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
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