The most significant learning that I underwent occurred once I entered the classroom. I had been in classes learning all about the theory of teaching in the classroom and how students learn. I developed my own philosophy of education, my own classroom management plan and a set of lesson plans; the creation of these things helped me narrow down and focus what my own teaching style would be. I had worked with children of all ages previously, but in a much less formal setting and was not uncomfortable with the idea of interacting with students and/or standing in front of the classroom or walking among them. I was most concerned about my ability to teach the material that the students needed to learn. 

            As I prepared my lesson plans for the class and unit I would teach they were very lengthy. I included every possible scenario for management and every word I needed to remember to say in order to be sure to cover every bit of information. What I discovered was that although I created these lesson plans with the knowledge that I would need to make adjustments depending on how the classes went each day, what I wasn’t prepared for was how quickly I would become comfortable not writing down every single word in the lesson plan. I fully intended to write 7 page lesson plans for several months because of this concern I had for fully covering the material, but have been happy to discover that because I am comfortable with the material and comfortable in front of students that as long as I have prepared and considered options as well then the 7 page lesson plans aren’t necessarily needed.  

            Collaboration and feedback have been essential tools in my growth as a teacher. I have learned that being comfortable enough to ask for assistance when I’m struggling with a lesson or a student is invaluable. I can’t and won’t be able to handle every single situation on my own, but I have developed a significant number of tools that I can use in order to deal with those situations.

            Because I had experience teaching and leading youth, I knew that I was pretty good at working with kids, but now I believe I have developed a new level of understanding and awareness that has increased my ability to teach effectively that will continue to get better as long as I remain open to working with others and taking feedback from my peers. Truly to be a good teacher, it’s important to me a good student as well and I feel that I have honed that ability to remain open to new ideas and techniques.

           Throughout the process of compiling my Work Sample I have gained a depth of understanding about my ability to analyize and process my procedures and the data that  I gather from my students. I have learned I have a nearly infinite ability to create more and more quesitons about the data I collect, which allows me to sort through a lot of different scenarios and information to find the question and cooresponding information that is important to the particular situation I am dealing with.  I have learned the importance of gathering information from every facet of the classroom, school and community environment and how to look at it as a whole to gain a better understanding of the individual student. The process of compliling the Work Sample has also taught me about analyzing data and making plans for how to apply that information to future classrooms, that there is a deeper level of understanding that can be discovered by delving into a process like this than just being in the classroom as a student or being in the classroom as a teacher. It's important to go through a complete process of creation, teaching and analysis to come up with an imporoved plan for teaching in the future.