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Kaitlyn Osborne

26 April 2013

Phase IV

Integrated Reflections

Over the course of my student teaching career I have discovered that I have

grown as a professional in multiple ways. One of my biggest challenges that I was

faced with this semester was planning my instruction for my students with

disabilities and directly relating it to the general education standards. I saw a lot of

growth during this semester in this area because I really focused on getting to know

the general education standards and then basing my instruction for my students off

of what their peers were learning in the general education classroom. This semester

specifically I was experiencing some difficulties while teaching math to my second

grade students using the different curriculums that I was provided with.

Throughout this semester, I collaborated with the second grade general education

teacher to plan the instruction for my students. We were able to go over the general

education standards and collaborate together to ensure that my students were

receiving modified and adapted versions of what the other second grade students

were learning. Once we were able to modify the curriculum the second grade

students really began to take off and the students truly benefitted from this change

in curriculum.

To tag along with creating my curriculums by basing my instruction for my

students geared towards the general education curriculums, I have also gained

professional development in determining my individual students learning

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preferences. A main belief of my educational philosophy has always been that I

believe that all students can learn. I understand that every student has a different

capacity to learn, but everyone has the capability to learn. To go along with this

belief, I also believe that Howard Gardners learning theory is absolutely true. I

believe that all students have different ways of learning whether it be hands on,

through music or art, visually, or many other ways. This semester in my third grade

general education classroom we determined how different students in our

classroom liked to learn and we made sure to always incorporate these methods

into our teaching. For example, some students really enjoyed learning through

music so we always made sure to incorporate music for these students. They would

create math raps to help them remember math rules, and we would always play

music during transitions in order to help them learn other academic topics like

subject-verb conjugation. We also made sure to always include visual modifications,

and hands on experiences within each lesson to help our students all learn towards

their learning preference.

This semester as a student teacher, I facilitated inclusion for my students in

the third grade general education classroom for over half of their day. This is when I

truly understood the importance of communication and professional conduct and

that vital role that it played in education. Throughout my weekly schedule I

determined that there was not enough time for collaboration built into my schedule

so with my cooperating teacher I was able to build in weekly collaboration time.

This semester, I also performed two interventions in regards to collaboration and

professional conduct. I took baseline data on myself over the course of five days to

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see what I could enhance in regards to collaboration and professional conduct.

While self-evaluating myself I determined that in regards to collaboration I needed

to be more vocal and state my thoughts and opinions during my collaboration

meetings with teachers and related staff. In order to enhance this skill, I developed a

self-evaluation sheet where I would reflect after every meeting. I would set goals for

myself and always aim higher to make sure that my opinion was being heard. Also,

in terms of professional conduct, I also made an intervention to be open to hear

others opinions before I closed my mind off. In regards to this intervention, I

decided to make sure that I stopped and listened to everything the teacher had to

say before I closed my mind off. The successful results and the full project can be

viewed here:

Self-Reflection Collaboration and Professional Conduct

Over the past two years, I have seen tremendous professional growth within

myself. One of my biggest accomplishments as a professional has developed over the

past four semesters. I believe my biggest professional growth accomplishment is my

ability to be able to reflect on my own teaching. I now know that self-evaluation is so

important in order for you to be the best teacher that you can possibly be and so you

can provide the best instruction for your students. Although I have come a long

ways in regards of professional development, I have learned one vital

understanding; I will never be done growing professionally. In educational settings,

especially special education, I understand that it will always be a learning process. I

will always remain eager to learn about the new and best instructional strategies

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and I will always be able to learn from my colleagues and everyone that surrounds

me.