Weekly Blog 2

This week was our first full week in the classroom. I am getting more comfortable with my classroom and students. The students seem to be coming out of their “honeymoon” stage. Many of our students are getting comfortable as well and are starting to act like they do at home which can be a little more complicated at school. Some of our students are having a more difficult time staying quiet or raising their hands when wanting to talk. My teacher does a great job at keeping these students under control. She will refuse to call on these children that are “blurting” unless they are quiet with their hands raised. I find it difficult to ignore these children because I want to correct their behavior that second and tell them to be quiet even though I know it distracts the other children and takes away from the lesson. I am starting to get to know my students on a more individual level this week. I have been trying to talk with them one on one to get them more comfortable with me being in the classroom. Most of the students respond really well to me but there are a few that are not interested in talking to me on a personal level. I think that some of these students are just very shy and are not ready to open up yet and others are just not interested. As I mentioned last week we have a student that speaks no English. This student has had a very hard time paying attention and staying out of trouble in the classroom. I have noticed that she seems to be getting into the most trouble when we are watching a movie or in a direct instruction time. I think that since she does not understand what is being said she is frustrated and uninterested. How could you blame her? Constantly trying to explain things to her has gotten redundant. Towards the end of this week I am trying new approaches with her in the classroom. I wonder what types of things I could do to get her involved or to get her out of trouble. When we were in library I had her sit on my lap so she could not get up and run around the place by herself. This seemed to calm her down and she stayed with me the whole time. I wonder if she just wants attention and is not getting enough of it during our instruction times. My teacher includes her in every activity but I am wondering if she wants one on one attention since she does not understand the instruction provided. I also think that she knows more then what she leads on. I wonder if there was a way I could get this information out of her in English. I am going to continue new strategies with her next week to see what I can improve.

Week 1 Blog Posting

Starting early back to North Elementary was one of the most rewarding experiences throughout my student teaching thus far. I got to watch how the beginning of the year plays out before students ever step foot into the building. As a future teacher I find this a very beneficial experience for myself. I was able to attend beginning of the year teacher meetings and be a part of some neat activities that involved the rest of North’s staff. Many of the meetings that we attended dealt with our text books and curriculum we would be teaching this year. I thought our meeting about the Social Studies text was interesting but also long. We discussed that we thought some of the resources were not resources we needed and that it could be missing some others that might make our teaching more interesting. I was able to travel with my teachers to their class home visits. I found this to be the most important part of going back to school. I enjoyed getting to meet the students and evaluating them on their skills. I mostly enjoyed meeting the parents and observing what types of homes my students were coming from. I learned many new things on these home visits about my students. I learned that some cultures have to offer their guests food of some sort and it is rude of you to turn it down. I felt like I got to understand my students more by being able to observe their backgrounds. I also felt like this could be a little stifling for the student because I seemed to already make some sort of judgment about these students before really getting to know them. I would like to always know where my students are coming from even if I am not teaching Kindergarten and do not travel for home visits. I have only had three days with my students so far so I still feel like I am trying to get to know them individually. I have one student that speaks no English. I find myself frustrated and upset with her a lot. This student does not listen or follow directions well at all. I find this student doing her own things often and not paying attention to the rest of the class or the teacher. I try to explain to her using motions and actions as best as I can. I need to realize that this student is probably just as frustrated or even more than I am. I feel myself constantly repeating the same words to her as if she is supposed to understand them. I notice that she does the same thing when she is talking to me in her language. I need to find a better way for the two of us to communicate. I also have a little boy that comes from a broken home and does not know how to behave in a school structure. I was so worried the first two days of school about how he was going to act and if I could help control him. By the third day of school with the children I already feel myself more relaxed around him. He has already begun to act more appropriately and behave. I have realized that I was judging him on his home appearances and how his parents talked about him. I thought that he would be bouncing off the walls and unable to be controlled. In reality he is just not used to the structure and I think with time he will grow to appreciate it.

Chapter 2 Action Research Reflection

I thought that the Exploring your school context: listening to your setting section was very intriguing and enlightening. I agreed with the statement that the most difficult phase is moving from a broad concern to a more focused question appropriate for a certain task. I seem to have a broad idea of what I would like to research but narrowing down my options to one question to research is very difficult for me. I have many personal concerns that I feel like I could address but do not know if there is a study that I could formulate. I feel like I could sometimes personalize my objectives too much. I feel as if I should take a step back and look at the bigger picture. I choose Alex and Lauren to be my critical colleagues because they are familiar with my teaching styles and the setting of where my teaching takes place. They are both placed in a Kindergarten classroom this semester and will be on similar pace as mine. I can confide in them both and trust that they will be honest with my research. When considering different strategies to use in my research I like to consider the strategies that worked best for me in my own learning. I would like to consider seeing if these strategies work best for everyone or just me. I sometimes find it difficult to use articles to find information about my research. I always feel like the articles relate but are not always exactly what I need. I am not sure if this means I need to refine my questions or maybe they need to be broadened.