Journal 2

I spent seven sessions with a Starpoint student named Ethan during the semester. My experience
at Starpoint allowed me to reflect on my personal areas of strength related to my lesson design and
delivery of instruction. I improved my ability to create in-depth, content-based lesson plans, including
writing measurable goals and individualized differentiation. I have grown professionally by having my
first experience teaching a student in a one-on-one setting. At Starpoint, I grew as an educator by
monitoring and differentiating instruction for students by assessing their individual needs. By creating
lesson plans for Ethan, I developed my teaching style and instruction strategies. I used explicit instruction
by developing well-prepared lesson plans that allowed my student the best opportunity to succeed under
my instruction.
In the future, I want to continue to improve my lesson plans by making them more in-depth and
allowing for more precise explanations for addressing the learning objective. I want to develop more
differentiation strategies for students and let myself have extra resources for students who may be
struggling. When delivering instruction, I want to improve my ability to stay on track with the teacher’s
narrative and not stray far from the specific instruction. I also want to think more in-depth about the
anticipated student responses in the teacher narrative to feel more prepared due to most of my expected
student responses not aligning with my expected thinking. To address my areas of improvement, I will
continue to practice creating lesson plans and continue to ask my professors for feedback.
The most positive part of the Starpoint teaching experience was being able to build a relationship
with my student. After a few weeks of instruction, Ethan grew comfortability and was able to ask for
assistance and ask questions with ease. On one of my observations, one of the TAs stated that Ethan
“seems to respect your instruction.” This comment meant a great deal to me and allowed me to
understand the importance of building a relationship with my student. I noticed over the semester that as
my relationship with Ethan grew more comfortable, he was able to feel in a regulated learning
environment. I also implemented explicit rules to allow Ethan to understand the expectations. On the last
day of Starpoint, Ethan created a drawing for me and said, “I am so glad you were my TCU teacher.” At
that moment, I felt that I had impacted Ethan’s life over the semester, which made me feel immense
gratitude and grateful to be an educator.
The most challenging part of the Starpoint experiences included Ethan’s behavioral issues. During
each session, Ethan struggled with sitting still, paying attention, and would become very antsy—he would
often touch his shoe and take it on and off. I would allow Ethan a minute to get composed and ask him if
he wanted to complete a breathing exercise before moving forward. He would also have a hard time
staying in his seat. He also became very overwhelmed when he could not understand or arrive at the
correct answer. I was able to reinforce specific praise to encourage him to continue and implemented
small brain breaks when he could sit at his seat for a scheduled amount of time.
During this process, I learned that I have an innate ability to demonstrate patience and
compassion as an educator. I learned that I have a passion for teaching and a drive to build a relationship
with my students. Starpoint allowed me to grow my desire to teach children with special needs. I was able
to apply to the Accelerated Masters Program with Specialization In Special Education. I learned my
passion for meeting a student from a different walk of life and my drive to get to know him and
understand his experiences. I learned the importance of developing a student’s individualized needs to
allow them the best opportunity to succeed through progress monitoring. I was able to accommodate and
modify lessons for my student to give him a chance to feel comfortable and to study at a developmentally
appropriate level. This experience was memorable, and I know it will impact my future teaching
approaches and understandings.
One measurable goal that I hope to learn as I move into next semester is to take a Special
Education Certification Exam practice over the summer and increase my testing score by at least 10%
before the beginning of next semester. Also, in my next semester’s family course, I want to make sure I
consider a family with a student with special needs.