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Rebecca Pinkerton

Student Teaching Reflection

Teacher Portfolio

30 April 2020

Student Teaching Reflection

I have been student teaching at Baltic Elementary for the second grade under the

guidance of Ms. Whipple. From whom I have learned an immense amount of knowledge in

helping students. I have learned more on the topic of differentiation throughout my time of

student teaching. In which you don’t just change the form of the assessment, but you change the

delivery of the content and the material for the students to use for an activity or lesson. This

came in handy for teaching students from a large range of learning. Especially during our guided

reading sessions. I worked with several groups for guided reading in which I had to go through

and find books that were appropriate for the students reading level. Then I designed questions for

each particular group. There was one group where we played some games in order for them to

answer the questions because that particular group struggled more with reading and by providing

them with a game, I believe helps them in learning to love to read, instead of resenting it.

I have also learned a lot on terms of consequences and setting rules. I have learned the

hard way, that at the start of the year, as a teacher you need to set the rules right away and not be

too lenient with the students. Teachers need to do this in order to earn more respect from the

students and therefore there will be less behavior problems throughout the year. During this time,

I also took a Classroom management course which I think also helped me in developing a

hierarchy in consequences connected with what the student’s actions were. Ms. Whipple also
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helped in teaching me how to develop plans for students with behavior management issues, such

as a sticker chart. She also helped me in responding to behaviors in the classroom and acting

right away when the issue is spotted rather than waiting a little bit to see if the problem will

progress.

I feel as though with being in a student teaching program I have learned more in helping

students with both their academics and their skillset. Also, student teaching has also taken what

we have learned in the Education program and expanded it into real life scenarios. Which has

been vary beneficial because the students bring something new into the classroom all the time

and you can learn how to be flexible with any situation.