Houston, Texas Early Childhood Student Teaching Experience
Reflection #1-Week of January 7-10
Name: Britany Lynch
Date: Tuesday, January 7, 214
1. Describe your first impressions of Hinojosa, including how you felt that first day.
Walking into Hinojosa I had a mix of emotions. I was not only excited, but nervous as well. The first thing that I noticed though when I walked into the school is how friendly everyone was. Every single person I walked by said good morning. They were all so welcoming and genuine. Another thing I noticed about the school is how orderly everything is in the school. The students are expected to walk in a straight line with their hands behind their back and “bubble mouths”. And although they are only four and five year olds most of the students follow the rules pretty well. I was surprised at how well the school was run. Both of the teachers in my classroom were very welcoming and made sure to let me know to come to them with any questions.
2. Describe your particular setting and learning culture in your classroom.
My room is a little different from most because it is an inclusion classroom. There are twenty-five students in the class with ten of them having IEP’s. In addition to that there are two teachers and one aide in the class. The first thing I noticed about the teachers is how well they work together. I have never seen a classroom with co-teachers so it was very fun for me to watch. One teacher will be teaching and the other will interject with a comment or questions that gets the students thinking even more and then the first teachers goes off of that. They are really “a well oiled machine”. Although there are ten students with IEP’s in my classroom they don’t treat the students any differently or require anything different out of them. But yet you can still tell that they really care for their students. Overall the classroom is very welcoming and warm. The teachers do a lot of movement activities with the students as well and they really enjoy those and it gives the students that release of energy in a fun way.
3. What activities have you facilitated? How did it go?
I started out helping with journals and other little things that students need and slowly moved my way into reading stories and calendar. The students were so sweet and were always willing and/or wanting me to help them. My first official lesson was planned by one of the teachers and I led, but she helped me teach. We first talked about G words, and then I read the book The Three Billy Goats Gruff. We focused on a few vocabulary terms (billy goat, troll, and position words) and on the characters of the story. This lesson went very well. I was a little nervous at first especially because I wasn’t sure how long I would be able to hold their attention with the book, but I think that using voices and movements really kept the students engaged. They really seemed to enjoy the book in general and had some pretty good questions and comments.
Today was the first day that I taught the calendar to the class. This was actually the first time I have ever taught the calendar. I have watched the teacher the past two days, but was still nervous. The days of the week and months of the year went extremely well, but then I got stumped. I couldn’t remember what came next. My teacher quietly guided me into what I should do and it made it much better. I also made one mistake when talking about the birthdays. I was looking at the birthdays in the next week when someone mentioned that there was five birthdays, I said no and went on until I noticed the birthdays at the beginning of the month. I admitted
my mistake to the students and they were okay with it, but I felt bad I, essentially told a student they were wrong, when in actuality I was wrong. I am excited to start taking over calendar for the rest of my time there so I can learn more and get more accustomed to it.
I also read a snowman book to the students and then worked on prediction and sequencing. I have taught sequencing before to students, so I thought I would be fine. What I didn’t realize is the vocabulary that they still haven’t learned. I found myself asking questions in multiple ways because they weren’t quite understanding the first time. This is something that I will keep an eye on next week.
4.What will you pay special attention to the next time you teach?
One thing that I noticed while asking about vocabulary words related to the book, I should have done some things a little differently. Particularly when I was explaining the word middle. I got on the floor and asked the students who was in the middle. After a couple seconds of stares I realized that I should have done this differently. Depending on how students thought about the question, technically there were 3 people in the middle. I didn’t phrase the question correctly and I could have demonstrated a little better. Throughout the next few lessons I need to make sure my examples and questions are extremely clear to the students.
Vocabulary is extremely important for me to watch out for next week. These are very smart students, but they are only four and five years old. I am now starting to plan my lessons so I will have to keep this in mind.
5. What have you learned during this first week?
One thing that I have learned a lot about is music and movement. In previous practicum experiences I have been in classrooms that didn’t use movement. It is used ALL the time in this classroom. I made sure to ask my teacher for some of the names of the CDs so I can look into purchasing them.
6. What do you wonder about?
I know that having rules and doing your best are great things to start at a young age, but I wonder how the school has come up with some of the rules. For example: Making the “bubble face” when walking down the hallways. I was leading the line and the student in front looked like he was going to pass out from holding his breath to long. Of course this may not be the case for all students.
I also wonder how my cooperating teachers do it. I come back to my host family’s house each day and I am extremely exhausted and it has only been three days. My teachers are very active in the classroom and they are always moving and keeping busy.
7. What specifically will you work to improve next week?
One thing I really want to work on is my participation in the music and movement activities. I do occasionally go the front of the class with the teacher but I am a little nervous and a little reserved in doing so. I know I need to take advantage of all the opportunities I have here which is why I want to work on this aspect.
Like I stated before another thing I want to work on is making sure my examples and questions can be understood by a four year old. Sometimes my brain understands what I am saying, but it doesn’t sound right to them.
Date: Tuesday, January 7, 214
1. Describe your first impressions of Hinojosa, including how you felt that first day.
Walking into Hinojosa I had a mix of emotions. I was not only excited, but nervous as well. The first thing that I noticed though when I walked into the school is how friendly everyone was. Every single person I walked by said good morning. They were all so welcoming and genuine. Another thing I noticed about the school is how orderly everything is in the school. The students are expected to walk in a straight line with their hands behind their back and “bubble mouths”. And although they are only four and five year olds most of the students follow the rules pretty well. I was surprised at how well the school was run. Both of the teachers in my classroom were very welcoming and made sure to let me know to come to them with any questions.
2. Describe your particular setting and learning culture in your classroom.
My room is a little different from most because it is an inclusion classroom. There are twenty-five students in the class with ten of them having IEP’s. In addition to that there are two teachers and one aide in the class. The first thing I noticed about the teachers is how well they work together. I have never seen a classroom with co-teachers so it was very fun for me to watch. One teacher will be teaching and the other will interject with a comment or questions that gets the students thinking even more and then the first teachers goes off of that. They are really “a well oiled machine”. Although there are ten students with IEP’s in my classroom they don’t treat the students any differently or require anything different out of them. But yet you can still tell that they really care for their students. Overall the classroom is very welcoming and warm. The teachers do a lot of movement activities with the students as well and they really enjoy those and it gives the students that release of energy in a fun way.
3. What activities have you facilitated? How did it go?
I started out helping with journals and other little things that students need and slowly moved my way into reading stories and calendar. The students were so sweet and were always willing and/or wanting me to help them. My first official lesson was planned by one of the teachers and I led, but she helped me teach. We first talked about G words, and then I read the book The Three Billy Goats Gruff. We focused on a few vocabulary terms (billy goat, troll, and position words) and on the characters of the story. This lesson went very well. I was a little nervous at first especially because I wasn’t sure how long I would be able to hold their attention with the book, but I think that using voices and movements really kept the students engaged. They really seemed to enjoy the book in general and had some pretty good questions and comments.
Today was the first day that I taught the calendar to the class. This was actually the first time I have ever taught the calendar. I have watched the teacher the past two days, but was still nervous. The days of the week and months of the year went extremely well, but then I got stumped. I couldn’t remember what came next. My teacher quietly guided me into what I should do and it made it much better. I also made one mistake when talking about the birthdays. I was looking at the birthdays in the next week when someone mentioned that there was five birthdays, I said no and went on until I noticed the birthdays at the beginning of the month. I admitted
my mistake to the students and they were okay with it, but I felt bad I, essentially told a student they were wrong, when in actuality I was wrong. I am excited to start taking over calendar for the rest of my time there so I can learn more and get more accustomed to it.
I also read a snowman book to the students and then worked on prediction and sequencing. I have taught sequencing before to students, so I thought I would be fine. What I didn’t realize is the vocabulary that they still haven’t learned. I found myself asking questions in multiple ways because they weren’t quite understanding the first time. This is something that I will keep an eye on next week.
4.What will you pay special attention to the next time you teach?
One thing that I noticed while asking about vocabulary words related to the book, I should have done some things a little differently. Particularly when I was explaining the word middle. I got on the floor and asked the students who was in the middle. After a couple seconds of stares I realized that I should have done this differently. Depending on how students thought about the question, technically there were 3 people in the middle. I didn’t phrase the question correctly and I could have demonstrated a little better. Throughout the next few lessons I need to make sure my examples and questions are extremely clear to the students.
Vocabulary is extremely important for me to watch out for next week. These are very smart students, but they are only four and five years old. I am now starting to plan my lessons so I will have to keep this in mind.
5. What have you learned during this first week?
One thing that I have learned a lot about is music and movement. In previous practicum experiences I have been in classrooms that didn’t use movement. It is used ALL the time in this classroom. I made sure to ask my teacher for some of the names of the CDs so I can look into purchasing them.
6. What do you wonder about?
I know that having rules and doing your best are great things to start at a young age, but I wonder how the school has come up with some of the rules. For example: Making the “bubble face” when walking down the hallways. I was leading the line and the student in front looked like he was going to pass out from holding his breath to long. Of course this may not be the case for all students.
I also wonder how my cooperating teachers do it. I come back to my host family’s house each day and I am extremely exhausted and it has only been three days. My teachers are very active in the classroom and they are always moving and keeping busy.
7. What specifically will you work to improve next week?
One thing I really want to work on is my participation in the music and movement activities. I do occasionally go the front of the class with the teacher but I am a little nervous and a little reserved in doing so. I know I need to take advantage of all the opportunities I have here which is why I want to work on this aspect.
Like I stated before another thing I want to work on is making sure my examples and questions can be understood by a four year old. Sometimes my brain understands what I am saying, but it doesn’t sound right to them.
Reflection #2-Week of January 13-17
Name: Britany Lynch
Date: Monday, January 13, 2014
1. What activities have you facilitated this past week? How did it go?
I have facilitated a variety of activities this week. The teachers have helped me co-teach but I have run many of the lessons. On Tuesday I was able to read Goldilocks and the Three Bears and do a predicting lesson with the students. They really enjoyed the book and had a fun time with the activity.
On Wednesday I taught the lesson that I created. There were a few kinks. For example the book I choose wasn’t very interesting. When I was choosing a book it seemed more interesting than the others, but as I was reading it I could tell the students weren’t really engaged. Then we did the Shape Hokey Pokey. That they absolutely loved. My activity was one where they got to let their imagination run wild. We had students with cops chasing transformers; another had a train taking people to the zoo. It was definitely an activity that I would use again.
I also taught calendar time multiple times this week and worked a lot on my vocabulary. On Wednesday after my lesson my teacher told me that she was proud of me for how I had done that day. It shows me that I improved in the areas targeted.
2. What have you learned?
I have learned that you always need to change things up. Preschoolers don’t stay engaged very long if you don’t have something interesting and aren’t changing something. My teachers are great models for this. With just a change of tone the students are instantly hooked on what they are saying.
I have also learned a lot about classroom management. In my classroom there are ten special education students and you really have to have good classroom management to keep the students seated, and paying attention.
3. What will you take away from this experience?
Beyond all the teaching “stuff” I have learned so much from the students. These students don’t even know who I am when I come into their classroom and they are willing to let me teach and they make pictures for me. It shows how strong and loving children really are. They may not have a great how life, they may have a wonderful one, either way they come into school wanting to learn and willing to let anyone help them.
4. Your next experience is student teaching. How will you be remarkable?
I think my two cooperating teachers in this experience have given me a lot of good tips and advice to help me in my teaching career. One of my teachers even let me go through her files on her computer and save anything that I wanted to my flash drive. One thing that Ieally have taken from them is their enthusiasm and excitement. I have been told many times that I have a calm demeanor and that everyone shows excitementin different ways. Although that is nice, students don’t always care about that. They want someone who is willing to get up and be silly with them and that is something that I have definitely become better at. Student teaching at Hinojosa is an experience that I would recommend to anyone because it really does teach you a lot.
Date: Monday, January 13, 2014
1. What activities have you facilitated this past week? How did it go?
I have facilitated a variety of activities this week. The teachers have helped me co-teach but I have run many of the lessons. On Tuesday I was able to read Goldilocks and the Three Bears and do a predicting lesson with the students. They really enjoyed the book and had a fun time with the activity.
On Wednesday I taught the lesson that I created. There were a few kinks. For example the book I choose wasn’t very interesting. When I was choosing a book it seemed more interesting than the others, but as I was reading it I could tell the students weren’t really engaged. Then we did the Shape Hokey Pokey. That they absolutely loved. My activity was one where they got to let their imagination run wild. We had students with cops chasing transformers; another had a train taking people to the zoo. It was definitely an activity that I would use again.
I also taught calendar time multiple times this week and worked a lot on my vocabulary. On Wednesday after my lesson my teacher told me that she was proud of me for how I had done that day. It shows me that I improved in the areas targeted.
2. What have you learned?
I have learned that you always need to change things up. Preschoolers don’t stay engaged very long if you don’t have something interesting and aren’t changing something. My teachers are great models for this. With just a change of tone the students are instantly hooked on what they are saying.
I have also learned a lot about classroom management. In my classroom there are ten special education students and you really have to have good classroom management to keep the students seated, and paying attention.
3. What will you take away from this experience?
Beyond all the teaching “stuff” I have learned so much from the students. These students don’t even know who I am when I come into their classroom and they are willing to let me teach and they make pictures for me. It shows how strong and loving children really are. They may not have a great how life, they may have a wonderful one, either way they come into school wanting to learn and willing to let anyone help them.
4. Your next experience is student teaching. How will you be remarkable?
I think my two cooperating teachers in this experience have given me a lot of good tips and advice to help me in my teaching career. One of my teachers even let me go through her files on her computer and save anything that I wanted to my flash drive. One thing that Ieally have taken from them is their enthusiasm and excitement. I have been told many times that I have a calm demeanor and that everyone shows excitementin different ways. Although that is nice, students don’t always care about that. They want someone who is willing to get up and be silly with them and that is something that I have definitely become better at. Student teaching at Hinojosa is an experience that I would recommend to anyone because it really does teach you a lot.