Reflective Essay Experience

Writing to convey experience – reflecting on my student teaching at PS105

On the first day I walked into the building, I was thinking to myself, “was I really ready for this?” “I have never worked in a building so huge and I have never been in a school with over 1000 students.” However, I was very excited to be there because I was thinking that I was so close to the end. I would be ready for my own classroom, so I braced myself and was ready to practice my passion.

For the last 6 months, my teaching pedagogy has grown and strengthened. My belief that students learned in different ways and that I have to use different strategies to meet diverse students’ needs was practiced and enhanced. The diverse population of student at the school was interesting and I have learned to accommodate and modify my lesson to meet all students’ needs. I had the opportunity to teach classes from a variety of grades, such as, first grade general education class, 1st to 3rd grade self-contained class and 5th grade ICT class. I learned a lot about myself and have grown over the time to be a more reflective teacher. My mentor teachers were very helpful and

Overtime we develop a bond, and I felt l gave birth to all 27 students in my class. Nevertheless, there were few students who disrupted the class, but I still think no less of them. I like nurturing and have learned that is an important skill to have as a teacher. Furthermore, students like those have helped me to develop strategies to manage my class. For example, creating an incentive program or praising student for their behavior. My favorite was the “prize box”. This was a strategy my mentor teacher used to minimize behavioral issues throughout the day. Three students that were on task each day got an opportunity to select a prize form the “prize box” at the end of the day. Students were excited at the end of the day to know if they got a