Abraham Lincoln Elementary

From February-April 2021:

I had the opportunity to be a student teacher in a second grade classroom. My host teacher, Sharon Perry, gave me valuable insight and advice that could only come from a veteran teacher such as herself. In addition to being in the second grade classroom.

I was also in a pull out group for ELA with the Special Education Teacher, Rachel Margaglione. During this placement, I was able to perform a SanDiego Quick, several CBMs, such as Oral Reading Fluency, Letter Names, Letter Sounds, Phoneme Segmenting, among others. I created, and taught Special Education ELA specific lesson plans based on the IEP needs of my students.

At the Lincoln I was able to lead morning meetings, teach lessons across all subjects, pass my Massachusetts Pre-Practicum Gateway for Mathematics, as well as Special Education.

From September 2021- April 2022:

I had the opportunity to be a teacher candidate in a second grade classroom. My Practicum Supervisor, and host teacher, Claire Ryan, was able to provide me with a new perspective on teaching as well as an insight into different teaching styles. I was in this placement for 335 recorded hours, of which I had full teaching responsibility/classroom takeover for 175 hours. The classroom I taught in consisted of a very divers classroom of 21 students, including English Language Learners, and many bilingual, and multilingual students. I was able to find my own teaching style that was comfortable to me and worked the best for my students. I was also able to create and implement a classroom behavior plan to hold student to high expectations for their own learning.

Following my general education placement, I transitioned into my special education placement, again with Rachel Margaglione. I was in this placement for 300 recorded hours, of which I had full teaching responsibility for 100 hours. The students I worked with consisted of second and fourth grade groups, both for pull out, and push in/inclusion services. I was able to have experience, not only in working in a special education setting, but also curating lesson plans tailored for a range of IEP goals, attending IEP meetings (initial, annual, and reevaluations).

I was able to pass my Massachusetts practicum gateway in both my general education and special education placements. I was able to meet all CAP requirements, and met both of my SMART goals (1 for general education and 1 for special education). I showed proof of effective teaching by means of student growth measures (presented with data) and a student feedback survey.

Overall:

Throughout my time in both my pre-practicum and practicum placements at the Lincoln, I have been able to work in cohesion with the schools principal, Ginger Coleman, as well as other staff.