Community Service Reflection Paper

Alyssa Smith

One of the best ways for an educator to grow and develop is through experience in a

classroom. As future educators, we charge into this classroom setting, eager to put our lessons

into effect, without thinking about the reality of what it means to be a teacher. I thought that I

knew going into my student teaching semester that I knew what it was going to be like going into

my 4- and 5-year-old classroom. But I was completely wrong. It isn’t until now, as a student

teacher, that I am able to say that I have the full teaching experience. However, it is because of

this teaching experience that I feel that I have grown not only as a future educator, but as a

person and life-long learner. Specifically, my preschool student teaching has taught me about

myself as an educator and learner through working with my diverse students and my fellow

student teachers. Altogether, this experience taught me who I want to become as a professional

educator.

To give some background, I am currently a first-time student teacher, working with 4-

and 5-year old's in a preschool classroom in the Fishback center at SDSU. I have been assigned 4

children that I work closely with during our small group and investigation times, as well as act as

their lead teacher, meaning I stay in contact with their families and partake in more of the

paperwork and documentation necessary for them and their success. These children are part of a

larger group of 7, meaning that I also work with three other children during our large group

activities. I student teach Monday through Thursday, from 7:45-11:15, and then have teacher

meetings on Friday’s. As it is the spring semester, I have been working with my students on

beginning of the semester assessments so that I am able to begin to gain an understanding of

where they are at and where they need more support so that I am able to best prepare them for
kindergarten. In order to do this, I am continually documenting through saving their work and

taking pictures to put on Seesaw. Furthermore, I have begun to create goals and portfolios for

each one of my children so that I can ensure that I am meeting all their developmental needs

while still gaining a strong understanding of where they are at.

Through working with my small group of children, I have learned so much about myself

and becoming a future educator. Specifically, one of the children in my group has pushed me in a

way that I am incredibly thankful for. Prior to the children starting at the school, my mentor

teacher, Laura, informed me that this child was going to be more challenging. At the time, I

assumed this meant I would just need to spend a little extra one-on-one time with him, and

everything would go smoothly. However, this was far from the case. Almost daily, this child

pushed my limits; testing to see how far he could go. With that, he shut down on me constantly,

and when he did, there was no going back from it. Right away, I was beyond frustrated. I tried

everything with him, all the way from redirection and positive reinforcement, to having him stay

at our table and wait while everyone else went to free play in hopes that he would then be

encouraged to do his work. But nothing I did worked. This child would almost immediately shut

down, and then refuse to do the work for the entirety of our group time. After the first few days, I

went to my mentor teacher on the verge of tears, asking what I could do. I felt completely

helpless, and I felt that I was failing this child as an educator. I began to lose hope, and it wasn’t

until Laura explained to me that this child just needed help building confidence in his abilities,

that I realized who I needed to be as an educator. I began to think of this child as my “wonder

child” as I knew he was going to teach me more than I ever thought I was going to. Already, I

learned that I need to constantly be reflecting on the “story” of each day. I began to look at this

child and think about what story he was trying to tell that day, and what could be learned from
his interactions and behaviors. I began keeping a journal and every few days, I reflected on what

took place in that day. Through my reflections and stronger understandings of this child and his

behaviors, I realized that I always need to dive deeper into why a child is acting the way they are,

as there almost always is something going on that is causing it. Similarly, this taught me the

important lesson of being a reflective practitioner. As previously mentioned, experience is vital

to becoming a successful teacher. But I have now learned through my students and my time

teaching, that it is not the end all be all. Instead, I need to be continually reflecting on the

experiences and interactions that I observe, as they are what will help me make sense of my

students and their needs. Overall, this helped me learn that I am an educator who values my

students above everything, and that I will go to great lengths to see them be successful, even if it

means taking the time to really study a child.

Furthermore, I have learned a lot about myself as a future educator through my fellow

student teachers. Before student teaching, I was much more of an individualistic thinker. I would

do group projects with my peers in other classes, but always struggled to give control to others. I

put my heart into every assignment that I do, meaning that I knew I would be putting forth

quality work that my peers would not always be as inclined to do. But once I stepped into the

role of student teaching, I fully realized how detrimental this would be. In order to be successful

in the classroom, I need to be constantly communicating with my fellow student teachers, as we

need to correlate our lesson plans, activities, and day-to-day documentation so that our classroom

stays a cohesive group. This was challenging for me at first, but I have begun to collaborate well

with my fellow student teachers, and through this collaboration I have learned so many new

things about myself. Firstly, I learned that I am a strong teaching candidate. I have struggled with

confidence in myself and my teaching practices, but by having my fellow student teachers at my
side, I have been able to receive support and reassurance that helped me gain confidence in what

I was doing. The other student teachers have come to me with questions and requests of help,

which further solidifies my confidence that I do know what I am doing, as they themselves have

faith in my abilities. I now tell myself that if others have faith in me and my abilities, then I need

to have it in myself. Next, my fellow student teachers taught me that my teaching can go in any

possible direction. There have been times where I have presented an idea to the group, and they

came up with a multitude of ideas that expanded upon what I initially said. This helped me

realize how much reach one single topic or activity can have. This is important because, as

educators, we need to be constantly building upon ideas and lessons so that we can push our

students to think more critically about what they are learning about. Overall, without having the

support of my fellow student teachers, I know that I would not grow and learn near as much as I

have.

Overall, throughout my ongoing experiences as a preschool student teacher, I have

learned many new things about myself and who I want to become. Prior to student teaching, I

always solely wanted to become an elementary school teacher. However, through learning from

my fellow student teachers and students, I have learned that I want so much more. I have begun

to learn that I want to make a difference not only in my students’ lives, but also my colleagues.

As a result, I want to become an author who writes reflective articles and books on my

experiences in the classroom. This will not only help my professional development and growth,

but it will help so many other educator’s as they navigate different experiences inside classrooms

as they will learn how other educators solved and addressed them. Furthermore, through my

student teaching experience, I have learned that teaching is a lifelong experience that requires

constant reflection and learning. Through continuing to reflect and learn, I am not only providing
my students with the most meaningful lessons possible, but also pushing the boundaries to

reaffirm the humanizing potential of education. It is too easy today for educators to settle into a

rhythm of the same lessons and activities year to year, all the while thinking that the teaching

profession is an easy one where all we do is spend time with children. Instead, I have learned the

importance of breaking this stigma and creating new opportunities for all. All in all, I have felt

that so far, I have grown more in my student teaching than I have up to this point in my

education, making me excited to see where the rest of the semester brings me.