This was my first student teaching placement in the fall of 2021. I was placed at Neshannock Memorial Elementary School under the supervision of Mrs. Maggie Shearer. I learned so much through this experience and I gained so much joy and knowledge from the students that I had the privilege of working with.
During this experience, I was able to utilize many different teaching strategies. The students in this classroom (despite their many strengths) had a lot of needs, so I was constantly on my toes. I learned very quickly how to be flexible and adapt to meet those diverse needs. Differentiation was a must, and I learned to pick different strategies to use for each student, even if my objective for the lesson was very similar. There were a lot of disruptive and occasionally violent behaviors in this classroom so I got the opportunity to learn and practice how to make a safe environment during a behavior. Getting to know my students was a key way in avoiding different behaviors. Learning each student's triggers was key and quickly helped me learn how to work with my students more effectively.
I got to make so many different adaptations for students which was so interesting. One of the students has physical disabilities and is in a wheelchair. To make her lessons interesting, I would frequently show her videos of things in the stories. I would also bring in different manipulatives for her to see and touch as often as possible. She was very interested in writing her own story, so I helped her write a book (can be found under the 'The _____ Tales!' tab). I then made a hard copy of her book so that she could take it home to read to her family. When a little boy with autism was having trouble keeping his pants up before entering the public restroom, I wrote an interactive social story that we would read before he went to the bathroom (can be found under the 'Social Story' tab). It was slow going, but we made definite progress over about three weeks! I also made a unit plan (can be found under 'Emotions Unit Plan' tab) for four kindergarten students who were pulled out twice a week for socioemotional learning. This unit centered around what the emotions are, what they feel like, and how we can respond appropriately to those emotions. Planning for all these diverse needs was such a valuable experience that I will treasure forever.
Unfortunately, nearing the end of my student teaching, I got quarantined due to COVID-19. This was a challenging experience, but I was able to teach the few quarantined students virtually. What could have been a very difficult situation turned out to be an excellent learning experience for me. My supervising teacher gave me control of the virtual lessons, so she gave me the curriculum that she wanted them to learn. I made the adaptations necessary and worked with the students each for a half hour a day to ensure that their needs were met. Through the week of online teaching, I learned to use many different tools to aid in online education as well as the technology (mostly Google Classroom) that would help me succeed as an online teacher.
Overall, this student teaching placement was an amazing opportunity for growth. I learned to feel comfortable in an autism support classroom that serviced students of diverse needs. Mrs. Shearer deserves so much appreciation for allowing me to have so much agency in her classroom. It truly gave me such an impactful learning experience. Throughout this placement, I had so much fun learning with these students. It was a joy to get to know them all and watch them grow as well. I miss them so much and I will be forever grateful to these wonderful students who served as some of my greatest teachers.
Click the buttons below for artifacts from my student teaching placement!