This was my second student teaching placement in the fall of 2021. I was under the supervision of Mrs. Deborah Braden at Emily Brittian Elementary School in Butler, Pennsylvania. During this placement I learned an immense amount from Mrs. Braden as well as her students. This was a responsive classroom where Mrs. Braden used many different teaching strategies to make one of the most welcoming, safe, and comfortable classroom cultures that I have ever seen.
During this field placement I got the opportunity to know and work with fifteen kindergarten students who were all so unique, talented, and sweet. I learned so much about classroom management and setting classroom norms as well as modeling desired behavior. Logical consequences was used frequently in the classroom, so I got to learn how to use them as well. I also got the opportunity to engage with parents using SeeSaw, letters home via student folders (an example is included in the 'Closing Letter to Parents' tab), and during a parent-teacher conference.
In terms of curriculum, I learned how to integrate different strategies into the district's curriculum to cater the students' unique needs. Typically those strategies included manipulatives, educational technology, or experiential learning where possible. I got the opportunity to design two different unit plans; one for science and another for social studies (buttons for each are at the bottom of the page). As the weeks progressed, I began to block plan for math, ELA, social studies, science, and other activities or lessons that were being taught that day. Mrs. Braden taught me how to run a meaningful yet efficient morning meeting. She also gave me the opportunity to do Herggerty time with the students every morning. There was a student who had a tendency to be disruptive, so I devised a simple behavior plan for him and communicated with the parents about this plan via letters sent in his folder and in his parent-teacher conference. I also got the opportunity to observe the speech and language teacher as well as an IEP meeting.
This experience really helped me grow as a beginning teacher. At the end of this placement, I felt confident to begin creating my own curriculum and running a classroom of my own. I really enjoyed establishing relationships with the students. I will be forever grateful to these small teachers and to Mrs. Braden for modeling for me how a master teacher impacts her students.
Click the buttons below to explore artifacts from my student teaching placement!