My internship has had a huge impact on shaping my development as a teacher through my experience gained by teaching various subject areas in the classroom. I feel that having this experience is essential as it is the job of a teacher to teach students the various subjects as prescribed by the curriculum. I have learned many things about creating lessons that are appropriate for the subject areas and grade level as well as creating lessons that are cross-curricular and appropriate for a diverse group of learners. While I did learn how to create these lessons prior to my internship in university, I feel that my experience with actually applying these lessons has helped me learn how to create lessons that are more effective and practical for the students in my class. I feel very comfortable teaching my lessons in the classroom and I feel that this has had a tremendous impact on my professional growth.

I feel that my internship has also helped shape my development as a teacher through how I have learned to manage the class. I have acquired some good great classroom management techniques, through a lot of hard work and practice, that as we all know, is a really important aspect of teaching. I feel that learning these classroom management techniques is an essential part of becoming an effective teacher.

Learning about and experiencing the life of a teacher, both in and out of the school, has also been a large part of my development as a teacher. I have certainly learned a tremendous amount about the life of a teacher in the classroom, as well as the various duties teachers are responsible for outside the classroom. These duties include staff and other meetings, being a part of committees, planning, and much more. I have enjoyed all of these aspects of the teaching career and I feel that experiencing all of these things has made me aware of all of the responsibilities that come along with being a teacher. I have also experienced how a teacher’s job certainly does not end at the end of the school day. Teachers almost always have to take work home with them along with their planning for the next day. While sometimes it can be overwhelming and tiring to have all of this work to do, I have enjoyed the work that I have had to do to prepare lessons, correct, etc. Having experienced the life of a teacher first hand during my internship, I feel I am more prepared and ready to handle a classroom of my own.

Finally, learning how to think on my feet is another skill that I have learned to do better during my internship. I feel that this has helped shape my development as a teacher, since, quite often, plans change or something is not working and you have to think of another way to do it or teach it rather quickly. This is an important skill for a teacher to have.

I feel that everything I have done and learned about during my internship has contributed to shaping my development as a teacher. An internship is an exceptional learning experience. Every aspect of it influences and aids our development. The experiences mentioned above are only a fraction of the things that have contributed to my professional and personal growth during my internship. I feel that I have learned many valuable things in such a short time and am proud to have successfully completed my internship. I hope that I have also aided in the educational development of the students in my class through the lessons and activities that I have done with them.

To achieve my first goal of becoming a good classroom manager, I have observed the management techniques that my co-operating teacher uses and have implemented them myself. This has been successful as the students are familiar with these techniques. My co-operating teacher and I have found that keeping consistency with what we both use to manage the class is important because consistency helps not to cause any confusion for our students. I have also been trying new techniques that I have learned myself to better manage the class. Some things worked while others did not. The things that did work have been working really well and as a result, my co-operating teacher and I have continued to use those techniques. I like to be able to bring something new into the classroom that my co-operating teacher can use when I leave. I have also tried to talk with other teachers in my school at different grade levels to get an idea of how they manage their classroom because I am aware that things work differently with different age children. This has given me some ideas of things I could do at different grade levels. I know that classroom management is one of the most important aspects of teaching because if the class is not in order and students are not listening, learning cannot occur. Through the things I have done and am continuing to do, I feel that I have achieved this goal during my internship. This makes me very happy as well as confident that I will be a good classroom manager in my own classroom someday.

My second goal was to become more confident teaching in the classroom. I have achieved this goal rather quickly. As I got to know the students and my co-operating teacher, I soon became really comfortable teaching the classroom. Also as time went on I became more confident that my lessons were effective as the children grasped the concepts and enjoyed the various activities and lessons I prepared for them. My co-operating teacher has also helped me become more confident through her positive comments. I love teaching my students. I enjoy every minute of it. I love acting silly in the classroom and seeing my students smile and enjoy themselves while learning at the same time. As I said in my first journal entry I thought this goal would be achieved with time and practice which is what happened for me. I am so comfortable and confident with my students and my co-operating teacher at this point that it will be very hard to leave them in a few weeks as I am sure is the case for most people during their internship.

My third goal was to become more familiar with the curriculum. To achieve this goal I have been reviewing the curriculum guides quite frequently. This is not only beneficial to my teaching in the classroom but also for future job interviews. I have also talked with my co-operating teacher about the curriculum and observed how she plans out the whole year with certain outcomes to cover for each month. As a beginning teacher this is something that I was nervous about, but I think the key is to plan out the whole year in advance to ensure you have every outcome planned in to cover at some point during the year. As well, I have learned that creating lessons that are cross-curricular are a good way to cover multiple outcomes. I feel that I have effectively achieved this goal and I am happy to be more familiar with the curriculum guides as they are what all teachers have to follow.

I feel that I have effectively achieved these three goals as well as many more that I have personally set for myself during this internship. While there is still more for me to learn, I feel I have gained so much knowledge to help me be an effective teacher. I am having a terrific experience at my school; it’s hard to believe that it is almost over. I feel sad that I have to leave all the students that I have became so attached to but on the other hand happy that I have almost completed my degree and will soon be out there teaching myself.

Observation is an assessment technique that my co-operating teacher and I do on a daily basis as I am sure many other teachers do. To ensure each student is assessed and assessed properly, we use checklists which list all of our expectations for the particular activity. I find having a checklist with all of the student’s names and the expectations give structure and purpose to the observation as you know what things you are specifically looking for. Being in a kindergarten classroom, I find observation to be one of the most effective assessment techniques. As I mentioned above, these young students are not involved in writing tests, etc. so a huge amount of the assessment is in fact done through observation. My co-operating teacher uses this assessment technique frequently and finds it to be very effective with her students. I have used observations in the classroom and have found it to be an effective technique also.

Questioning is another assessment technique that I consider to be effective. It is important to ask questions to check for students understanding. Sometimes it is not clear just through observation if students understand the concepts that you want them to. After the completion of an activity, I often get students together for a discussion where I ask them various questions to check for understanding. I find this technique to be very effective as it is quite obvious which students understand and which do not. When using this assessment technique it is important to remember to use open-ended questions as they require students to think and explain themselves as opposed to simply answering a question with a yes or no response. It is also important to have a classroom with mutual respect to create an atmosphere in which students feel comfortable to speak and answer questions with their teachers and peers present.

Lastly, using authentic assessment through students reading baggy books and responding to them using writing and illustrations is also an assessment technique that I consider to be effective. During my internship I have observed and implemented this assessment technique on a daily basis. The students are assessed individually on their reading skills as well as their understanding of the book through their verbal and written responses. The written responses are very brief as the students are in kindergarten. The students often draw pictures to illustrate what their book was about or what it meant to them. This assessment technique has been a very effective way for my co-operating teacher and I to assess our students as it would be hard to assess reading skills and understanding of a text in a larger group setting. The individual and small group assessment seems to work best for us and our students.

It is extremely important to have many effective assessment techniques to use daily in the classroom. I feel that in order for an assessment technique to be proven effective or not you need to try it out and see which techniques work best for you. Since beginning my internship, I have observed and implemented many techniques that I have found to be effective as well as some that have not been as effective. I consider the techniques that did not work as well to be a learning experience because you will never know if you don’t try. I am sure there are many other effective techniques that I will learn during the remaining weeks of my internship as well as in my future teaching career.

On Valentine’s Day at my school, there was an assembly presented by the grade three classes. This assembly was lead by the two grade three teachers. They created many things for their students to do for this assembly to be presented to the entire school with teachers and parents present. The teachers spend a tremendous amount of time preparing things for their students to do for the assembly, providing them with guidance as well as getting other classes in the school involved in creating decorations for the gymnasium. They were also responsible for organizing the various performances, and practicing to make sure the students knew what they were to do during the assembly and to ensure things ran smoothly. This shows leadership because the teachers were leading the students through the various things that needed to be done to prepare for and perform an assembly. It was evident to all the students, parents, and other teachers in attendance that these two teachers showed leadership because of the success of the event and how well they lead the students.

These two teachers led their students to perform an effective assembly for the school because they were very good leaders. It was evident that they worked very hard with their students to ensure the success of the assembly. Sometimes we don’t realize how much work is involved in leading an assembly or any other type of leadership until we talk with people that are involved or are involved in some type of leadership ourselves. I find instructional leadership takes a lot of hard work, planning, and dedication to be effective much like any other form of leadership. Students need to see good leaders on a daily basis to teach them the things they need to know as well as to teach them leadership skills. This was evident in the assembly as the students portrayed good leadership skills during the assembly that they undoubtedly learned from their teachers.

I think leadership and being a good leader instructionally, in the school, and in the community is a very big challenge. Students need to have an effective leader to aide them in their learning. We need leaders for many things in a school. It is important for teachers to do whatever they can to be successful instructional leaders as well as volunteering to lead different groups or events in the school and in the community if at all possible. Without leaders many events and groups would not exist. An example that comes to my mind is brownies, scouts, sparks, etc. Without leaders these groups would not exist and many children would miss out on these beneficial activities that they very much enjoy.

The divisional meetings that I have attended were for primary teachers as I am interning in a kindergarten classroom. As an intern, I found this meeting to be very informative in regards to how the teachers go about making long-term plans together and discussing lessons with each other. I feel that this type of planning is a good way to communicate and ensure consistency across grade levels. An official from the school board attended this particular divisional meeting and provided the teachers with a time to ask any questions they may have, make comments and/or voice their opinions on particular topics or issues. As an intern, I felt that this was an important meeting to observe because I had the opportunity to hear some of the concerns that teachers have and also the process of solving their problems. It was interesting to see what the school board representative did to address the issues and concerns of the teachers. I have found that the school board representative that attends our meetings is very accommodating and does what she can to solve the problem or find out information that they want. As an intern I feel that it is beneficial to be aware of the things that happen in these meetings. In these meetings the teachers want to hear about the new strategies and techniques that I have been learning in university as well. This makes me feel involved in the meeting and happy to have something new to offer to the meeting. The staff is very supportive and respectful of each other.

The last divisional meeting that I attended was about report cards and having consistency throughout all the grade levels. I felt that this was an important meeting to be involved in as I have never had any experience with report cards or parent teacher interviews. As a beginning teacher, I feel that it is very important to know how to correctly assess students and fill in their report cards. This meeting gave me a chance to see how teachers feel about the report cards and also some of the concerns or frustrations they have. The main concern for the meeting was to ensure that there was consistency across the grade levels with the language used for the report cards. I think communication among teachers is extremely important to ensure things are consistent. I enjoy being a part of these meetings because it is a good way for me to learn about every aspect of the teaching career and to learn from the other experienced teachers.

I think communication and collaborative planning with other teachers, parents, and students is an important part of effective teaching. The results of the collaborative planning that I have been involved in tend to be positive and in the best interest of the students in our school. Through experiencing these meetings first hand, I now know what they are all about and as a result I have gained an appreciation for them.

I feel that teaching is going to be a very rewarding career for me. I have found it very rewarding to teach lessons to my class and to see that they are learning the concept I am teaching to them. While sometimes it is a challenge to get students to learn, I enjoy trying new things and new styles of teaching to help them learn. The key is to have patience and realize that it is going to take time for the students to learn. Some students learn faster than others. I am enjoying the challenges that come along with the teaching profession. I feel like I have accomplished something at the end of the day which is a reward for all the hard work it takes to teach lessons to my students. I have been enjoying having the opportunity to apply the theories and other things that I have learned in this program so far.

Teaching is a career that takes a lot of work and effort. It is demanding of your time and energy. While I think it is a lot of work, I enjoy doing the work. I enjoy planning lessons for my class that will help them both learn and have fun. I feel happy to know that my hard work will produce positive results in most cases. I feel that you have to enjoy the work to be an effective teacher because your attitude and mood affects the whole class. I think it is important to remember that you need to cheerful and positive in the classroom despite what may be going on in your personal life or if you’re having a bad day.

I have also learned that preparation is extremely important for a teacher. I was aware that preparation was important in teaching; however, I have been experiencing it first hand during my internship.  I feel a teacher’s level of preparation is evident in the classroom. It is very obvious when lessons are not well planned or thought out because things do not go well. Through observations and experience during my internship thus far, I feel that planning is crucial in order to teach effectively. Lessons need to be curriculum related, well thought out, and materials need to be collected prior to the start of the lesson. There are so many things to consider when planning a lesson especially in classrooms with a diversity of needs.

Personally, during the past seven weeks, I have found that there is also an emotional involvement that comes with the teaching profession. I want all of the students to learn and be successful throughout their education. I am constantly thinking about them and ways that I can better help them learn. I feel proud and happy when they are successful and I keep thinking of ways to help them learn if they are not as successful. Also, there are a lot of children with family problems in the school that I am placed in. Knowing this makes me feel like I want to do more for these children while they are in school to make it a positive and pleasant experience for them as it may be the only place they feel comfortable.

These past seven weeks have confirmed for me that I have made the right career choice. I have been learning and applying many useful techniques and strategies that I hope to use in my own classroom some day.

I have observed a lot of effective classroom management from my cooperating teacher. She does an excellent job of managing her classroom. I learn new things from her regarding classroom management on a daily basis. All of the students in our class know the things they should and should not do, as well as the consequences for breaking the rules. I believe that having a teacher in kindergarten that maintains control of the classroom and enforces the rules is important because it shows the young students how they are expected to behave in school right from the start.

The first example of classroom management that I have observed from my co-operating teacher is something that she uses to get the students to pay attention when someone is talking. She calls it giving five. There are five things that the children should do when someone is speaking: eyes are watching, ears are listening, mouths are quiet, hands are still, and hearts are caring. The students are reminded of this when she is about to start a lesson. She also uses it if they are being disruptive during a lesson. She will stop and tell them that they should be giving her five and get them to tell her the five things they should be doing. This technique is very effective because the students know how to behave when someone is talking. If it is the teacher or another student they know that they have to give them five. Also, if they are off track sometimes and start to talk when someone else is talking, they are quick to stop once they are reminded that they should be giving the person five. It really works well with the students in our classroom and I think it would be effective in any classroom that has trouble with getting students to listen and pay attention when someone is talking to the class.

The second example of classroom management is one that I have implemented myself. As I have mentioned above, classroom management is something that I have been working on a lot thus far in my internship. One thing that I have been doing is before beginning my lessons; I tell the students that I am going to be looking for some super listeners because I’m going to need some people to help me out today. This is effective because all of the students love to get a chance to help out and be involved in the lesson so they tend to listen and be on their best behavior. I also give some students stickers during the lessons and thank them for being really good listeners when I see that some other students are not paying attention. This is effective because the students that are not listening will stop talking and pay attention because they want to get a sticker. It seems like a small reward, but the students are really proud to get one and they try extra hard to listen.

I am constantly trying new things to learn to be a good classroom manager because I think it is one of the most important things for a beginning teacher to learn. I feel that I have learned a lot about classroom management during my internship so far because my co-operating teacher is a wonderful classroom manager and I am certain that I will learn much more before my internship ends.

To begin this lesson I referred back to our guessing jar that we have been using for estimation in math. In the guessing jar we would place as many objects as could fit (the same objects each time i.e. blocks). I explained to the students that this meant it was filled to capacity. After this, I defined capacity. I then held up another container to compare with the guessing jar. I asked the students which container they thought would hold more. After taking several predictions, I used rice to test which container would hold more. To test I scooped up rice with the guessing jar making sure it was filled to capacity and poured it out into the other container. The other container overflowed when the rice was poured into it. I then asked the students if they could tell me based on what happened, if this container can hold more or less than the guessing jar. This process was done several times with many different size containers to ensure the students understood the concept.

After the modeling, I explained to the students that they will get to experiment with different containers like I just did using rice. I gave the students instructions of what they had to do several times step by step. The students worked at their tables in groups of five. Each table was given two different shape and size containers to start off with. They had to make predictions of which container they thought would hold more or less. Once they made their predictions and tested the container with the rice, everyone at the table had to raise their hand to signify they were done and needed two more containers. Then one person from the table could go get another two containers. After each table tested several different containers, the students were called down to the floor to discuss their experiments. Each group had the opportunity to show two containers they tested out to the class telling their prediction of which one held the most and then telling what they found after they tested it.

The first reason why I think this lesson is effective is because most students effectively met the outcomes that were expected of them for the lesson. During the demonstration students began to grasp the concept of capacity and were able to use the terms more and less. They stayed on topic and followed the directions while on the floor and followed the instructions that were given to them for the group work at their tables. I think a good indicator to finding out if a lesson is effective or not is whether or not the students understand the concept and can apply it. This was definitely apparent in my lesson because the students understood what capacity meant and could do the work that was set for them in their groups after the demonstration.

The second reason why I think this lesson is effective is because it maintained the student’s attention. Their focus was maintained during the demonstration and they remained focused during their group activity. The students were focused and attentive while at the same time having fun. They really seemed to enjoy the lesson including the activity they had to do. While I think understanding and grasping the concept is really important, I also think the lesson needs to be enjoyable, appropriate for the grade level, and student -centered. These qualities together make a lesson more effective.

The third reason why I think this lesson is effective is because it met the needs of the diversity of learners in my classroom. Because this activity is done in a group, the students that may find it difficult on their own have the help of their classmates to complete the activity successfully and they can all learn from each other. My class really enjoys hands-on activities and as a result it meets the needs of all or most learners in my classroom. There are many visual learners in my classroom whose needs were met through watching the demonstrations that I did. The auditory learner’s needs were satisfied through the oral instructions I gave to them and through the talking I did while explaining each step during the demonstrations. Also, the kinesthetic learner’s needs were met through the hands-on activity they did in the groups.

After this introduction to capacity, I did many more lessons to follow it up. I concluded capacity with students circulating through different centers with activities dealing with capacity that we have done during the past few weeks.

The majority of students in my classroom are very dependent, low-level learners who require a great deal of extra assistance. Some of these students have student assistants that accompany them in the classroom for a period of time each day because it is impossible for the teacher to give everyone individual instruction or assistance at the same time. While most students are lower-level learners, there are some students that are more independent and higher-level learners. Many of the students in my class have different learning styles which all need to be considered when planning lessons. Some learn best with hands-on activities while others learn best with one on one instruction or paper and pencil activities.

“Joey” is a student that struggles with every activity that is set for him to do unless he has someone sitting beside him to help him step by step through the activity. For example, when all of the students are sitting on the floor listening to instructions for the seat work they are about to do, he is looking around, making funny noises, distracting other students around him, and doing anything other than listening to the instructions. My co-operating teacher and I are constantly reminding him to pay attention and listen. After the students are told to go back to their seats once the instructions have been modeled and repeated several times, he asks what he has to do. We then have to explain to him the importance of listening to instructions and explain them to him once again. He rushes through the activity and doesn’t try at all. This particular student has a student assistant for part of the day. When his student assistant is sitting by him and encouraging him to do his best, he does his best work. I have talked with my co-operating teacher about this student because of his behavior and learning needs. She has informed me that he is being assessed to determine if he has any learning or behavioral problems. While I think there may be some issues, I also think that if this student had a full-time student assistant he could do better work. I feel that this student needs more one on one interaction which we try our best to give him, but it is very hard with a class containing many other students that cannot work well independently and have other needs that need to be considered.

“Amy” is another student in my class. She is the total opposite of “Joey”. She is an excellent listener, she can work on her own, and she works well in groups. “Amy” also participates often in class discussions and activities. Unlike “Joey”, she listens extremely well to instructions and understands what she has to do almost immediately. If she has a question or is unsure, she will ask her question by raising her hand to clarify what she has to do. She really seems to enjoy doing her work. “Amy” is a very strong language arts student and is equally strong in all subject areas. She is very proud of the work that she does and enjoys being complemented on it. She is very quiet and as a result, she prefers to work by herself as opposed to in a group. Although this is her preference, she still cooperates and works well in the groups she is in. Some things need to be altered for this student because some activities that the other students may be struggling with or find difficult she completes quickly and does not find them challenging. When planning lessons for my class I try to do my best to prepare something more challenging for her in case she finds the other work too easy or is finished a lot earlier than the rest of the class. There are a few other students in my class that this applies to, but very few.

As you can see, there is quite a diversity of learning needs and learning styles in my classroom just from looking at these two particular students. There are many students at the same level as Joey and a few at the same level as Amy, although most of the students fall somewhere between Joey and Amy. I think it is very important to consider the needs and learning styles of your students when planning lessons to ensure they will be effective for everyone.

An effective lesson taught by my co-operating teacher was a lesson on estimation and graphing in math. She had a container that she called a guessing jar and inside the jar she put different objects and got the students to estimate how many they thought would fit inside the jar. She put in things like blocks, bottles of paint, puppets, and more. This lesson took place over the course of a week as she used different objects in the guessing jar each day. She made a table to show the results of the guessing jar by drawing the pictures of the objects in one column and a numeral in the next column to represent how many of the object fit into the jar. Then on the last day of the lesson she made a graph on the floor and as a class they graphed all of the objects that they put in the guessing jar over the week using the actual objects.

The first reason why I consider this to be an effective lesson is because most of the students learned how to make estimates that were reasonable and quite accurate. For most students, the first estimates were far from the actual number of objects in the jar, but as they continued estimating different objects that were in the jar they made more reasonable estimates. I have learned that in kindergarten repetition is very important. Through using repetition my co-operating teacher helped the students grasp the concept of estimation. It is very important to plan lessons to meet the needs of a diversity of students. The fact that there is a diversity of learners in this class and most students successfully learned the concept shows how the lesson was effective in meeting the needs of everyone. It is very rewarding for everyone when a lesson is delivered effectively.

The second reason why I consider this to be an effective lesson is because my co-operating teacher asked good open ended questions to make the students think, and also to explain their answers. She did not ask questions that only required yes or no answers. It was obvious that the students were really thinking about what she asked them. I think this is very important because it provides a way to assess what the students know and what they are learning from the lesson.

The third reason why I consider this to be an effective lesson is because it maintained the student’s attention. They were very interested and I think this is because she made sure the students were involved in the lesson by letting them participate whenever possible. She is also a great classroom manager which helps minimize distractions. It helped to keep students attention focused on the lesson. The students knew that they had to raise their hands and not shout out. They also listened and respected other people that were talking. She had many different techniques to keep them in order and listening. For example, if she noticed that she was losing the students attention or they were becoming restless sitting on the floor, she would get them up to do something active. She had the students hop and/or clap the number of a certain object that fit into the guessing jar. This really worked well because after this they were fine and she had their attention again.

I have observed many effective lessons taught by my co-operating teacher already including this one from which I have learned a lot. I am sure I will see many more as my internship progresses and learn even more from them.