Cooperating Teaching Reflection

My cooperating teaching, Miss Bentzel, at Wallace Elementary School, taught an extraordinary kindergarten lesson two weeks ago. Although she taught a great lesson, there is always room for improvement. Therefore, Miss Bentzel has taught me a myriad of amazing techniques due to positive and negative aspects of the lesson. To begin, Miss Bentzel called the class from their seats to the carpet, by tip-toeing. She told students sit at their circle spots, rather than their normal carpet spots so she could demonstrate their activity. To get the students attention they listened to two short songs because they had just completed their writing block, which asked the students to contribute a great amount of fine motor and cognitive skills for a long

The first positive aspect was Miss Bentzel reviewing each symbol and definition moving on. Miss Bentzel did not move onto that day’s activity until she felt all students retained the information from the previous lesson. I learned this was extremely helpful during the lesson because students could possibly piece her demonstration together to see what to do without the review, but it would not have been clear without prior knowledge. This ensured every student was benefiting and engaged during the lesson. The second positive aspect was Miss Bentzel’s questions. She did not quickly explain the activity. She asked questions, demonstrated multiple times, and asked if students had additional questions. Miss Bentzel also effectively asked questions, which involved critical thinking skills. For example, one student had 1+3=4 on their dice and number train. She asked this pair how else they could get something to equal four. At first, this was puzzling to them, but after some guidance, they explained 2+2=4 as well. The last positive aspect was the activity being extremely interactive. This can be difficult to do at times, but Miss Bentzel engaged the students through her excitement/positivity. Due to the game being so interactive, students also did not realize they were learning and thought it was truly a game. Students were actually upset they could not play