Final Reflections

After learning about the school, the students, the environment, the assessments, behavior guidance strategies, and having hands-on experiences with the children – what lessons have you learned? Be specific, identify 3-5 lessons connected to the topics listed.

I learned a lot of behavior guidance strategies from Mrs. Jung. She taught me to focus on the positive behavior in the classroom before calling out the students that were off-task. She also taught me how to regain the whole class’s attention if they were all off-task. She provided a great example of how to keep yourself calm and talk to misbehaving students in a way that was beneficial to them so they learned something after being talked to so they could do better next time. Another lesson I learned was how important it is for students to be able to have hands-on learning experiences at school. I used to think that having the student quiet and sitting still was very important. Now, I realize that it’s also good for them to able to talk amongst each other and have things to do with their hands while their learning. A third lesson I learned is how beneficial providing scaffolding is to students so they can learn to do things for themselves. I started out the quarter doing everything for them that they asked. After watching how the teacher handled students asking for help, I tried to emulate her. I started asking the students to try on their own first, and then if they needed help, I’d help them. Often, I found they were able to do more on their own than I originally thought. Lastly, I learned that teaching students social skills is a big part of being a Kindergarten teacher. I didn’t realize before how much of a teacher’s time was spent helping students learn how to interact with others. They teach how to problem-solve, work together, express feelings in words, and recognize others’ feelings (theory of mind). Those are just some of the skills teachers help students with besides learning about numbers and how to read.

Based on the Students Evaluation from your practicum supervisor, what are the areas of strength? Be specific.

Between the evaluation sheet and debriefing with Mrs. Jung, I learned that I have strong skills in a few areas. I am good at communicating and engaging with the students when I work with them on worksheets and activities. I always tried to present the information to each student in a way that makes sense to them. I played games with them and talked to them. When I worked with them, I would get down on their level and give them my full attention. I modeled a positive attitude with the students. I was very encouraging to them. I showed a lot of initiative and jumped in when help was needed. Mrs. Jung said that she could tell that I struggled with getting involved with the students and activities at first, but that I had growth in these areas and pushed myself to get more involved through the quarter.

Based on the Students Evaluation from your practicum supervisor, what are the areas of growth that you want to address as your journey to become a teacher? Be specific.

I asked Mrs. Jung what she thought I could work on and she said I should work more on following through with my expectations of students. I noticed that I could improve in this area as well. When students refused to behave, I often had a hard time knowing how to get them to comply. I need to work more on giving them appropriate consequences and establishing myself as someone to be respected. In my own opinion, I think I need to work more on getting to know each child more personally. I would like to talk with them more about themselves and establish more of a relationship with students in the future. I did do this to some extent, but I think I could definitely work more on this. When I have my own classroom, I would like to get to know each child’s family so they see me more as a partner to their learning rather than an authority that just tells them what to do.