Dear Mr.

Jones,

Every field day I've attended in your classroom I was exposed to

different strategies and qualities to become an effective teacher. However,
observing and implementing those strategies and qualities became two
completely different things when it was my turn to teach. Even though, you
provided me with many positive comments to inflict confidence in my
teaching, I was still determined to address your suggestions for my
upcoming lessons from my evaluations. Given the opportunity to co-teach
with a fellow Rider intern and teach lessons in literacy and mathematics, I’ve
learned several things. Classroom management, lesson planning,
preparation for questions, and engagement is very important to maintain in
teaching.
Classroom management is an important skill to master to have an
effective learning environment. From observing your first grade classroom
I’ve seen you approach various situations effectively to continue with your
lessons. For example, when students continue to talk with their peers on the
rug, you immediately remove the students from their peers and isolate them
at their desk showing respect needs to be shown if they expect it back. Also,
your expectations of students being problem solvers definitely decreases the
amount of questions you need to answer in a day. Students become more
independent and responsible for their actions that a consistent smooth
learning environment is then established.
However, I've learned effective classroom management doesn’t always
mean a planned lesson will go as intended. For my first lesson I wrote out
exactly how I wanted to teach the lesson but didn’t really realize the
importance of doing so until I had to teach it. At times I felt unsure of how to
instruct or demonstrate so the students could grasp what I was teaching. I
then realized I should have studied my lesson plan more. If I had done so I
would decrease the chance of feeling unsure and display more confidence in
my teaching. Therefore with more preparation, I can successfully execute
what I want to teach even with out my lesson plan in front of me. You taught
me that!
As an aspiring teacher I feel I have become more focused on what I will
do rather than acknowledging what a student on different intellectual level
will do during my lesson. So thinking of questions I may be asked ahead of
time would be very beneficial. For example, I experienced a question during
my first literacy lesson that I had not expected and wasn’t sure how to
approach it. Reviewing the elements of a poem a student pointed out there
were homophones, completely forgetting what a homophone was I had the
student say what they were but I incorrectly identified them and moved on.
Reflecting on my lesson I realized what I should have asked the student to
tell me and the class what a homophone is and point out where they were in
the poem. Since I didn’t take this approach I unfortunately caused a student
to feel frustrated due to my lack of preparation. I need to evaluate my poems
as a whole next time, and not what I only have in mind for teaching.
 Now engagement before, during, and even after I've learned is very
important. Mr. Jones, I have to say you are great in keeping the students
engaged by being very animated. This is actually more difficult than it
seems, even though I do consider myself an energetic full of personality
person. However sometimes its not so much of what you say, but what your
physical actions are. Students absolutely love when you go up to them and
try on their glasses or make dramatic expressions while you are talking.
When it was my turn to teach I was more focused in keeping my students
engaged with my lessons instead of me and the lesson. My voice would be
low even though I feel I was being loud. So I have definitely taken your
suggestion in projecting my voice into consideration and will continue to
work on it. This is crucial to inflict some sort of animation during a lesson
because especially during read-alouds you can encourage a student to pick
up any book just by how enthusiastic you sounded by reading one.
So far I have learned a tremendous amount from you, and the first
grade students. In order to have a productive safe environment, classroom
management is the number one asset to have as well as an animated
teacher who is prepared to execute lessons. I’ve learned that if you aren’t
assertive from day one of class than the rules and respect you expect from
your class will not be consistent. With out a class in order, the effectiveness
of a lesson being executed is minimized and is a horrible reflection on you as
a teacher. However, even with classroom management mastered, with out
preparation on executing a lesson the students learning environment will be
affected. In order to have confidence while you’re teaching, you need to
know what you plan to teach, how you’re teaching it, what you want the
students to obtain from it, and any questions the students may have.
Effective lesson planning requires a lot of work but it’s the engagement you
seek from the students to have your lesson succeed. From being more
hands on than observing, teaching is a lot more than what meets the eye. I
am grateful to have been given this opportunity to be placed in a learning
environment that provides me opportunities for hands on work and observe
how to become an effective teacher. The name Miss Costa means more to
me than ever knowing the amount of respect I have gained from your
students.

Sincerely,

Jessica Costa