Student Teaching Reflection I thoroughly enjoyed my student teaching placement in the 2nd grade inclusion class at P.S. 86.

I had the pleasure of working with two wonderful cooperating teachers who I learned a great deal from. Since I student taught in the fall I was fortunate enough to learn how to set up an effecti e classroom. I learned that it is important to post rele ant charts throughout the room so the students can refer to them at any point. It is also necessary to make the classroom welcoming and student friendly. The teachers also made the students feel comforta!le !y allowing them to get to know each other through interacti e acti ities. "ach teacher employed different strategies that I could see myself using in my future classroom. They had a !eha ior chart in the room that worked ery well with the students. The chart ranged from #outstanding$ to #parent contact.$ "ach time a student mis!eha ed% they had to mo e their down one le el. If they made it all the way down to parent contact% the teacher sent a note home to their parents descri!ing how they mis!eha ed in class. If the student made it to #outstanding%$ they were a!le to a take a pri&e from the treasure chest and had a chance to !ecome student of the week. The students did not like mo ing their names down !ut after they did% they worked harder so that they could get their name mo ed !ack up. 'y two cooperating teachers also differentiated their lessons so they could accommodate the needs of all their students. There was a high and a low group for reading% writing% and math. The lower group recei ed scaffolded instruction and was encouraged to draw pictures or use manipulati es to help them e(press their answers. The high group was pushed to go !eyond what was e(pected and to e(press their answers in logical ways. "ach student)s needs were

accommodated% whether they needed to use a special writing utensil or needed to sit on a cushion that helped them concentrate. The teachers used the time they had wisely and were constantly assessing their students. "ach morning the students had a *o 'ath pro!lem from the lesson from the pre ious lesson. +fter the students finished the pro!lem% their work was graded on a scale of ,-.. This allowed the teachers to see if they needed to reteach any concepts !efore mo ing on to the ne(t lesson. /or ten minutes after lunch the students had a chance to read their sight words with the teachers. There were ,, lists in the packet and for each list read perfectly% the student recei ed a star to put on the sight word fluency chart. The first student to get through all the lists will recei e a pri&e. I hope that I can create a classroom that is as welcoming and engaging as this one. I will definitely incorporate some of the strategies and !eha ior management skills that I o!ser ed this semester into a classroom of my own.