Amber Jordan Pinecrest Elementary CT: Valerie Davis- Kindergarten

Reflective Journal

Date: Monday- February 3, 2014 Student Teaching: Day 15 Today, was a little different than our normal days. We celebrated the 100th day of school, so the students were excited to be doing activities with 100. Overall, I would say the day went well. I was a nervous to begin with, when you came to observe me. As the time went by with you observing me, I became calm and not as nervous as I was. After having you in the classroom, observing me, I hope that in the future observations I will be not as nervous as this first time. During my involvement with the students, I believe I worked well to accommodate their needs and engage them in the activity being presented. I know that in my next lessons and as I take over the classroom, I need to incorporate higher level thinking questions to engage students in learning. Using the higher level thinking questions is very new to me, as we were introduced to these last semester. I hope to become more familiar with them and begin to use them more in the classroom. Date: Tuesday- February 4, 2014 Student Teaching: Day 16 On this day, we had a field trip to Lander University to see a play about the Ugly Duckling and Tortoise and the Hare. This is the first time these students had been on a field trip. I was excited about this day to experience this with the students. In my first clinical with Mrs. Davis, I was able to attend a field trip to Lander University for a play as well. Overall, I enjoyed this day much better with the students. I felt I had more power in helping the field trip go smoothly. After the field trip, the students were still so excited and had a hard time adjusting back to the classroom environment. I really got to see how to manage the classroom when there are behavioral problems after getting back from the field trip. One technique I have found to help with managing the class is 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and sending students back to their tables if they are misbehaving. Date: Friday- February 7, 2014 Student Teaching: Day 19 To wrap up my week as a whole, I would say it went fairly well. I was able to pick up morning duties such as morning video time, calendar, and shared reading time. I have noticed that my students are getting used to me teaching them. We have been practicing each day how I expect them to be when teaching and what their consequences will be. I have enjoyed taking over the morning and some days I even had the chance to do math and science lessons. This has been the first full week of students being at school the whole week since coming back from Christmas break. I have got to see the ups and downs of kindergarteners and what kindergarten is all about. After this week, I was very thankful for it to be over, but I know that there will be weeks that are harder than others. I am looking forward to this week and seeing how it goes!