Clinical Teaching Reflection

My student teaching experience at Ashville Elementary School, teaching

reading intervention and co-teaching science and social studies in an inclusive

setting, has been a rewarding experience for me. I have learned a lot about myself as

a teacher such as my strengths and weaknesses. I couldn’t have asked for a more

professional and dedicated cooperating teacher and university supervisor to help

steer me for success during this experience. They both pushed me on a daily basis

and helped reflect upon my experiences to help me grow as an effective teacher.

Throughout my clinical teaching experience, I have continually worked to meet the

Ohio Professional Teaching Standards as well as Muskingum University’s Teacher

Candidate Dispositions to strengthen my educational philosophy.

Before my official day of clinical teaching, I attended my first faculty meeting

of the year at Ashville Elementary. This gave me the opportunity to introduce myself

to faculty and staff and learn which priorities the principal was covering for the

meeting. Some of these priorities included information on Teays’s Valley’s

Continuous Improvement Plan, which was about the districts guiding principles and

goals to improve for the 2016-2017 year. There was also additional information on

school procedures such as fire, lockdown, and tornado drills. Towards the end of the

meeting, we got into groups to discuss the district’s annual report card from the

2015-2016 year. We were looking at Ashville Elementary areas of strengths and

improvement. We discussed as a group goals we wanted to achieve over the year

and how we would meet them before departing for open house.

During my first week, it was a little slow in the classroom since the general

education teachers were going over expectations and emergency medical forms

with the students. As they were busy with that, I was putting together binders for

the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders I was going to have in the classroom. My first job

was to pull IEP, ETR, and 504 information from the schools Student Information

Management System (SIMS) filing cabinet to get an idea of our students’ strengths,

weaknesses, and goal objectives.

During the second week, things started to pick up a little. We didn’t have an

official schedule of whom we were going to be working with but my cooperating

teacher wanted me to co-teach in an inclusion 5th grade setting until we knew what

our final schedule would be. I was still getting used to the school schedule and

observing how the special education team collaborates and works with general

education teachers and administration. My first official lesson was on powers of ten

in a 5th grade math room. I collaborated with the 5th grade math teacher to see what

she would be teaching later in the week and talked about the core things she wanted

me to cover. Once I made my lesson, I provided copies of it to her and my

cooperating teacher and began teaching. Later in the week, I attended a training

course on Wilson Reading System, which is an intensive tier 3 program for students

in grades 2-12 with word-level deficiencies who are not making sufficient progress

in the general education curriculum.

After returning from a two-week absence due to seminar coursework with

Muskingum, I received a schedule of what I would be doing for the remainder of my

clinical teaching experience. I received additional training in S.P.I.R.E. Reading

System, which is a comprehensive and multisensory reading system that integrates

phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, spelling and comprehension

in an instructional design that is based on how struggling readers learn. I would use

this reading program to teach reading intervention to 1st through 5th grade students

in the resource room. I also co-taught in 5th grade science and social studies for a

small portion of the day.

Even though I succeeded in reaching the high standards I set for myself

during my clinical teaching experience, there are many areas that I need to improve

upon. One of these areas is becoming better at behavior management. I noticed

during clinical teaching that I have a habit of letting behaviors slide for younger

students. For example, when I am teaching reading with my first grade students, I

am disrupted a lot when asking questions related to the text we’re reading and

notice students getting off task easily. I have a behavior management system in

place where I give each student two tickets. If they have both tickets by the end of

the lesson, they receive a dojo point on ClassDojo. If a student disrupts, makes fun of

another student, yells answers without raising their hand, or doesn’t cooperate with

learning activities, I take a ticket away so the student knows they’ve received a

warning. If the behavior persists, I take both tickets and it results in the student

losing a dojo point. Again, I think I am too soft with the students and need to become

firmer. I also think I can address this issue in the future by having the principal

reward one of the students at the end of the week so the other students can get an

idea of what’s expected in class, and work hard so the principal can announce their

names by the end of the week.

My second area I need to improve upon is becoming a stronger instructive

professional. I noticed during my clinical teaching that I have a habit of teaching

with the same instructional activities. I tend to teach my lessons in the same way,

every time. For example, when I am teaching reading, I always break the story in

sections and ask questions so I keep students engaged with the passage. I also have

students read columns of words to themselves in their student readers before

picking on a student to read them aloud. I provide a lot of multisensory activities

that keep students engaged with their learning, but I’ve noticed some students are

losing interest and become bored easily. In the future, I need to work on teaching

with a variety of instructional strategies. After students read a passage, I could have

them do something enjoyable such as creative writing with graphic organizers or

some form of small art project that details what they’ve read. I need to keep in mind

that time is limited so if I create an activity, I need to make sure its not complicated

and time consuming, but rather something that will require students to use the

creative side of their brain more.

Even though there are areas that I need to improve upon, there are areas that

I excelled in during clinical teaching. One of these is that I am an effective

communicator. I made it a point to make sure my instruction was clear and

understandable when dictating lessons, directions, or a topic. I also kept in touch

with the parents in a number of ways. I would send messages on Remind101, an app

that allows teachers to send secure, free message reminders to parents to inform

them of upcoming quizzes and tests as well as what had been going on in my

classroom. Since I was working in a special education setting, I made sure to ensure

parents knew who I was and explained my passion for teaching special education by

sending home introduction letters with their child. I also had opportunities to talk

with parents at annual IEP meetings and parent-teacher conferences. When co-

teaching in 5th grade social studies and science, I collaborated ideas about my lesson

and how we could teach together to provide instruction to our students.

In addition to being an effective communicator, I feel that I am an excellent

role model and professional. I always provided a positive learning environment for

my students. I felt passionate about my lessons and wanted my students to feel

relaxed and engaged in my classroom. I also was very involved with the faculty of

the school. I attended Building Leadership Meetings, Teacher-Based Teams, and

other faculty meetings. I attended workshops at Teays Valley’s Central District Office

to receive training in new reading programs such as Wilson’s Reading System and

S.P.I.R.E. Reading System that the district was implementing into their Continuous

Improvement Plans. I was able to have an opportunity to write an IEP and dictate

the meeting for one of my students. Overall, I kept myself very involved with my

students, their parents, and faculty members.

After my clinical teaching experience, I have learned a lot about myself that

will allow me to be a more successful teacher. The greatest attribute that I have

gained from this experience is self-confidence. For a while during my undergraduate

studies, I felt like I wasn’t prepared for this experience and needed to open myself to

new career options. I am very fortunate to be able to come back

As I’ve stated previously throughout my reflection, I had an amazing clinical

teaching experience. With the encouragement from the faculty and principal, along

with my superb cooperating teacher and university supervisor, I wouldn’t be where

I am today. I was never treated as a student teacher, but rather as a colleague. I have

learned how to structure and run a classroom. I have learned how important

communication and collaboration is in the field of special education and how it

deeply affects students with exceptionalities. I have learned that teaching is unlike

any other profession. I felt like I was constantly learning how to improve my skills.

For every student that I have encountered, they have taught me something new. I

can’t believe how fast this experience has been for me. I am very grateful