teaching experience examples essay

My Student Teaching Experience

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Goodbye Student Teaching

When reflecting on this semester of student teaching, there have been so many challenges, so many celebrations, and so much that I have learned. I have been pushed beyond my comfort zone, and I have grown as a teacher immensely. It is hard for me to only talk about a few of the takeaways that I have gained from this semester!

First, I have learned the importance of messing up. I know, this sounds crazy, but I have found myself so nervous about screwing something up. I expected to always plan the perfect lesson, explain everything perfectly, and have everything go smoothly and as planned. And let me be the first to say, this is rarely the case. I have learned how important it is to accept that we are not perfect teachers, and neither are our cooperating teachers! We all have things to learn, and my student teaching experience has taught me how to learn from my mistakes rather than letting them eat away at me. I learned something from my cooperating teacher and from the students almost every day, and being open to this and vulnerable allowed me to grow, adapt, and think on my feet! Having these experiences is the true life of a teacher.

With being honest about my mistakes and imperfections, I was able to also form stronger connections with the students. This is another takeaway from the semester. I have always valued forming strong relationships with my students in order to create the best learning environment for them, but I was able to truly see the value of this throughout the semester. Being the first placement where I was able to be with the students every day of the week, I was able to see the growth of my relationships with them from day to day over the course of the semester. I was honestly intimidated working with older, gifted students coming in, but I worked hard to break down their walls and get to know them as individuals. I have loved getting to know each of my students likes, dislike, strengths, and weaknesses. I believe that this has helped me better teach them and has made my classroom a happier place to learn!

Finally, I have learned the importance of having an open mind. You can walk into any classroom and see completely different environments, teaching styles, student personalities, curriculum, resources, etc. It is so easy to have your own ways and your own approaches to teaching, disregarding anything else that you encounter. I have learned that opening up to approaches and styles that I am not particularly used to is beneficial to help me learn more ways that I can help my students and to also learn more about what I like and dislike as a teacher. Rarely does anyone have a perfect student teaching placement. I am fortunate to have enjoyed mine, but I have also learned that there is value in learning about what you do not want to do as a teacher just as much as learn what you do want to do. It is so important to continue being open minded so that you can leave room to grow into a more effective teacher!

I have really enjoyed my student teaching experience despite all of its hardships and challenges. I found myself in very low points but also in very high points throughout the semester, but I can clearly see how it has all grown me as a teacher, and I feel as though I can confidently walk into whatever classroom I will be teaching in next year. I cannot believe that the time has come for my own classroom; I can hardly wait!

Nearing the End

As the semester is winding down, I have been truly experiencing one of the best parts of teaching, the relationships that are formed. I am becoming so sad to be leaving these kids soon, and I am reminded of why I love this job so much. As teachers we spend the majority of the day with our students. While they may drive us crazy many days, it is inevitable that there will be relationships formed and connections made that leave lasting impressions. I will miss these kids and the adventures that they bring to me each day.

I have learned the value of making these connections from day one. My relationships with these kids have been building each day, and it is amazing to see how far they’ve come. I have learned how intentionally forming these relationships plays such an important role in the environment and community of the classroom. Because I was able to form these connections, getting to know my students on an individual level, I was able to see more success, more engagement, and more collaboration in my classroom. I have built mutual respect and rapport within my classroom, and I have seen the benefit of these relationships in several ways. First, I had a student simply tell me how great of a teacher I was and how they want me to stay. This was so incredible to hear, and I was so touched by this comment. Also, I have seen students opening up to me and instinctively coming to me with their comments and questions. I have loved watching this grow with my relationships formed. They truly consider me their teacher and trust me and my abilities enough to come to me rather than my cooperating teacher. I know that this is developed from my relationships with them and the openness that I have tried to instill from the very beginning. For example, we were working on vocabulary words, and each student would come to me with their questions. Whether that be, “Does this definition work?” or “What do you think of my stick figure drawings?” I have loved getting to experience the benefits of forming strong relationships with my students.

As a future teacher, I cannot wait to build these relationships with my own students. I realize the importance of forming this open and loving community, and I intend to begin intentionally forming these relationships and building respect and rapport in my classroom from day one. Although the end of the semester is sad and sentimental, I am happy to see how far I’ve come as a teacher and the development of my relationships with the students.

Sticking to Expectations

Something that I have realized is really difficult is having to stay 100% true to your expectations, especially when you are not a part of establishing the expectations from the beginning of the year. I was able to establish my own behavior procedures and expectations since I have been in the classroom, but I also struggle with breaking the students of old habits in order to follow these expectations. Part of this is a result of my cooperating teacher having different expectations than myself, but I have been working hard to earn my students’ respect throughout this semester, and nothing beats seeing breakthroughs!

One behavior issue that I have noticed from the very beginning is the talking and how they walk in the hallways. I have noticed that when the students are asked to be quiet, they usually take this as instruction to just be “quieter” rather than completely silent. I struggled with this because my cooperating teaching allowed this habit to continue on often, and I knew that this was something that I needed to break coming into full takeover. When I established my points system (where the students or myself gain a point based on their responsiveness to instruction), the students began holding one another accountable because they cared if they didn’t earn a point. I loved seeing the students take ownership of their responsibility, urging others to do the same. While this is still hard to manage at times, I have learned the value of simply waiting. This was hard to do at first knowing the many things we had to get through in a day, but when I stay patient and refuse to start the lesson without them being completely silent, they notice and remind one another to stay quiet. When they see me waiting or walking towards the point chart, the students say to one another, “Shhh. You have to be quiet” or “She’s waiting on us guys!” I have loved seeing this habit of theirs change!

I have also noticed that the students struggle to walk in the hallway in a line and quietly. This began to drive me crazy, so I started using the same approach as I did with their talking. I made sure that they knew the expectation, and then I would just wait. Some students caught on and said, “Get in line!” and “Guys be quiet or we aren’t going!” I once was waiting in the classroom to let them in, and a student noticed that they were not being let in when they normally would be. This student then reminded the others to get in a line and maybe they would be let in. When they did this, I let them in, and they have done a much better line doing this without multiple reminders! I have learned the value of patience and staying true to your expectations. This has helped strengthen the respect between the students and myself!

A Role of Influence

I have always valued the role I play as a teacher in the growth of my students. While the importance of academic growth in students is obvious, I also recognize the importance of each student’s social and emotional growth as well. As a teacher, I have a powerful influence on my students’ growth in each of these areas of their lives, and I was able to see the importance of this influential role during this past week.

There was a case of bullying involving several of my students this week. Apparently, there was an escalation of name calling in the lunchroom involving several of our students and several students from a different classroom. The students in my class refrained from sharing what happened for some time, but they eventually pulled my cooperating teacher aside and let her know. They were obviously upset because of it. When my cooperating teacher filled me in on this situation, she explained that she was going to hold a class meeting at the end of the day. I was curious as to how my cooperating teacher was going to address this situation and how the class/students involved were going to react.

When it came time for my cooperating teacher to begin the meeting, she started by sharing a personal story that occurred earlier that day. She had shared an article on Facebook in appreciation of a multicultural event at a local high school. She explained to the class, in tears, the harsh response that one of her family members left on this post. This interaction was shared with the intention of teaching the kids how to handle a situation where someone is bullying or disrespecting you. She was only able to share this emotional story before the bell rang, but we continued this discussion the following morning. Walking out of class, one of the students was in tears. I was happy to be able to show her that I am there for her and care for her. It was very interesting to both observe and contribute to a conversation with the class the next morning where students shared personal feelings and perspectives involving bullying. When discussing how to handle a situation where someone is being mean to them, one student shared, “You should ignore the person and just walk away.” Another student said, “You should be sarcastic back.” Finally, another student said, “You should be nice to them.” It was very eye-opening to see the various responses and experiences that these students had. This opened an important conversation on how to be an upstander, show kindness to others regardless of your feelings, and how to encourage one another to do this.

I had a mindset lesson planned immediately following this discussion, and I was able to alter the context so that it could relate to this important lesson on bullying that we were learning. I had the students each come up to the board and share a word or phrase of encouragement. They silently watched what each student was writing, and then we reflected on the different types of ways that people are encouraged. By the end of the lesson, I had the students write encouraging letters to “a discouraged person” in general, making sure to include that this person can be themselves. I agreed not to read the letters unless invited to, and I plan to return the letter to the student if they are discouraged throughout the remainder of the year. I was able to see the influence that this discussion and activity had on these students, realizing the important influence that we as teachers have on students’ social and emotional growth. I am thankful to hold this important role.

Managing A Full Plate

This week was anything but calm, and I definitely got to experience what a hectic week looks like as a teacher. This week, I had to balance edTPA, full takeover, and interviews. It was hard and exhausting, but I was able to accomplish a lot. With that being said, I averaged about 2 hours of sleep a night and was definitely thankful for the weekend to come.

I finally turned my edTPA in this week, and I have been working day and night to get everything done just the way I wanted it. It was a good experience going through it, but it took a lot of time and hard work. I learned the value of reflecting on your teaching and purposes for your lessons, and this experience definitely allowed me to think about my teaching in a way that I never had before. I was able to connect my choices and practices as a teacher to my knowledge of the students and to ongoing assessment of their success. Although the edTPA drove me insane at times, I do see the benefit of intentionally planning lessons, reflecting on your teaching, and using assessments to guide further instruction. I was able to learn more about my students through this experience as well. With all that being said, I am very happy that I am done with it!

This past week was my first week of official full takeover. I was very nervous going into this week, but I quickly realized that full takeover is not as intimidating as I thought! It’s crazy how prepared you actually are for it, even more so than you’d expect. I basically was already in full takeover, so it was a smooth transition, and I am thankful for that. I really enjoyed having the class all to myself. Honestly, it is hard sharing responsibilities with my cooperating teacher because its easy be on different pages about some things and to plan days differently. We needed to be in constant communication, which is fine, but it is nice being able to plan my days exactly how I want them to look. I realized though, full takeover means dealing with the hard and not-so-great aspects as well. I have been dealing with behavior management and parents leading up to this week, but it was tough fully taking over those responsibilities. I learned about how to manage poor behavior while still keeping the rest of the class on track. It is definitely hard to handle certain situations while still keeping the rest of the class focused, but having full takeover has been a good way to experience the big picture of what everyday teaching looks like.

Also thrown into this week were two interviews. I had one interview at a local elementary school with a interview team of 8 teachers and a principal. This was intimidating, but it was definitely a good experience. I also had an observation interview for a position at a local school, and I liked this better, but I was also a nervous wreck leading up to it. For the interview with the interview team, I was very nervous about the questions they were going to ask and how I would respond. I prepared as much as I could with practice interview questions and research on the school, but I learned that just relaxing and being yourself is what goes the furthest. To my surprise, I found myself laughing and joking with the interviewers and walked away a lot more comfortable than I started. With the observation interview, I was really nervous planning the lesson. I was overthinking it and trying to make it very elaborate. My cooperating teacher advised me to just do what I normally do. This seems simple, but she was right. My normal teaching is what the principal wanted to see, and he ended up loving it! After the fact, I learned the value of just being myself despite the pressure of an interviewing setting.

The “Not-So-Shiny” Part of Teaching

This past week I was able to experience the challenge of dealing with difficult behavior and difficult parents. This is the not so joyful part of teaching, but it has definitely been teaching me a lot. After having helped complete this trimester’s report cards, I knew that some students were going to be upset and some parents were going to reach out with their concerns. Sure enough, I was faced with some e-mail that I needed to respond to, and I feel as though I had a positive experience learning how to interact with parents in this way. I also had to write up several students for the first time as they were misbehaving during one of my lessons. While this was hard to do, it was a good lesson for both my students and myself on expectations and establishing the respect and rapport in the classroom that is so important.

After sending home the report card grades, there were a few that I knew the parents were not going to be so excited about. These students hold themselves to high expectations, as do their parents. I had a few parents reach out with questions regarding their child’s grade, and my teacher allowed me to send the e-mails in response. I learned how I was able to address the parents’ concerns in a way that was respectful and backed up by data. It was challenging to determine the best possible wording and points to include, but with my cooperating teacher’s help, I was able to successfully send out e-mails that satisfied the parents’ concerns and continued building respect between them and myself. It was very encouraging to see such positive responses from them, and I have learned a lot about how to approach difficult conversations with parents.

Another difficult situation that I was faced with was dealing with misbehavior in the classroom. I had a group of four girls at a table in my classroom who were clearly not focused on the lesson and were writing notes to one another. I noticed this, and gave them a verbal warning to stay on task. Later on in the lesson, I saw them continuing to write notes to one another. So, I collected the sheet of paper they were writing on, and read through it. It was not about the lesson whatsoever, and it even had a part where one of the girls told the others to flip the paper over if I walk by so that they do not get written up. I knew that I had to get them minor slips for this, especially since I had warned them. They know the expectations. At the end of the lesson, I gave them their slips and explained to them why they were receiving them. They argued and were upset, but I stood my ground and respectfully reminded them that they knew the expectations and were warned already. This was a very difficult situation for me because, of course, no one likes disciplining their students. I want to have positive relationships with them. I know that although they were not happy with me at the time, that this will strengthen our classroom environment moving forward and will help with my development of behavior management skills.

Conquering the Interview

As I mentioned in my last entry, I had my first official job interview, aside from the job fair, this past Friday. I was a nervous wreck going into this interview for several reasons. First, I didn’t know what to expect. Second, I was afraid of not knowing how to answer a questions or answering it incorrectly. Third, I was nervous that I was going to show how nervous I was. I just wanted to go in having the confidence and knowledge that I needed to win over the interviewer’s heart, but I realized after the fact that it’s definitely possible to overthink how to approach an interview.

I prepared myself very well for this interview. I met with two principals and a vice principal to seek advice about interviewing, I researched all of the common questions asked and ways to best answer them, I researched information about the district, I went through a mock interview with my principal, I practiced at the job fair and reviewed my conversations there, I made a long list of buzzwords, I practiced my responses, I carefully thought of several lessons that I could specifically bring up, I wrote down tips to keep in mind, and I picked out the perfect interviewing outfit. It was exhausting! While I know that preparing is a good thing to do when you have an upcoming interview, it didn’t take long for me to realize that it’s all about knowing yourself and trusting your experience thus far.

My principal gave me good advice that calmed me down. He said, “just going in, be personable and make small talk. Connect with the interviewer and just be yourself. You know what you know, so don’t pretend like you know something you don’t.” I loved this advice because it is true and realistic. So often, people try to pretend like they’ve have experiences or know information that they don’t. Do your research, of course, but I realized that the key to having a good interview is to reflect. Realizing this made me wonder why I didn’t realize this earlier since being an Elementary Education major means constantly reflecting, but it’s true! After simply reflecting on my experiences, what lessons went well, what did not, relationships I have had with my kids, with staff, with parents, how I have experienced behavior management, etc., I was able to not only more quickly and effectively share personal examples of why I believe the things I believe, but how my perspectives and passions as a teacher have played out. I realized that talking about these experiences naturally brought out my excitement and passion for teaching rather than just speaking hypothetically about how I will run my classroom.

It was such a wonderful experience to realize that I am prepared and I am a teacher. It is easy to slip into the mindset that all we can talk about is what we will do when we are teachers, but we have been trained well and have had so many rich learning experiences, and nothing beats being able to reflect on those and how I’ve grown as a teacher and allowing my potential future employer to see this shine through me as well! Overall, the interview was a success in my eyes!

The Job Hunt

It has been crazy but also exciting beginning the job search process. I have been learning about the characteristics of good resumes and cover letters, how to interview well, and how to fill out the insanely detailed job applications. I will also be attending my first ever job fair tomorrow, so I have been learning about how to prepare for it and what to expect.

I never thought that I would be editing my resume for as long as I have been. I have been changing minor details here and there, but I was shocked to see how many different opinions on resumes there are. I took it to my principal, vice-principal, and then to the principal of another school in my district that I know well. All three of these administrators have very different opinions of what changes to make to my resume, and I found myself in a stressful situation where I didn’t know whose advice to take. I have learned that all administrators will have different opinions and perspectives on what a high quality resume looks like, and that it takes my own judgment to decide which pieces of advice to take and which to leave. I also have been learning a lot about writing cover letters. Writing these have been very time consuming because I am trying to personalize each cover letter to the district that I am applying to. This has been tedious, but I think that it will be beneficial to not only be educated on each district, but to paint a picture of why I am a good candidate for them. It has been difficult keeping both my resume and cover letters brief, but I have been able to reflect on all of my experiences and which points take priority over the others.

I have been so lucky to have administrators at my student teaching placement that want to help me succeed so much. They have been so helpful, and I have already been observed by my principal and we have a mock interview set up. They have given me helpful interview advice, and I feel more prepared entering the process of searching for a job, especially since I will be having my first official interview in less than a week!

Prepping for the job fair has been interesting because I do not really know what to expect. I am kind of imagining it like speed dating for the education world. I know this sounds crazy, but we will get just a few minutes at each district’s booth to impress them and hopefully make a connection with the representatives. I have been preparing by finalizing my resume and cover letters for each district I am interested, packing them nicely in a padfolio, picking out a professional outfit, and determining what I am going to say when I go to each booth. I am excited and nervous all at the same time, but getting my feet wet in this process has taught me a lot about my strengths and weaknesses and the importance of reflecting on my teaching experiences so that I can eloquently share them with potential employers!

The Balance of Friend & Teacher

Something that I’ve been learning throughout student teaching is the importance of connections, and by connections I mean with the kids. While it is important to establish and maintain the role as a teacher in their eyes, it is also so important to connect with them and be their friend to some extent. I have had teachers throughout my life who do a great job at this, and I have also had teachers who have not. The school years that have left the greatest impression on me have been with those teachers who really took the time to get to know me and showed me that they cared. To be honest, I normally feel like I do this well with my students throughout all of the placements I have had thus far. I felt like I had a slightly more difficult time doing this as much as I’d like to this semester. I feel like I came in kind of intimidated by the fact that they were gifted students and were older than any other grade I’ve worked with before, so I think that I subconsciously had this expectation that they were going to be unwilling to connect with me and were going to care more about what I teach them as opposed to our relationship. With tht being said, I am happy to say that I was wrong and that these kids are longing for connections that I’ve been so grateful to give to them.

I have learned that although these students have the label of “gifted” on them, they still need a teacher who will love them and not just worry all of the time about pushing them further academically. Yes, this is important, but I have made it my personal goal this semester to break these kids and relate to them personally. Doing this and reaching out to them individually has been such a wonderful experience. I have learned about the students’ likes and dislikes, what they are nervous about, how they work and what issues they are dealing with. I have loved being able to make them smile by asking about an event they mentioned they have over the weekend or by simply greeting them in the morning and asking how they are doing. As I mentioned earlier on, I started a behavior management system called “Mystery Student” where I can award a mystery student a prize at the end of each day if I believe he or she followed expectations. I have had so much fun with this, but I realized how this has also given me the opportunity to show them that I know them and care for them personally. I have been able to pick out interests of individual students and give them a prize that I know they would love. For instance, I just gave a kid a spatula as a prize yesterday! I know, it sounds crazy, but this kid was ecstatic. He has some obsession with spatulas, so recognizing this and giving him this spatula as his reward was so fun to witness. I have also been able to notice the mutual respect that the students and I share based on our conversations. The students will ask me about my likes, will joke with me, and will even encourage me! I was observed yesterday, and as a student was leaving the classroom to go to him math class he said, “Good luck Miss Salerno. You can do it!” It is moments like these that make me so happy.

In summary, I have loved getting to know these students. I was discouraged at first because I felt like it was taking longer than normal to connect with them, but I feel like we have gotten to a really good place where we have mutual respect and care for each other. Forming these connections is not only personally valuable, but it creates such a positive environment for the entire class. Creating friendly community within the classroom plays such a role in the class’s success, and I have loved learning this throughout my placements.

Teacher Tips

As were quickly approaching the half way point of student teaching, I have learned a lot about planning and organization. I have not always been the most organized person prior to college, but as I prepare to be a teacher, I have learned the importance that planning ahead and being organized holds. I have had my fair share of experiences with teachers who are not organized, and this not only is overwhelming for the teacher, but for the students as well. On the other hand, I have also encountered many teachers who were more organized that I knew was possible. There are so many lessons, data, files, etc. that teachers need to keep track of over time, so being organized is a must. Along with organization comes preparation. Planning is also something that I have had a lot of practice with so far during student teacher, and nothing feels better than feeling like you are in control of your teaching life.

Am I perfect at this? No. I find myself scrambling at the last second to find something I need or will wait a little too long to plan a lesson, but planning and being organized is often an overlooked skill that teachers must practice and get ahold of. I chose to write about this because we are in a time of extreme busyness with lesson planning, edTPA, and classes. I constantly feel overwhelmed with everything that is on our plates and will often let that stress get the best of me, but I have also found ways to tackle this workload head on.

As for organization, I created a binder with tabs for all things that I had to keep track of at the beginning of the semester. This has helped me both physically and mentally separate all of the tasks and assignments that I need to keep track of. Also, I wouldn’t survive without my planner. Having a place where you can write daily notes and reminders as well as keeping a constant to do list from week to week has been very helpful for me and my sanity. These two things, along with also having a place both at school and at home to organize your teacher supplies are ways that I have learned to be organized.

As for planning, I have found it very beneficial to keep a schedule and do my best to stick to it. It is so important to keep constant communication with my cooperating teacher and to make good use out of any plan time that I get. One reason that I wanted to talk about planning is because we had a teacher planning day this past week. As a soon-to-be teacher, I now realize the greatness of extra time to plan. We had a full school day without kids dedicated to planning. It was amazing! I have learned the importance of staying on track and being mindful of how I spend my time. It isn’t easy, but it is worth it.