This experience was very enlightening for me.

Unlike some of my colleagues, this was my first experience spending this much time in one classroom. I loved it. As I fell into the routine of my clinical classroom, I began to realize that I made the right choice in career paths. During the time that I spent there, I felt that I learned a lot of things that I will carry with me on my journey to becoming an elementary school teacher and after. The main things that I believe I learned a lot about are teacher presence, behavior management, interventions and time management. These are are all very important to becoming a great teacher and I am so grateful that I learned so much about all of these topics.

Teacher Presence
Due to my relative inexperience in the classrooms prior to this opportunity, I knew that teacher presence was something that I would need to observe and work on. In earlier clinical experiences, I found myself being overwhelmed by the students. They would talk over me and not pay attention while I was teaching. This worried me because I knew that in order to teach my own class, I would need to command their attention. I made certain that I observe my teacher and how she maintained the class' attention. As I made my observations, I realized she spoke in two different voices at different times. The first was the voice that she used on a one-to-one basis that was soft and gentle. It was the way that a normal person would speak. However, the second was a booming and animated voice she used while she was teaching. As I began to analyze my earlier experiences in the classrooms, I realized that I was using my regular voice while I was teaching. This wasn't going to gain nor maintain the attention of my students. To be honest, it must be boring to them. After making this realization, I decided that I was going to practice using a more commanding voice when I was teaching. Not surprisingly, this worked like a charm. As I was teaching, I tried to be louder and more lively than I had been in prior classrooms. This resulted in the students paying more attention. I no longer was overwhelmed by the students and was able to teach a lesson without losing the students' attention. It seemed that I had gained my teacher presence. This is definitely something that I can carry with me throughout the rest of my career.

Behavior Management
Due to my relative inexperience in the classrooms prior to this opportunity, I knew that teacher presence was something that I would need to observe and work on. In earlier clinical experiences, I found myself being overwhelmed by the students. They would talk over me and not pay attention while I was teaching. This worried me because I knew that in order to teach my own class, I would need to command their attention. I made certain that I observe my teacher and how she maintained the class' attention. As I made my observations, I realized she spoke in two different voices at different times. The first was the voice that she used on a one-to-one basis that was soft and gentle. It was the way that a normal person would speak. However, the second was a booming and animated voice she used while she was teaching. As I began to analyze my earlier experiences in the classrooms, I realized that I was using my regular voice while I was teaching. This

wasn't going to gain nor maintain the attention of my students. To be honest, it must be boring to them. After making this realization, I decided that I was going to practice using a more commanding voice when I was teaching. Not surprisingly, this worked like a charm. As I was teaching, I tried to be louder and more lively than I had been in prior classrooms. This resulted in the students paying more attention. I no longer was overwhelmed by the students and was able to teach a lesson without losing the students' attention. It seemed that I had gained my teacher presence. This is definitely something that I can carry with me throughout the rest of my career.

Interventions
During my clinical experience this semester, I was able to follow my cooperating teacher to an all day planning and data meeting. I had the opportunity to observe all of the second grade teachers planning out the lessons for the next units. However, I found the most informative part of the meeting was the time spent discussing methods to help struggling students. During this time, the assistant principal was in the room and seemed to lead the meeting. She had a spreadsheet that discussed every student who did not achieve a passing score on the last benchmark test administered. The student's name would be called and his/her teacher would discuss what they believe the issue with this certain child is. Then, the teacher would discuss what he/she has been doing to try to improve the child's skills. They would receive feedback and advice from the principal and fellow teachers. This meeting was very informative on how to intervene with struggling students, the struggles of doing so and the help that teachers may receive for this. As I mentioned, the teacher with the particular struggling student would receive advice from their fellow teachers on how to help the child. I learned of a lot of ways to do so. These include several activities. The one activity that my cooperating teacher used commonly in her classroom were inference cards. This was a game where the students would read the card aloud to the teacher then read a question. The question would require the students to infer. The answer would not be directly in the passage. The teacher would keep track of how many the student got correct/incorrect. If the student answered incorrectly, the teacher would guide their thinking by asking questions that would force the child to analyze their thoughts. The goal of the intervention was for the students to begin to infer the correct answer from the passage. There can be many different goals for interventions but this is one intervention that I was able to observe. The knowledge of this activity is something that I can definitely use and/or adapt for my future classroom. Before the data meeting, I assumed that interventions of students was solely the teacher's responsibility.. As I observed this meeting, I realized that my assumption was wrong. I realized that each teacher receives great advice from their peers and superiors on how to help the struggling students of their class. I think that this is wonderful. In my opinion, it would be very stressful to try to help a struggling student without any support which was my original assumption. This meeting showed me that each teacher has a lot of support to aid them in helping the child. The child is not the sole responsibility of one teacher. This alleviates the stress on the teacher while improving the probability that the child will improve. This

opportunity was an eye-opening experience. Now, I have a better idea of the support teachers have from their peers.

Conclusion
As I said, this clinical experience was very enlightening. I was able to really improve my teaching skills by being an inclusive part of the classroom. Additionally, this experience allowed me to see a side of teaching that I had never witnessed before through the data meeting. I truly feel that I am progressively improving along my journey to be an elementary school teacher. This clinical experience has enabled me to take big strides toward becoming the teacher that I desire to be.