During this placement, I became the most familiar with the grade 2 curriculum, despite being placed in a split grade classroom of 2 & 3. My cooperating teacher was focusing on, in this semester, outcomes from the grade 2 curriculum in the subjects that I ended up planning lessons for. I typically planned my lessons and student activities around an outcome that my cooperating teacher was working on or wanting to introduce. I felt that this was the best way for me to plan my lessons because it then guaranteed that whatever activity or lesson I taught was relevant and effective in teaching towards an outcome. It also, I felt,…

Throughout the course of this field placement, I implemented several different instructional strategies at various times. Some of those included: Gradual Release of Responsibility- I have used the strategy of Gradual Release of Responsibility in almost all of the lessons that I have taught. I have found that it is often the most effective way to ensure students are grasping an activity or concept before actually conducting it. It has allowed for me to add in additional clarification when it seems that my initial instructions were not clear enough. This instructional strategy is one that I would definitely bring forward into my career. Centers- I used a variation on centers…

The majority of the feedback that my cooperating teacher provided me with surrounded the practice of classroom management. She often had very positive things to say about the ways in which I conducted lessons and interacted with the students, but emphasized that classroom management is a skill I should continue to build and develop. There were many times throughout my lessons in which I struggled to keep all of the students on task, and so classroom management became a skill I was very focused on working on and developing. I would like to continue developing my classroom management skills moving into the 3-week block. I feel that it is a…

Throughout my field experience, I have had to interact with my colleagues and teachers within my placement school, in a context that I never previously had. I feel that I have always operated quite kindly and professionally with those who I interacted with, whether that be my peers or otherwise, but I found that this semester, I was working a lot more closely with others than I ever had to previously. This has presented some challenges for me as I navigated working with more people at a much more professional level on a more regular basis, as I had previously been able to interact with others on a much more…