Teaching in a Real Classroom!

     The month of March has been jam packed with learning experiences in Social Studies Methods so far. Although I have learned a lot from my class and the assignments we are participating in, I have gained an immense amount about being a teacher from being in a real live classroom. My clinical placement this semester is in first grade, which is where my heart is at the moment. For Social Studies Methods, we are required to teach an entire lesson plan in our clinical placement. After observing the classroom I was placed in for a good deal of time, my clinical educator and I decided that I would become part of the students literacy centers, and teach my lesson of a course of three days. On my first day of teaching, I was extremely nervous because I have never had the opportunity to teach a real class of elementary students before. Even though a lot of things did not go as expected, and I had to make decisions and changes for my students on the spot, I loved teaching. Teaching to actual six year olds and watching them get excited about what they were learning is what I live for in this major. While I taught, I was able to watch students who were not confident in themselves complete assignments that they didn't know they were capable of. I was also able to see how incredibly smart each child was in some shape or form. I think my biggest takeaway from my time teaching was the fact that each child in that classroom was so smart and had so much potential, but it took something different to get these students to have the "ah-ha" moments that unlock this potential. This connects directly to standard 4, element a, which states that "Teachers know the ways in which learning takes place, and they know the appropriate levels of intellectual, physical, social, and emotional development of their students." As a teacher, it is crucial that I know how each of my students learn in order to provide the strategies and learning experiences that each student needs so that they are able to achieve at their highest potential. The United States Department of Education wrote an article arguing for a more well rounded education said that schools should incorporate the passions that students already have. Although this relates more to students having the opportunity to go to other classes, such as music and art, I believe we can relate this to our classroom as well. If we use interests that students have already developed a passion for to engage them in our lessons, we can help students use the potential they already know they have in one area to bring them confidence in another. The article says "students are discovering their own potential through those experiences beyond just English and math." (Link at bottom)
     In my future classroom, I plan to get to know my students and how they learn as quickly and as thoroughly as possible so that I can provide them with the learning experiences they truly need. Differentiation is the key to providing this for students. Each student is smart and has potential, but every student is not able to access this potential in the same way. This relates directly to standard four, element c, which states that "Teachers use a variety of instructional methods." My students deserve for me to provide them with assignments and learning experiences that are tailored to their needs by differentiating for my classroom.

Link to Outside Research: https://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/what-school-can-be