Blog Weekly Post 5

I finally feel like my students are getting into their routine of how our daily schedule works. Most of the students are transitioning very well from one activity to another. One of my biggest pet peeves that I have noticed with my students is they cannot keep their hands to themselves. It is so very distracting for me and the other students. The majority of my students have trouble with the concept of keeping their hands to themselves. I know that this is a very normal concern in Kindergarten or younger students. I want to start looking for different ways to try to keep my students hands to themselves. It is just a constant distraction to the class and the others. One thing I noticed this week is that I tend to think that my students that are quieter do not understand information or that there academic qualities lack. I was surprised today when my teacher showed me assessments that she had been working with individual students. One of our quieter students scored fairly well and I was very surprised. This student tends to keep to herself and not answer questions even when prompted and asked. I think I thought because this student did not answer questions aloud to me that she did not know the answer. This makes me think about my instruction or individual assessment with this student. I tend to make mental assessments on my students when I talk to them or hear them talking to their classmates about their class work. I feel like I do not have a great grasp on this student’s capability because I never hear her talking aloud. I want to spend more time with this student to learn more about her and the ways that she learns. I also want to find a way to assess her in a way that she is comfortable. I believe that one way could be not having her answer questions in whole group instruction. I think that I could have her give me an answer by writing or drawing the answer if she doesn’t want to speak. Another part of me thinks that she needs to learn to speak in front of her classmates so that she will get comfortable.

Week 4 Blog Posting

I am beginning to realize that our students really listen to the teacher’s when we speak. They unintentionally listen to how we talk to each other and other students. We have one student that speaks little English and has trouble with her behavior. We are constantly talking to her and saying her name during class. Many times we have to stop whole class instruction to correct her behavior. It is very difficult and tiring to keep her on task and focused, as you could imagine it would be being from another country and not understanding the language being spoken. As teachers, we are constantly trying to correct her behavior without interrupting the other students learning. I have noticed that the other students are starting to talk to her like the teachers do. They try to boss her around and tell her what she should or should not do. In some ways it is good that are students know what they need to be doing and try to help this student get on track. There are many negatives to this situation. I feel like the students see this particular student in a negative light. She is consistently bothering the other students by touching them and talking or making noises during instruction. As teachers, we tend to say this students name loudly, directive, and authoritative. I have heard the other students talk to her this way. I feel like we do not realize how negative we make this student look to her classmates. I heard a student in line the other day say, “I have to stand by the weird girl”. This was upsetting and eye opening to me. Our students probably see our frustration with this student and find her weird and not like the other students. I want this student to be treated fairly and normal. I never realized how much our students listen to not only what we say but the tone of our voice. I am not sure what the answer is to fix this problem. I know that I am going to try to talk to this student in not just a demeaning tone. I want the best for this student. I do not want to give her a bad reputation with her classmates because of how we speak to her. I also have a student with a behavior issue that comes from an interesting home setting. We have had some serious issues with him cursing and hitting other students. He has no earned star cards (our reward system) multiple times and it does not seem to phase him. We kept him in from his second recess for cursing at another student and it did not phase him at all. Today we had an issue with him hitting other students on the playground and at lunch. He will tell the other students sorry if we ask him too. When we ask him why he hit his classmates he has no reason. We gave him a red light (behavior management system) and it did not seem to affect him. I am not sure how to punish someone who does not care if he is punished. Our punishments are obviously not making a difference in his behavior. I do not know how to keep our other students safety in mind when dealing with a student who does not care to hurt others. I have learned a lot about my students this week. Every week I am learning more about them academically and personally. I am really enjoying my time in Kindergarten!

Chapter 3 Reflection

When I think about data I get very overwhelmed. I find data difficult to read and decipher. I never understand what kind of data I should be using and what kind if data Is appropriate. Interviews are data that I understand and can contribute without any problems. Some observational data is confusing but I generally understand. I have trouble deciding what data that I need to collect and use for my study. I think I have a difficult time understanding the difference between research data and assessment. Interview data can also be survey data. I never considered this before. I think that surveys are a good start to collecting data for your research. Table 3.2 gives some great data-collection tools. I think that I want to record a lot of teaching for data. I think that video recording is great evidence to support your data. Triangulation is your three sets of data, interview, artifacts, and observations. Although this covers much of your data it does not cover all. Triangulation makes your data and research trustworthy.

Week 3 Blog Posting

This week has felt like the longest four days ever! I am starting to realize that my students are such zombies on Monday since they are tired from their weekend. I think that Monday’s seem like a good time for instruction since they are too quiet to disrupt their neighbor. I also have noticed that I am most tired on Monday as well and need to really step up. I took over morning work this week. My teacher suggested that I should teach morning work for two days and then she would take back over for a day so I could watch her one last time. I thought that this was a good idea. After the first two days of my teaching I reflected really well so I knew what to look for when she taught the third day. One of my main concerns was that I was not very upbeat. I felt like if I wanted m students to be excited about learning the information, then I needed to be excited about teaching it! The next days I tried to step it up. I find it hard early in the morning when I am really tired to get really engaged so that I engage my students. Although the week felt extremely long, I learned a lot this week. I have been trying to work more with my students’ one on one. Our students’ levels are really far apart. We have one student that cannot even recognize the first letter of their name and another student that is on a third grade reading level. This makes instruction very difficult. This week I started taking small groups during station time to work on leveled instruction. I found it difficult to decide what students needed what instruction. When my teacher reviewed my lesson plans she thought some activities were too low for some groups. I wonder if this comes with experience or if I do not know my students well enough. I made it a point this week to get to know my students and their strengths AND weaknesses better. I noticed that I tend to get better results from my students when working one on one with them. Well duh! I feel stupid for even writing that. I just am seeing how important it is to work to each individual needs. I find it very difficult to realize that many students are not getting this one on one interaction that they need. I feel like they could really be rising to their potential if we have the teacher man power. It is difficult to find one on one time with certain students. I wonder if we made a time every day where a teacher just pulled one student at a time to work on a specific need if we could make a faster learning process. I worked with our child that has behavior issues this week one on one. He was refusing to color his worksheet, which we needed to do before he could go play at stations. The student just sat there and watched all of the other children. The other teachers were busy either pulling students for individual teaching or busy supervising the other students in the room. I decided that I would sit down and talk to this student. This is a student who has really never been given the chance to color in his life. I talked to him about the different colors and what color he wanted to use for the different parts of the picture. As he told me what colors to use I would pick up the crayon and begin to color that section. I told him I started it now you need to finish it. He did very well with this activity. His coloring was the best we have ever seen it. Of course he would get distracted but he actually finished his work in time to play. I feel like because of his behavior issues we tend to leave him out or not think he needs help or deserves help but in reality he needs more help than anyone in that room.

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.