In many ways I feel Standard 1 is the base on which all the other standards rely. If you do not have sound roles and relationships developed with your students and your school, it seems as if fulfillment of the other standards would be futile.

The biggest challenge I found in meeting this standard, during my student teaching, was the fact that I began student teaching in the middle of my students' school year. By this time in the year, the students had alrady developed firm relationships with their teachers and they had settled into expectations of their teachers. And then, "ENTER STUDENT TEACHER," which must have thrown the students for some sort of loop. And yet, I was so thankful to be placed with a cooperating teacher whose "style," both professionally and personally, I thought mirrored my own, making my adjustment and my students' adjustment to the new environment rather smooth. In the first few days of my teaching I provided both classes with a short syllabus explaining what we would be doing in the next unit, giving them sort of a preview to my teaching style, as well as what my class policies would be. Where I briefly stated to the students that my policies would be the same as Mrs. Phillips', I think I could have been more specific as to what rules I expected students to follow in class in order to prevent some classroom management problems that arose. In my midterm self-assessment I made a goal to be more concrete and consistent with such policies. I was able to meet this goal by re-clarifying these expectations for my students often, as well as being more consistent with collections of homework and disciplinary procedures.

Throughout my student teaching I have constantly sought the suggestion of my students as far as whether they like notes presented on the board or the overhead, how they best benefit from a review prior to a test, what kind of testing situations they are most comfortable with, etc. By asking such questions, I not only get feedback on my teaching, but I let my students know that I am interested in trying different approaches to teaching that will help them learn best. In this same light, I try to be very transparent with my students about the material that will be assessed. I received positive feedback from students because of this constant communication with them. The more I teach, the more I learn about my students, and the more I am able to, as the standard states, acutely "make demands of the students in the interest of their learning and their learning styles."

"Creat[ing] an active learning environment," was a necessity in one of my classes in particular, as many of the students often had a short attention span. My continuing goal in this particular class was to challenge my students--be it by getting them up and moving around to solve a problem, actively reading an article together, or forcing them to think about a topic they did not really have the motivation into which to delve.

Lastly, I found the one of the most enjoyable parts of my student teaching experience to be cultivating relationships with my colleagues and the school community. While planning the visit of a guest speaker, I met with many administrators that I had not spoken with before. Planning for one of my students to attend an address by Former President Clinton as part of the press, at Brown University, I also had to meet with several members of the administration and staff to assure her visit would be correctly and safely planned. Even sitting in the faculty room for lunch allowed me to meet with and discuss important issues with a variety of teachers. One week I also attended a meeting of the Diversity Club, which was a great way to see how a portion of the school community was approaching a challenge that had been recently neglected...diversity awareness. It was during experiences like these that the thought of my fleeting student teaching experience was somewhat sad because I knew that I only had a few more weeks to be a part of the dynamics of the school. The experiences I had within the community of Lincoln High School were invaluable to me as a new teacher.