Professional Blog Post #3

 To My Future Teacher Self

This entry will serve as a point of reflection which is an important practice all educators should participate in! The reflection is based on positive experiences I have had in the classroom, resources found, challenges handled, concerns, and goals for the future. I hope this can be a reference for you all on how I try to improve my teaching and embrace an asset perspective. 

 

Letter To Me

Dear Future Ms. Sunshine, 

        I would like to first start off with we have made it through of professional semester #3! You should be very proud of yourself and the knowledge you have gained along the way. Most of this learning has come from your classroom experiences both positive and challenging. 

        Some positive experiences to look back on were, being a part of your first parent teacher conference. You were able to sit in on the process from the teacher’s perspective and see what materials to prepare and how to address parents. On your first day this semester you got to be part of an IEP meeting, seeing the documents needed and structuring supports for specific students. Don't forget all of the field trips you got to participate in as well., Admirals game, UWM Planetarium, MPS United Nations, and the end of year field trip coming up! During all of these you were able to see the process of setting up a field trip and orchestrating it. You also were able to see how teacher must have lunches, medications, money, class lists, emergency bags, students, and more to keep track of all at once. Hold onto these as come back to this letter when you need a reminder of how fortunate you are to have these in your repertoire. 

        As for challenging experiences to grow from you learned how to manage a student with an EBD, a hard of hearing student, and 20 English language learners all at one time. All of these students had different needs which at times was exhausting and almost felt impossible. However, we learned to lean on your supports like your co-op, paras, and principles. They have resources and ideas that you may not have thought of or had access to before. Also, you took on this 34-student class as a field student just imagine how much more you can do when you are a service teacher! 

        Through this all there are still some concerns that have presented themselves. I do worry about our perfectionism, as we tend to make sure every little detail is in the right place. Which is a good thing because it shows that we care but we need to let go of the small things, students won’t notice I promise. I am also concerned about our lesson planning as we are quite slow still due to us the perfectionism and brainstorming. There will be shortened versions of lesson plans and we will not have so much outside work but, we also need to ask for help from peers more and utilize our resources too. 

        Looking ahead I hope that we continue to be reflective and revisit out our goals to make sure we are progressing as an educator. Some goals for us in the future are, get faster at lesson planning, do not bring so much work home with you, use more project-based learning and graduate! 

    You got this and remember all experiences are learning experiences not matter good or bad. Be proud of yourself and celebrate the little things! 

 

                                                       - Much Love, 

                                                                   Ms. Sunshine 2025