Student Teaching Log

Heather Antunez

Student Teaching Reflection Log

January 2015

Week 1: January 26 – 30, 2015

1. How did you spend your time this week? What responsibilities did you have?

My first week of student teaching last week, I learned the names of the students and staff at Greenwood Elementary,

and became familiar with daily schedules, routines and procedures. This week I created a new classroom seating arrangement, and

moved the students’ desks into small mixed ability groups. I worked with students individually and in small groups in reading and

math. I had lunchroom duty and recess duty, and observed students during their library time. I took students to the computer lab

individually and in small groups, so that they could complete district testing in reading (SRI) and math (SMI). On Monday, I met the

math coach and participated in the weekly team meeting, and on Wednesday afternoon, I attended a building staff meeting. On

Thursday I participated in another team meeting to plan for a future PBIS assembly. I also began planning and collecting materials for

the STEM unit that I will begin teaching next week. On Friday afternoon, I went with students and attended a school assembly

regarding the upcoming spelling challenge. On Friday, I also corrected and graded a unit math assessment for my mentor teacher.

2. What were your most satisfying experiences? What were your most challenging experiences?

My second week the students were a little more comfortable with me, so they began to test my limits with classroom

management. I caught many of the students taking short cuts and not doing what their teacher expected from them. One student got

2

an attitude with me for catching his short cuts, but I remained firm and diligent with him. Another student passed gas during a reading

group with me and he and his friend got the giggles, but I remained calm and was able to keep control of the situation. I think I was

successful with classroom management this week. I have learned what students get finished first, what students take short cuts to get

done, what students like to talk, and what students need more help. There was little if any planning time during the contract hours of

the school, so it was challenging for me to go home and plan for my teaching next week. I spent way more preparation time on the

lessons then the lesson guide had suggested, and I know that I won’t have that much time for planning lessons as I take on more

subjects and move towards bell to bell teaching.

I was satisfied to see that all of Mrs. Lamphere’s math class passed their unit assessment. We have all been working hard to help a

new student, and a few others who have been struggling with some math concepts. I enjoyed being able to give students reward

tickets and see them receive prizes from their PBIS system. I believe that have successfully established rapport with the third grade

students, and I believe that they view me as a teacher in their classroom. I am delighted that Mrs. Lamphere allows me to be an active

participant and not just an observer in her classroom. She has truly made me feel welcome as well as a valuable part of her classroom.

3. What are the plans for the upcoming week?

My mentor teacher had planned to ease me in taking on teaching responsibilities with adding a subject per week. However, she

recognized that with my split placement that I am going to have to double up and begin teaching word work and science next week.

Mrs. Lamphere continues to have me actively involved in the classroom working with students individually and in small groups. If

she is teaching and I don’t have students, I act as her assistant and help or monitor students who are working independently. On

Wednesday of this upcoming week, I will miss a district staff meeting to attend my oldest son’s IEP meeting at Urbandale Middle

School. I will be teaching science four out the five days next week, and taking over word work every day with the 3rd grade spelling

words for the school spelling challenge. On Friday afternoon, I will be participating in another building PBIS assembly that the third

grade team is leading.

Week 2: February 2 - 6, 2015

3


This week I continued to teach science and my mentor teacher added word work and leveled readers during

reading groups. I continued to provide support to my mentor teacher with lessons and monitoring students during

individual and group work time when she was providing small or large group instruction. I studied curriculum

materials and gathered materials and resources for lessons and units. I continued to work with students in small

groups during reading and math lessons, and observed my mentor teacher while she was leading her lessons. I

attended team meetings with the reading and math coaches, and consulted with my mentor teacher about lesson

planning and her daily schedule. This week there were two new experiences: an unplanned fire drill and a PBIS

assembly. The third grade team was in charge of leading the PBIS assembly, so I was left alone to bring students

to the assembly and monitor their behavior during the assembly in the school gym. My mentor teacher is beginning

to transition me into full-time teaching and leaving the room more often, so I can have an opportunity to work on

my own classroom management skills. I also had to read more about setting limits in the classroom as the third

graders have tested me during both whole group and small group instruction.


I am finally feeling like I have a good understanding of the schedule and routines, and I do not have to rely

on my mentor teacher to let me know what is going to happen next. I attempted to take more initiative and act on

my own as the classroom teacher. As my mentor added more curriculum materials and resources this week, I felt

the need to get organized with my materials and my work space so that I could transition quickly from one subject

to the next, and have my materials ready for my own lessons. Once I felt more organized the added responsibilities

and materials were less overwhelming and more manageable for me. Mrs. Lamphere tries to keep her students

4

moving at a fast pace, and I felt more capable when I was more organized and could keep up with her pace. It felt

good when Ms. Lamphere directed other students to ask “the other teacher in the classroom” for help. It felt good

to be less tired at the end of the day, as I did not feel like I was mentally exhausted from trying to process and

remember everything throughout the day. I found great satisfaction in finding a new route to school that was

faster than taking the interstate and avoided getting caught in traffic that was crawling at 10-25 miles per hour. It

always feels good to reduce travel time and the stress of traveling congested roads that at times seems out of one’s

control.

One of my most challenging experiences this week continued to be classroom management. I found myself

frustrated with the same students, and the same reasons that I saw my mentor teacher frustrated with in the

classroom. She has several students that always seem to be the last ones to stop what they are doing and transition

with the rest of the group. I found myself constantly dealing with noise levels, students interrupting small group

instruction, students frequently wanting to leave the classroom to use the bathroom, and trying to teach a lesson

with students who would not stop talking. I also have to rethink, re-plan and re-teach my cooperative group roles

for my science lesson. I warned students that I would send them back to their desks if they could not show me that

could sit on the carpet for large group with out talking, or playing around or touching each other. In the next week

or so, I will have to really watch and follow through consistently with my rules and consequences to create a better

learning environment. Another challenging experience this week was when I was working with a group of

students with math. We were working on some difficult word problems that required inverse thinking, and I did

not have curriculum materials or a chance to work out the problems ahead of time on own. I found myself having

some difficulty and I could not work through the words problem and reason while a student who was completely

wrong was confidently trying to convince me that she was correct. In the future in preparation for math lessons, I

5

will need to work some of the math problems ahead of time and have the answers accessible to me, so that if I

stumble I can regroup and collect my thoughts in order to redirect my students’ thinking in the right direction. I

also feel very inadequate as a teacher with my science unit. The students seem to already know a lot about what

we are discussing with the introduction, they rush through their cooperative group work, and are happy to inform

me that “they are done,” even though I already told them that science is never done and I expect them be

investigating and working on science. The students also have limited resources to research the information that

they are learning about in the lessons. I had a hard time finding books in the library on these topics, and in my on-

line research, the topics on technology, engineering and properties of membranes are not on a third grade level. I

have been challenged to keep the students actively engaged while trying to expand their knowledge on the subject

and trying to manage their behavior.


This week I will be responsible for lessons in science, reading, and word work with the third grade students.

My mentor teacher said that she would be leaving the room more frequently, so that I could have more practice on

my own. We devised a plan that I could contact her on her cell phone if it was necessary. It must be difficult for

her to give up control and allow someone else to take over her classroom. Mrs. Lamphere has given me a heads -up

on what is forthcoming in the next math unit, so I can begin to look for math games for centers, and other

manipulatives or resources to go along with the curriculum. She has also shared district standards for reading that

do not go along with the Journey’s reading materials. On Tuesday our weekly seminar begins, and I’m looking

forward to hearing experiences from other student teachers. Wednesday is early dismissal, and I’m hoping this

week will be classroom work time. On Friday, the students will be having their Valentine’s party at the end of the

day. The weeks are flying by so quickly, and I feel as though I’m just getting established. My portfolio class was

6

postponed due to the weather last week, and I’m clueless about what I’m doing for my portfolio. I know these next

several weeks will fly by too, and I’ll be starting over again at a new placement! I plan to just keep on working

hard, and to feel accomplished as I complete assignments.



My third week I was responsible to teach reading, word work, and science to both large and small groups of

students. I continued to plan and gather materials and resources for lessons and units. I continued to ask questions

and consult with my mentor teacher, and reflect on things that went well and things that could have gone better

during instruction. I attended a math team meeting where we reviewed the chapter 8 assessment for math, and

selected questions for the final chapter assessment. On Wednesday, I attended a building staff development

meeting that involved staff development on the Marzano best teaching practices. My mentor teacher and I are

working together on a long-term goal in her classroom to improve on ways of reducing student interruptions during

small group instruction that disrupt the pace of the learning environment. The week seemed to fly by extremely

fast as we ended the week with a Valentine party on Friday. I had the opportunity to meet some mothers that

volunteered to be in charge of the party on Friday. I also had lunch duty twice, and recess duty twice this week.


This week it seemed as though there was no planning time at school. My afternoons seemed to be nonstop

teaching, so I struggled to stay organized and keep track of my materials. One day, I felt completely unprepared to

teach reading in the Journey’s book and completely missed a section that I had intended to cover during the lesson.

7

The district has their own reading objectives that do not coordinate with the curriculum materials, so I found it

confusing and difficult to teach a meaningful lesson with the provided resources. On the other hand, I gave the

students a choice in comparing and contrasting two stories with two different graphic organizers, and I noticed that

they all handled the choice option very well. Science is also continues to be a challenge. One day goes really well

and then the next day I feel as though I’m backtracking and struggling with classroom management problems.

Overall, I feel as though the students are learning, but I’m just not as efficient as getting thing s done as an

experienced teacher. It seems to take me twice as long to get the same task does as it does for my mentor teacher,

because the students seem to test me to see what I will and will no tolerate. I had to send students back to their

desks during science class this week, because they were talking and slowing down the pace of instruction during

large group instruction. I stayed after school late four days this week to work on planning and studying

curriculum materials, which seemed to work better than going home and trying to work on homework late in the

evening. I was not as tired this week and felt like I got more work accomplished at school, which allowed me to get

more rest at night and spend more time with my family.


This week my mentor teacher is adding math to my teaching other responsibilities in

preparation for my bell-to-bell teaching opportunity. On Monday morning, I have an observation from

my supervisor in my new math teaching responsibility. Tuesday is fingerprinting for the Department of

Education for licensing at seminar, and Wednesday begins parent teacher conferencing from 2pm to

8pm. I’m sure another week will fly by far too quickly in this placement, however I am still enjoying the

experience.

8



My fourth week of student teaching I was responsible to teach math, word work, science and reading. I

continued to lead students with both small group and large group instruction while Mrs. Lamphere also worked

with students individually or in small groups outside of the classroom. I spent my spare time studying the

curriculum, gathering materials for lessons and consulting with my mentor teacher. I had lunch duty once, and

recess duty with one inside recess and one outside recess. I attended a math team meeting on Monday where a goal

was discussed and agreed upon for the current unit, and a reading team meeting on Thursday to discuss where third

grade is with the curriculum, and what was approaching with Iowa Assessments after Spring Break. On

Wednesday after school, I sat in and participated in parent teacher conferences with 14 of Mrs. Lamphere’s parents

from 2pm to 8pm. On Friday, Mrs. Lamphere had a substitute teacher, and I got my first experience teaching from

bell to bell.


Science is still very hard to do well with third graders. This week we they finally got to do an experiment

with raisins and examine the properties of membranes. I stayed late after school on Tuesday, because the raisins

had to soak for different periods of time. I had to leave for fingerprinting and came back to the school to make sure

that everything was ready to go for science for the next day. I went home and planned my grouping of 3-4 students

in a group, but forgot that I had only set up 4 stations at school. So the next day when it was time for science I

realized my mistake. I had to put students into larger groups than I had originally planned, and not every student

got to examine their own raisin. I did panic for a brief moment when I saw that things were not going right, but I

9

quickly recovered and made it work out anyway. I did not do a very good job of giving explicit instructions at the

beginning of the experiment, and I learned that I cannot give third graders instructions, and expect them to know

what to do even in an inquiry experiment. It was really hard for me to visualize this whole experiment and

anticipate what might happen during my planning. I will know better when it comes time to explore different

materials in the next lesson.

My most satisfying experience was teaching bell to bell on Friday. At the beginning of the day I was well

prepared and confident that we would have a good day. The substitute teacher stayed out of my way and allowed

me to take over the classroom, but she supported me with expectations from student behavior. She jumped in

occasionally when the students were not following directions or paying attention. The day went by extremely fast,

and I had no time to plan for the upcoming week. At the end of the day, I was able to find all of the curriculum

materials that I needed for the upcoming week and began to set up the room for Monday morning. I was

exhausted, but I was proud of Mrs. Lamphere’s students for working hard for me on Friday. It gave me more

confidence to have a good teaching experience. The substitute teacher gave me a compliment at the end of the day

and told me that I did a good job, which meant a lot to me coming from a retired schoolteacher. I look forward to

working with her again next week when Mrs. Lamphere is gone in the morning to attend a meeting.


This week I will be teaching bell-to-bell and responsible for all of the subjects taught in the third grade

classroom. On Tuesday, I have my midterm evaluation, followed by seminar that evening. On Wednesday

afternoon, I will be attending a second round of parent teacher conferences with Mrs. Lamphere. On Thursday

10

afternoon, the third grade is going on a field trip to the Science Center, and on Friday afternoon the class goes to

Wesley Acres to read to the residents.



This was my first week teaching all subjects from bell to bell with the absence of my mentor teacher. My

mentor teacher stayed out of the classroom as much as possible, so I could experience teaching solo. Mrs.

Lamphere took a leave of absence on Wednesday, and I had a substitute teacher in the room. The substitute

teacher let me take the lead, and I managed the classroom the entire day as usual as if the substitute was not even

there. On Thursday we had a new experience, which was a field trip to the Science Center. I was assigned six

students in my small group to be responsible for the duration of the trip. On Friday, from 2-3pm Mrs. Lamphere

and I escorted her third grade class to Wesley Acres, an assisted living community across the street from the school

and the students read aloud to the residents. I had lunch duty twice and outside recess duty once this week. I

continued to study curriculum materials and plan for daily instruction. Parent teacher conferences were cancelled

on Wednesday night due to the impending winter weather advisory.


I felt completely satisfied to make it through each day feeling prepared to teach each lesson. The students

were well behaved and I felt like I was teaching more, and not just focusing on behavior management strategies. It

is getting easier to plan study curriculum materials and plan for instruction. It is still a challenge to balance how

long students can sit still and listen, and keep them engaged with meaningful learning activities. Activities that go

11

well tend to take longer than activities that students do not understand or want to do. Finally, there never seems to

be enough time to plan and prepare for each class. You just have to get in there and do the best that you can each

day, and reflect on your experiences.


I will continue to teach bell to bell this week, and be responsible for all of the subjects taught in the

classroom. I am going to review in math to prepare for an end of chapter assessment on Friday. In writing,

students are learning to write expository how to papers. On Monday we are going to make popcorn and students

will write about how to make popcorn. The spelling challenge has come to an end, so students will be testing on

their final week of spelling challenge words. Next week Mrs. Lamphere will begin taking back math and writing,

so that I have time to observe other classrooms.

Week 6: March 2 - 6, 2015


This was my second full week of teaching bell to bell. I was responsible for taking classroom attendance, the

lunch count, recess duty, lunch duty, and taking students to and from their specials. I instructed students either as

a whole group or in small groups, or on occasionally with individual students. I enforced classroom procedures,

rules and school expectations. I prepared classroom materials for instruction and class activities.

12

I monitored student learning and adapted teaching methods and instructional materials to engage students. I

attended third grade team meetings and a third grade PLC meeting at Capital View Elementary on Wednesday

afternoon. I continued to consult with Mrs. Lamphere about students and lesson planning.


After a second week of bell-to-bell teaching, I felt more comfortable to take some risks and try different

strategies with the students. I was not as concerned about sticking to the schedule and I was able to make up

additional math, reading or writing time that we had missed during that scheduled time during the week. The

students were working better for me during their independent work time, because I continued to maintain Mrs.

Lamphere’s classroom expectations. I succeeded in getting more students to complete and turn in their math

homework, and I reduced the frequent requests to leave the room to go to the bathroom by taking five minutes

twice a day to give the students a regularly scheduled bathroom break. I had fewer questions from the students

about the whereabouts of Mrs. Lamphere this week, and I learned to engage the help of the students with little tasks

to help me that made them feel important. My more challenging experiences were teaching fractions as a new

concept to the third graders. The third grade team had set midpoint and chapter goals, that I felt responsible to

meet. Other challenges included keeping my students on track when the other two third grade classes were not

following the same schedule. On Friday there was a PBIS assembly and it was hat and Hawaiian dress up day that

proved to add some added distractions for the third graders. Overall, I thought that it was a good week, and I had

very few problems with the students.


13

There only four days this week before the school is dismissing for spring break. Mrs. Lamphere is taking

back most of the instruction, due to Dr. Seuss week activities that moves away from the current curriculum, and

also so I will be able to observe other classes. Monday morning I am observing a 4th grade math class, and later in

the week I plan to observe one of the other third grade teachers in the afternoon. The third grade is also preparing

students for the Iowa Test of Skills assessments that students will be taking upon their return from spring break. I

will continue to teach Science, as students are almost ready to create their model membranes, and continue to help

Mrs. Lamphere in the classroom. I will also be providing remediation in math for the seven students who scored

below 80% on their fractions assessment on Friday. I am also planning to do a mock interview with the reading

coach on Wednesday.

Week 7: March 9 - 13, 2015


This was my last week of my first student teaching placement with the third grade classroom. I continued

to teach the STEM science unit which ended on Thursday with the third graders creating and improving their

model membranes. I also continued to support Mrs. Lamphere, and work individually and in small groups with

students while I was in the classroom. I also had lunch duty and recess duty, and monitored students in the halls as

they traveled to classes or activities in the building. On Monday morning, I observed Ms. Theis’s fourth grade

math class that was similar in composition to Mrs. Lamphere’s third grade classroom. The fourth graders were just

beginning a unit in Geometry and they were learning about lines and angles. On Tuesday afternoon, I observed

Mr. Burke’s third grade classroom during Reading time. I observed Mr. Burke using large group and small group

instruction for reading, and observed student rotations doing independent reading activities. On Wednesday

14

afternoon, I participated in parent teacher conferences, and had a mock interview with a Greenwood staff member.

On Thursday morning during planning time, I observed Ms. Roth in the resource room during small math group

instruction fourth graders. I also had the opportunity to ask her questions about classroom management techniques,

and discuss interviewing and looking for teaching positions in the Des Moines Area.


I do not recall any challenging experiences this last week, but I did notice that I handed out less positive

behavior tickets when I was responsible for more instructional activities. The weather was very nice, and there

were various activities that were different that the normal routine schedule. It was very apparent to me that the

students were ready for their spring break to arrive. I was very pleased with the students’ creations of their model

membranes. They learned a lot about properties of membranes, and seemed to have fun with the science unit. The

science unit took a lot of time and preparation, and often caused me to look for materials that were not included in

the STEM kit that was provided to me. I would use a STEM kit in the future, but I would try more of the activities

before using them with the students. I believe that I improved teaching science over the past several weeks going

from speculating how long the lesson prepared lesson would take to cover with the students, to gradually being

able to know how to keep the students engaged with the science activities throughout the allotted time period.

On my last day, Mrs. Lamphere and her students presented me a Dr. Seuss book: “Oh, The Places You Will

Go!” that moved me to tears. I read the book aloud to the class, and when I got home I read all of the letters that

the students wrote to me. They all wished me luck, told me that I would be a good teacher, and that they would

miss me or not forget me. I will never forget Mrs. Lamphere or her third grade class, because they all helped me to

improve in my own self-confidence, as well as improve upon my teaching skills to become a better teacher. I

15

could not have asked for a better mentor teacher, and it was a very positive student teaching and learning

experience.


After spring break, I will begin my new placement in the resource room at Crossroads Park Elementary

School in West Des Moines. During my first two weeks I will plan to get familiar with new students and a new

school, and complete the student teaching agreement, and classroom observation.

Student Teaching Log

Documents

Transcript of Student Teaching Log