I am looking forward to student teaching in my own classroom in the Spring of 2025. My students are bright, silly, and have a wide range of academic and social-emotional challenges that require me to be thoughtful and intentional throughout the school day. As a trained school psychologist, I try to approach each student’s challenges with an open mind, focused on what makes them special and unique so we can leverage their strengths into successful interventions.

When considering Minnesota Department of Education’s 8 Standards of Effective Practice for my portfolio, I determined that SEP 3: Assessment is an area of significant strength for me. My background and extensive experience with special education evaluations allows me to have the unique opportunity to deeply understand the results of academic assessments and their implications for a student’s learning in the classroom. As a school psychologist and special education teacher, I have experience using a wide range of tools (both formative and summative) and in data collection and analysis. Because of this, I believe I will go into my student teaching this spring with a clear understanding of how to gather data, use it to inform instruction, and reflect on outcomes.

I also feel that SEP 5: Instructional Strategies is another area of strength for me as a student teacher. I feel prepared to implement a wide range of instructional strategies, including collaborative tasks, inquiry-based learning, and differentiated instruction. As a special education teacher in a setting IV program, I have, out of necessity AND desire, learned to move beyond lecture-based teaching to create engaging, student-centered lessons. These strategies not only deepen student understanding of academic content but also promote inclusion and equity by meeting diverse learning needs.

My areas of less confidence include SEP 8: Racial Consciousness & Reflection. Part of this is because, as a white woman in education, this is an area where I will need to be aware of and reflect upon throughout my career. While I believe I value equity and culturally responsive teaching, I haven’t yet deeply engaged in practices that critically examine my own biases and classroom routines with a racial/ethnic equity lens; I have less real‐world experience in making structural adjustments to curriculum or classroom culture explicitly for anti‐racist work. This is a goal that requires long-term critical thinking and analysis! To address this, I am serving on the Equity Leadership Team in my building, representing the diverse needs of our students and staff at both the building and district levels. One of my goals for the near term is to continue my academic understanding of racial consciousness in the classroom and read texts on trauma-informed and restorative classroom practices (such as Zaretta Hammond’s Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain).

I also want to continue my work in areas identified by SEP 2: Learning Environment. I pride myself on a culture of community and restoration in my classroom; my students have had so many negative experiences in schools that I value the opportunity to repair their perspectives on education and learning. Building a classroom that consistently reflects culturally affirming, relationship-based practices is something I’m still developing and that I believe is also a career-long endeavor. I value connection and community, but I know it takes intentional work to balance accountability, forgiveness, and belonging after behavioral challenges. Managing this with consistency and equity is a skill I want to strengthen as a teacher over the next few years.