Looking Back, Looking Forward Reflection

By: Jerika Mofield

Student teaching was an amazing experience. I was very pleased to be at Mill Creek
Elementary School for both of my placements. When it was all said and done, I felt like I was
truly part of the Mill Creek family because I had developed such strong relationships with the
faculty and students. Although my entire time at Mill Creek was wonderful, there were specific
experiences in my first placement and second placement that really stood out to me.
You never know the true value of a moment, until it becomes a memory. I think this is
the perfect quote to describe my student teaching experiences as a whole. First, I had such bright
students in my third grade class, but I will never forget trying to teach them fractions on a
number line. I had planned on teaching math just like I had been doing it for weeks now, but that
quickly changed. While I was teaching, all I saw were blank stares and looks of utter confusion
on literally every childs face. I was following from the teachers manual. Why were they not
getting it? At the end of the lesson, I felt defeated. I had tried, but I had failed. Thankfully,
there is always time to reteach! That night at home I thought long and hard about how I could
improve my lesson. I decided that I would try using their learning styles to guide my teaching
style.
A majority of the students in my class identified as being tactile/kinesthetic learners, so I
decided we would make a Human Fraction Number Line. I wrote several different fractions
on little strips of paper and drew a long number line across the board. I made sure that I had
enough fractions to allow for everyone to have a turn to get up and participate at least once. I
introduced the lesson and explained the instructions. Everyone loved being able to get up and

move around, but they also enjoyed getting the opportunity to problem solve with their peers.
We practiced several times until I felt like everyone was really getting the hang of it. I gave the
students a small independent worksheet as a short assessment for how successful my lesson was
the second time around. Everyone nailed it! The lightbulb had finally went off for them and I
had never been more proud of myself or my students. If I had not been informally assessing my
students throughout the first lesson through observation, I would have never known that I needed
to try again. It was a magical experience to see how a failed lesson could turn into a major
accomplishment. This really helped me to see that teaching is all about taking chances, making
mistakes, and learning from those mistakes.
My next teaching placement in the special education classroom was full of all new
teaching experiences. There is one memory in particular that I vividly remember. When I was
working with a specific student on number recognition and counting, I realized he was really
getting it! I felt like he had mastered numbers 1-10 and I wanted to give him more of a
challenge. Since I was working towards his specific IEP goals, I asked my teacher if I could start
working on numbers 1-20. She was actually in the process of renewing his IEP for the next year
and agreed that he was ready to progress further. I had a game of number bingo that I had been
playing with all of the other students I had seen at my center that day. I know I should never
doubt a student, but I was really unsure about letting this particular student play the game too. I
just did not think that he would be able to grasp the concept of the game. I decided to give it a
try anyways.
At first, it was a little rocky, but then he really began to get it! We were flying through
the game and having so much fun. He was not only counting past 10, but he was also
recognizing written numbers past 10. He attentive and engaged the entire time (this is a big deal

for this student). What happened with a simple game of number bingo, was a big achievement
for my student and me. My teacher recorded me teaching him that day so that I could keep and
cherish that memory forever. I am glad that I was bold and gave him a chance, instead of
doubting what he could do. I had to really use my data taking throughout the couple of weeks
working with him and my observations while working with him, to really see that he was ready
for a more challenging IEP goal. Looking back to my views on special education at the
beginning of my placement and my views now, it is evident that my feelings have definitely
changed. I was unsure of my teaching capabilities as a special education teacher because I had
such little special education teaching experience. Now, I can honestly say that I had it in me all
along. I just needed to remind myself that in special education, what seems like little
accomplishments are actually huge triumphs. Although I had many successes and wonderful
experiences, I still had my strengths and weaknesses as a beginning educator.
With respect to the eight teaching intern competencies, I believe that the two strongest
areas of my teaching were teaching pedagogy and assessment pedagogy. I chose teaching
pedagogy to be a strength because I felt like in both placements, I used a variety of instructional
tools to make the content engaging, relevant, and accessible for all learners. For example, in my
first placement I used a lot of group work, PowerPoints, YouTube songs, and visual organizers to
teach my students. It was more engaging and relevant for my students to learn about fractions by
taking pizza orders than it was to just do word problems out of the textbook. I chose all of
these tools after getting to know how my students learned best. Then, in my second placement, I
used a variety of manipulatives and technologies to keep my students engaged. For example,
using the iPads to practice writing numbers instead of using a boring piece of paper and pencil. I

really had to get to know my students to know what instructional methods would work best with
them.
I chose assessment pedagogy to be another strength because I always used assessments to
make decisions. There was not one assignment that I gave that I did not grade and review to see
how my students were grasping the material I had taught. For example, my teacher for third
grade did not grade homework. In fact, completed homework was not even looked at. Instead it
was collected and thrown in the garbage. When I began teaching, this was not the case. The
purpose of homework is to provide extra practice. I looked at every piece of homework that my
students turned in to me. I graded it, provided feedback, and met with individual students as
needed to discuss difficulties. Although my assessments were often informal and formative in
nature, I still used them to guide decisions for the content and delivery of my lessons.
During my second placement, assessment was used constantly to see whether the students
were meeting individual IEP goals. I feel like I did a good job at finding appropriate activities to
work on individual goals. For example, using count and clip cards with one student whose goal
was counting and number recognition. Knowing what standards to address with my special
education students was not hard because it was in each students IEP, but finding various
appropriate activities to meet those standards was the real challenge. I was constantly taking
data and informally assessing my students through observations. This helped me differentiate
activities if they were too challenging or too simple. I never knew what would happen with an
activity I chose until I actually watched my students complete it. I personally felt like I was very
data-informed during both of my placements. Now, with all strengths there also comes some
weaknesses.

I believe the two weakest areas of my teaching, in regards to the eight teaching intern
competencies, would be critical thinking and management. In terms of critical thinking, I do not
think that I incorporated enough higher order thinking into my lessons for either of my
placements. As noted in my portfolio, critical thinking was difficult for my group of special
education students because they were just not there yet. I still feel like I could have found
more ways to incorporate questioning into my instruction. In fact, when my supervisor observed
for her last time in my second placement, she noted how I still needed to work on my
questioning skills when teaching and I could not agree with her more. I think the best way I can
improve this teaching skill is by actually embedding higher order thinking into my lesson plans.
For instance, I could create levels of Blooms questions that I could ask throughout the lesson. I
do think that my questioning skills improved towards the end of my first placement, but I could
still always push myself further.
In terms of management for my first placement, it was not that I had poor classroom
management skills, but rather the fact that I did not bring anything new to the table. This is
partly due to the fact that my teacher already had a wonderful classroom management technique
implemented that I actually liked to use. I still would like to see myself really develop my own
classroom management style. I plan to look back on the classroom management plan I created
during one of my education courses to help me decide how I want my future classroom to be ran.
I would also like to attend a conference on Whole Brain Teaching, to learn more about this
classroom management and instructional strategy that my teacher used, because I liked it so
much.
In my second placement, behavior management was needed for specific students. Again,
I did not create anything new to add for classroom management, but I believe that I could have

done a better job at using what was already in place. First, I need to get more comfortable with
sign language. If I want to teach special education in the future, I may want to take a class or
attend a conference on sign language first. Next, I need to be more firm. This was something I
was really working on in both of my placements all semester. I am naturally very soft spoken,
quiet, and laid back. This sometimes made me look like a push over. Over time, I do believe
that I improved in this aspect because my students really started to respect me as an adult and a
teacher.
I honestly have nothing but positive things to say about student teaching. I learned so
much and really grew as an individual and as a professional educator. It is strange to be
wrapping up my time with the UAH Education Program, when it feels like just yesterday I
became a new teacher candidate. I am nervous and excited about what my future holds. I know
I will be more prepared for my teaching career because of my internship experiences.