Rosa Castillo

Marian Ellis
Intro. to Teaching
2 May 2015
Teacher Reflection
Taking Introduction to Teaching this semester has been very informative and educational. I have
learned a great deal of information. I was also given a very great opportunity to observe an elementary
classroom. I enjoyed being able to observe and encounter with teachers and students and really get a feel
of what a teachers day really consists of.
For my observation I was assigned Mrs. Wineingers Pre-K class at L.P Waters Early Childhood
Center. Mrs.Wineingers class consisted of 19 very great students and another teacher names Mrs.
Benton. She is the only ESL certified teacher in the school and was voted Teacher of the Year in 2013 in
the Greenville Independent School District. I was able to accomplish my 16 hours in a duration of four
days. I was very surprised to see such young children be so well behaved and so educated at such a young
age. On the first day in the classroom I was introduced to the students as Ms. Castillo, and I had to give a
brief introduction to the students about my purpose in observing their class for the week.
A typical day in Mrs. Wineingers class started out with the students eating breakfast. Afterwards
the students were taken to the bathroom to brush their teeth and a quick bathroom break. If students did
well walking in the halls, not playing in the bathrooms, and quietly returning to their seats they were
rewarded by a very creative system Mrs. Wineingers had. She had a clip system, each student had their
own clip and if a student is behaving and is doing as theyre told their clip would advance up on the
Outstanding ladder. If a student is misbehaving then their clip goes down. At the end of each day student
with their clips up got to put a fake gumball into the gumball machine. If the gumball machine is full the

students get to receive a party of their choice. I think this behavior system works very well. When
observing I witnessed this system in affect. Whenever a student was misbehaving Mrs. Wineinger would
threaten to move their clip down, some student would quickly change their behaviors. This is a very great
system I hope to use one day in my classroom.
Before walking into the classroom students had to know the secret password, a letter that was
outside the door. Students had to be able to identify the letter and make the sound it makes before entering
the classroom. Then when it comes to story time, student would wait for Mrs. Wineinger to call on each
table to take a seat on the floor near the story seat. When all students were seated the teacher would get a
book out and announce the title. She would then ask students questions about what part of the book was
the spine, cover, and title. While reading the story Mrs. Wineinger would make different voices for the
characters, and ask questions periodically about the story to make sure each student was paying attention
and understanding the story.
After, story time there is a teaching lesson. The ones I got to observes were about writing, math,
and a science lesson. Mrs. Wineinger would have a sample paper prepared as an example for the students
to see. She would explain what they had to do and ask questions about what she had just said. I was able
to observe and also help student with their lesson assignments. I helped students complete their work. If
students finished early they had enough time to play some educational. Then it quickly became time for
cleanup. Students had assigned weekly jobs they had such as, sanitation, electrician, doorman, caterer,
nurse, caboose, and conductor. This is another idea I found very interesting. It allowed the students to use
real everyday life jobs in the school environment. After the class is cleaned up the students line of to go
to music. P.E. and lunch. Then the students come back for an hour nap and wake up to go home to their
families. My time spent in this classroom has really taught me a lot.
In the classroom there were some students that required some special attention, I was honestly
very happy to see that the special need students got the chance to spend time in a regular classroom. They
were treated just like any other student in the classroom, they had clips that could go up or down, had

weekly jobs that had to participate in, and were expected to accomplish their work just like the regular
students. When students would accidently hit each other, or they were being rude to each other Mrs.
Wineinger required each student to apologize to the other and the other student had to accept the apology.
If the matter was a very big problem, such as making a student cry Mrs. Wineinger would have to the
students hug. This showed cooperation and friendship to the students.
Observing this classroom really has taught me a lot. I learned about different learning techniques,
behavior discipline systems, and how to interact with pre-k students. I saw many different techniques I
plan on using in my classroom one day such as the job system, password system, and the forgive system.
Mrs. Wineinger classroom was a great example of what I want to achieve one day.