Student Teaching Reflection

Student Teaching Reflection

My student teaching experience has been a positive, welcoming time where I have grown as an

educator and a colleague. I student taught at Piner High School in Santa Rosa with Wendy Valle

as my mentor teacher for five class periods of Math 1P. I don’t think I could have been paired
any better with a mentor. Wendy created a space for us that was safe, comfortable, and
challenged me to be better. She saw the potential in me to be a great teacher and she is
constantly encouraging me to have confidence in myself. From the beginning, she treated me as
a colleague and she never made it feel like it was “her classroom” and not mine. What makes
her a great mentor is how she can give up control to make room for me and she is
understanding and compassionate of this being a new experience for me. I know that I can go to
her with any questions that I have and she is patient and thorough in her explanations. Many of
the current beliefs I hold and the expectations and standards I would like to implement in my
classroom come from her mentoring because she has inspired and taught me so much this year.
Going into education with the intent of becoming a teacher, I already held care for my future
students but I have now learned how I can show them that I care. I ultimately believe that every
student needs someone in their life that believes in them. Unfortunately, some students don’t
have people in their life like that or have been taught to believe that they are bad at math, so I
let my students know that I’m someone that believes in them. My mentor has taught me the
importance of setting class rules, guidelines, and expectations. Before this year, I thought that
students would be resistant or would feel that I didn’t respect them if I was too strict, but now I
realize that it’s the opposite. Students need structure and they want to know what to expect. At
the moment, they may get upset, and it’s okay for them to feel this way, but later on they will
realize that it was done to help them be successful and that it’s done out of care for them.
On the first day of school my mentor went over the rules and expectations of the class. She’s
taught me that it’s effective to enforce the class guidelines from the start and then you could be
a little more lenient depending on student behavior. I have learned that students want rules and
they want them to be enforced for everyone. I had known that adolescents valued the concept
of justice highly but I didn’t realize that justice could be enforced in this way. As long as
expectations are clear and consistent, students feel secure as they don’t like when things are
unpredictable or sporadic. If there is an issue with a students’ behavior in the classroom, I’m an
advocate for restorative justice. Very seldom would I send a student to the office to talk to an
administrator. I prefer to have a talk with them myself because I don’t want my students to have
the impression that they are unwelcome to my classroom or that I would rather make them
“someone else’s problem”. I believe in creating and maintaining rapport with students and a big
part of that is talking to them with respect and understanding when there is an issue and then
coming to an agreement or resolution together.
My mentor teacher uses her prep period wisely and effectively and has taught me to do the
same. I would also like to use my prep period to plan ahead, making sure that I have a good idea
of what I’ll be doing in the next week and having a solid plan for the next couple of days at least.
To create good instruction that is beneficial to students, it’s important that I put thought and
effort into what will be covered instead of coming up with something at the last minute. This
way, I can create content that is challenging, but reasonable, and inclusive to all types of
learners. It’s important to consider if they have the necessary background knowledge, can relate
to it, if it's accessible to English Language Learners, is there a low and high ceiling, if there are
opportunities for mathematical reasoning, etc. To give all students a fair chance at succeeding, I
need to consider different possibilities so that I can be prepared to teach all students.
During instruction, my focus is on accessibility and student responses. I intend on integrating
the concept of translanguaging into my instruction to reach a broader range of students and
help them use their full language repertoire to consume and engage with material. This includes
providing translated materials into their primary language, preferential seating next to primary
language buddies, rephrasing and repeating important vocabulary and concepts,
highlighting/underlining/circling/pointing, using gestures, relating material to students’
personal lived experiences, and using various representations. I will engage students during
instruction by having class discussions and eliciting their responses and building on them.
Using students’ responses and building instruction around them is how I plan to informally
assess students during class. If students are having difficulty with answering questions or
drawing connections/conclusions, then I will need to adjust my instruction accordingly to review
misconceptions or misunderstandings. This will help me know what kind of support they need
and I’ll know if a topic needs more scaffolding, or if they’re ready for something more
challenging. I’ve learned that a large part of teaching is knowing how to adjust instruction
quickly to accommodate students' skill level. I’ve seen how my mentor teacher utilizes wait time
to assess where to go in her lesson and I plan on doing the same. If I am teaching my students,
it makes sense to build my instruction around what they need. Then for formal assessments, I
think being clear in what they are being assessed is beneficial to students understanding the
importance of doing the assessment. I also value students having the ability to use their
resources and know how to use them rather than memorize steps. In honoring this value, I want
to give them the opportunity to make connections and use their resources such as a calculator,
their trio members, and their notes when given permission to do so. Recently, my mentor
teacher has been allowing students to use their notes since we place so much importance on
them and we did a group quiz to honor the importance of group work. This is something that I
would like to continue to explore in my classroom next year.

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Student Teaching Reflection

coming to an agreement or resolution together.

During instruction, my focus is on accessibility and student responses. I intend on integrating

language buddies, rephrasing and repeating important vocabulary and concepts,

highlighting/underlining/circling/pointing, using gestures, relating material to students’

drawing connections/conclusions, then I will need to adjust my instruction accordingly to review

would like to continue to explore in my classroom next year.

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