ANALYSIS BY INTERN
Name: Kyle Woodruff
School: Biddeford High School
Grade/Subject Area: Juniors and Seniors/Marine Biology
Cooperating teacher: Victoria Salo
University supervisor: Timothy Stebbins
Learning Experiences
The best way to describe my experience as a student teacher in one phrase is taking the plunge. Before this experience I had no idea what to expect, but I went in open to anything that my cooperating teacher would throw at me. After a quick discussion, we determined that I would start teaching two different sections of Marine Biology on my own starting the first day of school. This meant immediately adapting rubrics, creating interactive lesson plans, and developing multiple different units of study. Although this was a difficult task at first, my cooperating teacher was there at every step to support me whenever I was struggling and eventually it became natural. On the first day I took a big plunge into teaching, and I don’t regret it.
Once the first day of student teaching passed, each day only got easier and more comfortable. It became easier to talk with the students, I was able to let my guard down more, and truly immerse myself in the experience. When rough patches occurred, I was able to implement strategies learned throughout my college career, learn new strategies from my cooperating teacher, and experiment with new ones. Lastly, I was able to connect with my students and build individual relationships with each one of them. My students taught me just as much as I taught them.
From student teaching, I learned that teaching is all about understanding that learning never stops. The teacher’s role in the classroom is not only to teach the students, but also to be taught by them and be open to learning new concepts from them. The minute one’s mind is closed to learning from anyone, growth slows and eventually stops. In order to be a good teacher, one needs to look out for every learning opportunity that is around them and take the chance to explore it.
Professional Development:
Throughout my student teaching experience, I have learned a tremendous amount about my personality as a teacher and my style of teaching. Although there were aspects of teaching that came naturally, it’s important to recognize the qualities and strategies that could be improved upon for future teaching opportunities. Recognizing these areas opens up opportunities for growth and allows for expansion upon one’s skill to create positive learning experiences for students in future generations.
An area of growth for me is classroom management. Throughout my college career, this was an area of focus that professors emphasized as the hardest part of teaching and I agree based on my experience. Routines and rules were set in place on day one, but as the semester progressed the strategies set in place were put on the back burner as other tasks were prioritized. This opened up space for students to bend the rules and see them as acceptable. In the future, my hope is to maintain a consistent application of rules and expectations throughout the year to create a steady routine. Additionally, it is a goal to ensure that students know these routines enough to hold themselves accountable for when these expectations are not met. These strategies have the potential to limit adverse behaviors and create a safer environment for all individuals in the classroom
Another area of focus as I begin my education career would be to improve time management and organizational skills. Before student teaching began, I had created a system of organization within the classroom to manage the collection of assessment and had started to implement a daily planner into my routine. As the year started to progress, the usage of the organization and structure systems set in place started to regress. This has led to a few incidences of passing out written work late, last minute lesson planning, and a late arrival at a student teaching seminar meeting. My goal is to direct more of my attention towards utilizing organizational tools to allow for the proper preparation of lessons, timely feedback, and to keep track of missing and late work.
Strengths:
Throughout this experience, there have been multiple areas in which I have exceeded my own expectations. One of these areas was the creation of a welcoming classroom environment in which I could build relationships with each of the students. Entering student teaching, I knew that in order for students to learn they need to be in an environment in which they feel safe and don’t have to put a guard up. This allows students to put more mental energy into learning than protecting themselves. Typically, relationship building can be an area of struggle as I tend to focus on other people’s views of me and take myself away from being the center of attention. In the classroom, however, I learned to let my guard down and allowed myself to take every opportunity to have a conversation with students. By doing this, I was able to understand each student as an individual and support them in any way they needed. By looking at them from the front of the classroom, I was able to determine the energy level I needed to be at or the most effective strategy for that day. The students felt comfortable which opened up opportunities to cater the learning experience to their needs.
Another strength exhibited this semester that I would like to touch upon was creativity. When discussing creativity in the classroom, it is not only about the creativity of the lesson plans; it’s about coming up with on-the-spot decisions to aid student learning. Each day of school brings its own challenges, the most common ones in my classroom were constant absences and instances of academic misconduct. When these unexpected occurrences appeared, I was able to find a pivot that kept students on track with the rest of the class and kept students engaged with the lesson. Although I might’ve been flustered when these pivots occurred, I was able to maintain a professional demeanor and continue teaching.
Lastly, I would like to discuss the importance of reflection during my student teaching experience. When looking at my own school experience, it was clear that there were teachers that stuck to their ways and never changed their instructional strategies, even when students were struggling. When possible, I would talk one-on-one with the students to conduct a debrief about an assessment to determine what could’ve done better and what I could’ve done better as their teacher. Following these conversations, I would directly implement their constructive feedback into future lessons and revisit to determine any improvement. Outside of the classroom I used a journal to reflect on each week’s experience, especially during tough moments. As a teacher the most important skill we have is to reflect. Without reflection, there isn’t a way to know areas of improvement and changes wouldn’t be made. Reflection improves our experience as teachers as well as the experience of students.
