something specifically because he told him mom I was not there long and he did not

want me to feel left out. These students are a handful, but I love each one of them.

My female bully is the one with whom I grew the most. Without student teaching,

it would not have taken the time to figure this out. This young girl knew how to push all

my buttons. She had me mad that I thought that it would be someone I had to deal with

instead of teach. One day I sat down and thought about it. I had asked her once when

she told me no one liked her, to try being kind to other people and see what she gets

back. All I received from that idea was a snarl on her face. I decided that I had to show

her how to be kind instead of expect her to do it. Each time she did something good or

on task, I wrote it down on a large pink sticky note and added a sticker beside each

entry. I showed this student what Id written at certain points in the day. She was thrilled

and a lot happier after I started that. She proudly showed it to my mentor and then I let

her take the weeks worth of entries home to mom and dad. Ive only had a couple

weeks to try this but so far the benefits have been phenomenal. This has improved this

students learning in the classroom as well. She has taken to trying harder to do her

work correctly. (GPO 5, CLO 4) My mentor teacher was impressed. I think she was

worried I wouldnt get over that. In fact, shed written about this problem in my mid-term

evaluation.

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I have had some other successes with classroom management. My mentor has

told me several times within the last couple of weeks that I am completely on task with

the students. I am talking to the students who need a discussion and dealing with

students who need the extra help. The Friday before Spring Break, my mentor told me

that the students arent giving me as much respect as they should. She pointed out that

when I give directions a respectful student would not give any complaint of the direction.

The students have been giving me some feedback instead of just doing what I have

asked. She advised that I know what I want them to do and stick to it. Her preferred

redirection is to tell the students not a good choice, try again. I am going to work on

that for the rest of my time in student teaching. That was tough to hear since I thought I

was doing well. The good thing is that she tells me and doesnt hold back. I need that. I

could put that into place that very day after wed talked. One student was reported to

have said a bad word. I asked the student about it and he claimed he didnt do it. I told

him that I know he did say something bad and started spelling the word that had been

reported to me. Before I finished he stopped me saying that wasnt what he said. I

asked if it was inappropriate, he said yes. I told him it did not matter what word it was

but since he would not tell me that means that he knows it is inappropriate. He was told

to no longer say those things and to go back to work. He said yes maam and walked

to his seat. I could see out of the corner of my eye that my mentor was nodding her

head in the affirmative.

As I think of my research project, I am more and more interested in doing action

research. While surveys that are sent out are easier to do for the researcher, the

detriment is that often they are not answered. In my student teaching, Ive been asking

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the students what would help them stay focused on the instruction. Often they dont

know. Ive offered elastic bands on the legs of the chair and standing at the standup

table. Many students will agree to try out new ideas, but many know themselves already

at 7 years old. They know that many of my ideas wont work. What I decided was to try

out giving them more interesting and more difficult work to do on a voluntary basis.

Luckily this group enjoys being challenged. The worksheets seem to have intrigued

them enough to keep them from being too much of a distraction to other students. I just

havent told them the reason for the voluntary worksheets. (GPO 2) I am using these

discussions and watching how the students handle the extra worksheets to see what

would help them improve their time in the classroom. I have made these worksheets

voluntary so that those students who dont have time to finish an extra worksheet wont

need to worry about it. There are those who feel that extra work is not fun or does not

interest them at all. My thinking was to help those students who are bored in class or

want more to do. (GPO 3, 8)

I attended my first professional development half day and listened to the teachers

of the school give presentations about mindfulness and executive functioning. I had

never heard of executive functioning before but it must do with managing personal time

and how a person pays attention to name just a couple. The presentation on

mindfulness was incredible. One of the books the teachers bought was Sitting Still Like

a Frog by Eline Snel. This book not only has incredible exercises for students to use

along with a CD to use but it also has information for parents. Mindfulness is a key word

at Belmont Elementary. The goal is for students to think about what they do before they

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do it. I think of this book when I think of my own growth during my time student

teaching. I used some of the techniques from this book to deal with my own insecurities.

While I still have a long way to go before I am more than proficient, I have grown

in leaps and bounds. I know that to become an ethical teacher I need to know my

content knowledge before I teach it. I need to make sure that I am constantly assessing

how the students are learning and change how the lessons are presented to correlate to

how the students learn best. To be a professional teacher, I need to make sure that my

students come first in whatever I am doing as a teacher. If they are working on

technology then I need to be walking around and making sure they are focused on the

right topic. If they are not then they need to be redirected as this is the time that was

allotted for this learning activity. I do not want them to lose out on that time because I

was not present enough to notice that they are off task for whatever reason. I am

ethically bound to be a confidante to the students with them understanding that if their

concerns are those that should be presented to someone else then I must do that. In

addition to teaching I am to keep them safe even if it means breaking a confidence.

I learned so much more about morality and what it means. I was student teaching

when the inauguration occurred this year. Although the students I was with were way to

young to watch this event, the principal made a point to tell each teacher that no one

should watch the event live. They are able to show clips after the fact when the clip has

been previewed. The reason was that the principal was concerned that something

traumatic might occur. She was not worried about politics, she was concerned about

what the students would see. This pointed out to me more than anything else that it is

my job to protect the students in my care from anything that might cause them harm. I

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am bound to model for them that everyone is a person and no one is better than anyone

else. These morals seem like common sense to me but I now understand why they are

taught. It is my job to show that each person is important and have value. My job as the

moral leader of the classroom is to show the students that there are other points of view

out there from which we can learn.

As I thought about what I aspire for my students, I realized that what I want for

them is what I want for myself. Perfection is not the goal; progress is because life is a

journey of learning.

Subheading B:
I looked through my artifact reflections and have seen a growth in my depth of

understanding. I started off with a simple step by step evaluation of the information Id

learned and moved towards a sophisticated knowledge base. My artifact reflection in

my Online Technology class impressed me because I have been behind the curve

technologically but with the teachers encouragement, I created a lesson plan that would

be interesting and doable for a classroom setting. While I used just a few different

technology programs, I found those that had a specific purpose and allowed the

students to focus on their assignment rather than learning a new program each lesson.

I read my Diverse Learner artifact reflection and was amazed how short and to

the point it was. It was not very interesting to read. I did cover all my bases but it is not

a very interesting read. I almost want to apologize to that teacher for the lack of

creativity shown in that paper.

Reading my Legal Issues in Education artifact reflection reminded me that there

is a serious side to the job. I had forgotten how many ways there are for students to get

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injured. Some of the ways are through teacher negligence and other ways are through

the creativeness of the students whether it be orneriness or simple thoughtlessness.

After reading this reflection I think that a brief presentation would be helpful at the

beginning of each school year to the teachers might be needed. They might do this

already but I know Id forgotten about much of this.

I remember writing the Science artifact reflection. This was a class that I was

unsure if I would benefit or if it would go over my head. I think what is the most

important point of this reflection is that there are so many resources out there for a

teacher to use as they create their science lessons. I was at first daunted by the

expansive resource of the NSTA website. As I looked further into it, I found that it is

broken down and helpful to the teacher who takes a little time to look.

In my Curriculum Design class, I touch on using different learning abilities to

engage students. Although my lesson is about poetry, my ideas was to get students up

and moving. I had designed an activity that helps students understand poetry while

being creative.

My Research Class got me excited about listening to my students. While I know

that it is up to me as the teacher to create the lesson plan, the students are the ones

who will tell me what type of learning they do the best. Trying out new ways to teach will

allow students to succeed where staying with the tried and true may not. (GPO 5)

My favorite artifact reflection is the one from my Leadership class. When I was a

substitute teacher I had some middle school kids call me soft. While I have no problem

with being soft, I do have a problem getting respect. I thought that only people who were

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stern could be leaders. Through this class I learned that there are a lot of leadership

styles and some are soft. This knowledge has helped my confidence level.

Subheading C:
I read through my field experience reflections and found that while I may be soft,

I do not have a lot of fear. Ive gone to a church where I did not know the language that

was being spoken then had lunch with the parishioners. I have met with an expert in

the field of instruction who talked to me about the gifted program. I am interested in the

gifted program but did not know a lot about it when I first sat down to discuss it with her.

Ive attended a school board meeting where I was the only person in the audience and

found that just because it is slightly embarrassing, the result is the entire board coming

up to meet me. This tells me that it does not matter what other people do, I need to be

true to myself which might mean doing something on my own.

I also found that I am a lot like my father in leadership styles. He wants everyone

to come to a consensus which is what I strive for as well. I have noticed that while I

want everyone to come to a consensus when it comes to what is going to happen, that

style does not often serve well in a second-grade setting. This setting does better with

set rules and decisions already set out. While I might enjoy everyone coming to a

consensus, I now know that there are times when I should be the decision maker

instead. I noticed that this style works best even in fourth grade classes. When I went

on my first Practicum to visit a fourth-grade teacher, I noticed that the students were a

well-oiled machine of classroom jobs. I asked how she managed this, I was told that the

expectations are set out and then those who cross the line get in trouble first thing. That

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happens for the first couple of weeks until the students get used to the teachers

system.