Assignment #4- Comprehensive Reflection

I can't believe that my student teaching is ending! I have had so much fun at Nisswa Elementary School with the students and staff. Lots of memories were made. As I look over my goals I can see that I have accomplished many of them. They are as follows:

• Goal #1: Form a personal relationship with each of my students.

Coming into student teaching I didn't know anything about any of my students. I was scared to death to take this adventure at Nisswa. To top it off, I had two classrooms of students to get to know, not just one classroom which made me even more nervous. In the first weeks of student teaching I thought that I would never be able to remember the student's names, let alone get to know each student at a personal level. I didn't know how Mrs. Olson and Mrs. Baker did it! Come to find out, as every day went by I was finding more and more out about each and every boy and girl. This was so neat!! I loved learning about my students families, hobbies, interests, and friends. It made teaching so much easier for me by forming these personal relationships! As I began teaching more and more I would incorporate the interests of the students into my lessons making the lessons more engaging for the students. It was such an amazing site to see the "light bulb" come on when the students were grasping the concepts being taught. I can honestly say that I have formed a personal relationship with each one of my students throughout student teaching. 

• Goal #2: Have successful communication with the parents of my students throughout student teaching.

Communication with the parents of my students at Nisswa is such a key factor I have come to find out. I had the pleasure of meeting a ton of great parents throughout my student teaching experience. It is very hard to get in contact with every parent of my students, especially those parents who are divorced. At the beginning of my student teaching I sent home a letter introducing myself and informing the parents why I would be in their child's classroom. I felt that was a good way to introduce myself to hopefully all of the parents of my students. Throughout the twelve weeks in Nisswa, my teachers and I had a few students who were missing their homework or not getting their agenda books signed on a regular basis. We had to contact the parents of these children and inform them on what was expected of the students and what we should do to change the habits that were taking place. Sometimes these phone calls were interesting and other times they went great! I can successfully say that I had communication with the parents of my students at Nisswa Elementary. 

• Goal #4: To be able to help students who are struggling. 

Throughout my student teaching I have learned so much about students who are struggling with a certain topic. I have also learned how discouraging for kids when they don't understanding something. In third grade they get upset and are very bothered. During my student teaching, for math, we split up our students into two levels; the kids who can be pushed and the kids who need a little more time to learn topics. I taught the kids who struggled with math throughout my student teaching. What an eye opener for me! Mrs. Baker and I talked about the methods that she uses for students who need a little more help. Every other day the students are given math homework. When those math homework pages come back to school I would correct them. If I noticed a girl or boy who was having a hard time understanding their homework I would take those kids, one by one, into the side room and go over their math homework with them. We went over the problem and then I gave them other examples of the same kind of problem that they were having trouble with to give them some more practice. To reinforce these struggling students, we have parent volunteers and aides in our classroom every day. The kids are also getting pulled out by these ladies to get more practice. I have learned that the lower level math kids just need much more time practicing and more examples than the other kids. A helpful tip that I learned from Mrs. Olson and Mrs. Baker is to use highlighters when going over problems with the students. Highlighting the important parts of problems shows the kids what is the most important and what they should pay attention to. Also, just keeping the students positive and having fun when teaching a topic shows the kids that learning is fun! If it is fun from the beginning, then the kids will be able to have a harder time getting discouraged. I have learned so much from helping the students who are struggling.

• Goal #6: To develop a strong relationship with my co-workers within Nisswa Elementary School.

During my time at Nisswa Elementary School I have had the privilege to meet so many nice staff members. Everyone at Nisswa is friendly and always willing to help in any way they can! I can say that I have developed a ton of new friendships and had the great opportunity of observing many of the classrooms throughout the school. I can't wait to come back and volunteer at Nisswa Elementary.

• Goal #7: I want to be able to prove to myself that I can reach my goal of teaching the whole school day with much success.

I set the goal of being able to teach the whole entire school day with much success at the beginning of my student teaching. I can say that I was able to reach my goal! It was very stressful at times, but I am so happy to prove to myself that I can teach a full classroom. It was a great feeling to be able to achieve this goal.

Meaningful Experiences:

My student teaching at Nisswa Elementary School has left me with so many memories and experiences that I will never forget!

Math is one of my favorite subjects to teach. When I was teaching math during my student teaching, I had the kids who needed a little more time to grasp the topics. Every other day the student's were given a math worksheet to do at home to check for comprehension on the topics that were being taught. When the student's turned them in the next morning in the homework basket I would go through them and correct them during my prep time. I would take the worksheets of the students who didn't seem to understand what was going on and put them in a separate pile. Once I found out who didn't get the concepts I would pull these students out one by one during the morning work time and go over the math problems with them. I had a little girl who being pulled into the side room by me every day because she never understood what was going on. She told me she hated math and that it was the worst subject ever. She didn't understand why we had to learn the things that we were teaching the kids and she said I'm never going to use this math again. I talked to this little girl a lot and found out that she didn't have anyone at home helping her with her school work, she just did it all by herself. I told her that I would go over her math with her every morning and make sure she understood what was being taught until she didn't want me to anymore because she was understanding the topics. After this little girl and I had lots of time to bond I began to tie in things that she liked to do into her math problems. She was so excited to find out that she could actually figure it out if it was about something that she was interested in. We continued to meet every time there was a math worksheet due, until one day she came up to me and said, "Miss Larson, look at what I can do!" The little girl showed me how she was understanding everything in math that was on her worksheets. She told me that she took my advice and changed the problems into something that she was interested in doing. When I saw how happy this little girl was I knew that I had picked the right profession. This was so neat to see as an educator, I truly love what I went to school for!

Last week I had my final day of teaching my 3rd grade students. On my last day of teaching, the students came into the classroom and got started on their morning work right away just like they normally do. I was walking around checking agenda books when one of the little boys in my class came up to me with an envelope and said that it was for me. I asked him if it was alright for me to open it right now and he said yes of course and that he wanted to see what my reaction was. We both went over to Mrs. Olson's desk in the classroom as I opened it. On the outside of the envelope it said To: Miss Larson. I opened it up and inside I pulled out a piece of paper that was cut around the outside with the fun zig-zag scissors. The note read: Miss Larson, You are the best 3rd grade teacher I have ever had. You make Science so much fun. I am really going to miss you when you are gone. I hope you can come back and be a sub for our class very soon. I had tears in my eyes when I read this letter. He gave me a huge hug and said "I'm so happy you are in our classroom." After reading this letter from this little boy, I realized how much I am going to miss my students and what an impact that they had made on me. Science has always been a weak subject for me as a student, so I was very happy to hear that I was successful as a teacher to my students. Later on in the day I saw this little boys mom, who was subbing in the DCD room. She told me that her son did everything in this letter all by himself, just asked how to spell one word. It was all his idea. She informed me how her son would come home all of the time telling me how nice and fun I was as a teacher. It was such an amazing feeling hearing this from that little boys mother. I am truly going to miss my students at Nisswa!