Juliette McBarry

March 17th, 2024

EDUC 540
Journal Reflection:
January 4th, 2024
Going into my first week of my stage four student teaching I am looking at the personal
goals I have for myself to grow as a teacher. Having the ability to be a stand alone teacher for my
student teaching experience, I am able to reflect on myself as a teacher so far in my career and
think about the ways I personally feel I could grow. These goals are developing a more
structured and engaging morning meeting with my students, as well as my classroom
organization and boundaries. To kick off my morning meetings this week I have introduced a
“circle time is starting” song that I found on social media that I felt comfortable with and was
easy to learn. I have implemented this song for three days in a row and my students seem
engaged and excited about its introduction. The song provides the opportunity to sing each
student's name that is present and my students have been receptive to this. When speaking with
my mentor teacher Laura about this during our weekly meetings, she mentioned adding a
component that focuses on who is at school and who isn’t, to help with the classroom
community. This is the next area of my morning meetings I want to focus on in the upcoming
weeks. My next goal focuses more on the structure of the classroom which I spent time on this
morning during my planning period. I was mainly reorganizing the classroom a bit to create a
designated space for a teacher desk and shelf to help create better boundaries between student
and teacher spaces. This is something I have not needed to define so clearly before this school
year but my current students have needed more structure around these boundaries. I have
struggled with students taking teacher materials and destroying them and I think having a clearer
definition of spaces will help with this. I am looking forward to seeing how this works moving
forward.

February 1st, 2024

Yesterday I received an email from one of my parents asking if I thought their student
was ready for kindergarten. This specific student is one of the last few students that still shows
up late to school after multiple reminders of when the school day starts and what the student is
missing out on while not at school. Due to this student's lack of attendance during morning
activities and lessons, I think that Kindergarten will be a challenge for this student to adjust to a
full school day as well as having to sit for lessons. So I took some time to connect with this
parent at drop off privately to speak to them about their student struggling to get ready for
kindergarten with their current attendance in class. I made a point to point out again the lessons
and activities they are missing out on, and the expectations that Kindergarten will come with.
The parent seemed very receptive to this and made promises to bring their student in on time this
upcoming week, as they were already anticipating being out this Friday. I felt that this went well
with this parent, so I attempted the same focus with my other family that drops off late. I said a
very similar thing to them about missing out on learning time and how I want to set them up to
be read for kindergarten. This student came to school right on time the next day and I made a
point to show both the student and parents how excited I was upon seeing them at school on
time. I was happy to finally feel a win with this difficult situation I have been facing for most of
the school year. I feel that while parents still see preschool as daycare, I can focus on the part of
my job that they respect, preparing their students for “real school” or kindergarten. I will still
make all the efforts I can to remind parents that this is also school, but for now I think focusing
on how my role in preparation for later grades can help me remind parents of the importance of
their students being to school on time.

February 22nd, 2024

Still thinking about boundaries with parents, the same parents I wrote about last week are
continuing to make appearances in my classroom at random times, and even acknowledge the
learning and lessons they are interrupting. Saying things like, “I don’t want to disrupt the
important learning happening” and “I know you have lessons planned” when asking to interrupt.
While I am taking this as somewhat of a small win, it was short lived when this parent decided
that instead of practicing the performance with the children, after I said no, they were going to
shadow their child throughout our lessons. This was becoming distracting for her daughter and
the other students she was interacting with. So I reflected on the previous conversations Joanna
and I have had on parent boundaries, and set up a parent chair by the door and told this parent
that she was welcome to stay but she needed to sit in this designated area away from students'
learning. This worked for her, where she got the idea that she needed to give her daughter and
the other students space to learn. She respected this and chose to leave the classroom. While this
may have not been what the parent wanted, it was important for me to set this boundary and
allow this parent to stay, because of our open door policy, but it also let her know that this is our
time to learn. My goal as a teacher is to continue to advocate for my students' learning and keep
these boundaries for parents. This is helping with my professionalism in the classroom, and
honestly creating a better learning environment.

March 17th, 2024

Today I am thinking a lot about my whole student teaching experience and how I have
grown as a teacher from the beginning of the school year to now. While it doesn’t feel like a long
time I feel like I have changed a lot professionally and personally as I am thinking about what
being a teacher means, and where I want to go with my experience and goals. I now look at
myself as a teacher with the experience and credentials to do impressive and important lessons
with my students. Some of the lessons I wrote for my classes or observations are activities I
never thought my students would be capable of, and sticking to the standards and breaking down
my lessons so they are approachable for my students has made them achieve more, and made me
expect more of them. I think this has translated more towards how my students and families view
me, even the support teachers and staff at my center. I have had many comments by visitors in
my classroom along this student's teaching journey that have commented on how I “look like a
real teacher” or that my classroom “looks like a real classroom.” I have met these comments with
the response of yes because I am a real teacher and this is a real classroom. Overall I think that is
the major difference in who I was at the beginning of this experience and who I am after. I am
much more confident in my position and my capabilities. I am excited to further my career
outside of my current position where I could find myself in situations where this is the normal
experience teachers have, but for now I have learned that it is important to carry myself with
confidence and continue to advocate for my classroom and teaching abilities.
I am very excited about my teaching moving forward after this student teaching
experience. I am feeling like I have the power to tackle my classroom with more perspective on
lessons and especially behavior management after everything I have practiced and perfected. I
am especially excited to continue to be a teacher in a capacity where I have the confidence and
experience to tackle anything that the school year can throw at me, which I feel like I have really
taken in strides throughout my student teaching experience. I have changed so much as a teacher
and my classroom has changed so much thanks the feedback I have received throughout my
student teaching, and because of that I have been able to see first hand how the feedback from
my observations and the content I am learning in classes can impact a teacher and classroom. I
am excited to continue to put what I have learned to work in my classroom this year and for
years to come. I am truly grateful for my experiences this past year with Drexel and my
supervisor Joanna, who have helped me become a better educator.