Reflection on expectations for clinical practice:

The Teach-Now program thus far has been a grueling ground for me. It has shaped my learning and teaching in a multitude of ways. The technology drive it has created in us 21^st century teachers has been exhausting but rewarding. Having come to the final lap looking at the clinical teaching ahead I am glad I have spent time and effort learning many skills that could be applied in my classes.

In my area of teaching i.e. learning support I’m constantly in touch with the students having being in their classes for co- teaching I’m confident of the students I will be dealing with. The class I will be teaching will be a study skills class that my mentor takes. I have observed him during these lessons and I have an idea of how his lessons flow. Hence the environment I will work in is not new in anyway. During my collaborative meeting he shared that he expected through classroom management I needed to ensure things go smoothly. He suggested taking seating plans into consideration to promote optimal student learning. In order to manage disruptions he shared that it’s important to explain the classroom rules clearly to the students. Use the tally system to let students know what is expected of them and let them know the consequences. He also Indicated that it is important that students are treated with respect when disciplining them ,so that they are not embarrassed in front of others.

He advised that I connect lessons with the previous lesson with previews so that the students will make connections. Having formative assessments at the beginning and end of lesson will ensure their understanding this can be done by way of drawing a picture, acting, writing, and questioning. He stressed the importance of individualized instruction as much as possible.  Differentiating through reading levels using the map and lexile scores will ensure students learn.

My concern for the clinicals will be the time schedule. I need to plan ahead as the interim holidays, summer holidays are coming up. I will have to cover 200hrs of teaching of  six informal and three formal evaluations. In addition my Praxis tests are scheduled for April and May. Hence the work load will definitely increase in order to keep up with the teach-now requirements. Therefore to stay on target I made myself a plan with the lesson plans I’ll teach informally and formally aligning them to the Clinical rubric for Intasc standards along with dates and session times. I believe this will be useful for my mentor as well because he can plan his days and sessions.

My mentor Mr. Wasko has been very supportive. As we all work as a team in our learning support unit we have the opportunity of communicating with each other when needed. He has many years of experience as a Special education teacher and I would look forward to learning more strategies that are practical to be used in classroom settings. He has ideas on varied resources that he uses in class and his suggestions will enable me to expand my teaching. I would reflect on his comments and incorporate suggestions for further improvement in every lesson.