During the 2025-2026 School Year, I student taught in Ms. Brown's Kindergarten class at Bahia Vista Elementary School. Bahia Vista is located in the Canal area of San Rafael. The students at this school are 98% Latinx. 

During the fall of my student teaching, I observed for about 140 hours and taught a handful of solo lessons. I loved getting to learn the in-depth methods of teaching phonics and the alphabet, as well as counting and basic math. In these 14 weeks, I led reading groups two times a week, as well as generally helped out around the classroom, organizing various activities. This placement introduced me to a new math curriculum and gave me a first-hand experience of what the process of introducing a new curriculum into the classroom is like. As a class, they also learned about community helpers for the first time and had a visit from the fire department! It was so cool to see the impact that this had on the students and how many of them wanted to be firefighters afterwards.

Ms. Brown also taught me some amazing class management strategies and many ways to engage English Learners in the classroom. Every student in this class is an EL, so I learned a tremendous amount about differentiated instruction and getting creative about ways to reach these students.