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.