Midterm Reflection

My first rotation has been wonderful. It has been a fantastic experience and I have learned a lot! I still feel that all the Professional Attributes that I would not have a problem with was accurate. The ones I felt I might have a problem with were creativity, initiative and risk-taking.

I don’t feel that I am struggling with them as much as I thought I would be. Creativity is still something I have to push myself to do, but my methods teachers have helped me accomplish this by requiring creativity out of our lessons. I have found that when I am creative the students enjoy and benefit from the lesson more. Initiative actually has not been a struggle. My mentor teacher made her classroom very welcoming and I felt comfortable getting involved and taking initiative. Risk-taking is still something that I struggle with but am getting more comfortable with. I find if I am in an environment where I trust the people around me then I am more likely to take risks.

I have learned that teaching is not a job where you have short days and you can leave your work at work and forget about it. I have been averaging 10 hour days on the days I am with my mentor teacher. It takes time to create lessons and then there is always after school activities or tutoring, it is never ending but it is definitely worth it. This is not a job where I watch the clock, time just flies.
I have really had challenges with not getting emotional over everything my little kids go through outside of school. Some of their lives are so tough and I have to try hard to not bring home all the baggage with me on a daily basis. When kids bring up things that are of concern to me or the class I discuss it with my mentor teacher to see how she handles it. She usually has the child document the even either by writing a story or drawing pictures and when necessary the event gets reported to the school counselor or whatever person necessary.

My personal learning goal for the remainder of the semester is to grasp a better understanding on how to write objectives and lessons for an inclusion classroom. I spent my first rotation in the 2nd grade inclusion classroom and will spend my second rotation in the 3rd grade inclusion classroom at Westwood Elementary and targeting lessons to reach all of the students can be a very difficult task. If I can get master this it will greatly benefit me.