Journal 4
I am with a small group of students this semester for student teaching. There are only 16 students in this 3rd grade class! At first I was surprised that there were less than 20 students in one class, but it is an inclusion class. This means that special needs students are placed in a similar environment and work alongside non disabled peers. Thus, having less students in a class such as this one makes sense and it is better for the students that need more attention. There are 4 students who are specifically under the supervision and guidance of the special education teacher in this room. One if not two more students in this class have issues with focusing and work better in my opinion if they have an adult next to them.
With only 16 students, the majority are male. There are 11 boys and 5 girls in this class. I don’t mind the difference in numbers, but I notice it does have an effect on the students. If the girls want to work together on an assignment or even make friends with other girls in class, they don’t have many to choose from. The boys on the other hand are chatty and have plenty of options of who to hang out with or not. Because the boys can get overly excited and talkative, my CT tried her best to separate the boy’s seats as much as she could. Also, since there are less girls, one girl in particular seems to be a favorite amongst the boys. She is really smart and must be the most “attractive” in the eyes of a number of boys. They are still young, but growing up fast in my opinion.
Of the 16 students, about 11 are 9 and 5 are 8 years old. Just by looking at them, one probably can’t tell which student is which age and the “smart ones” aren’t typically the older ones. As for the cultures and languages of these students, this class is diverse. There are Peruvians, Puerto-Ricans, Dominicans, Italian, Jamaicans, African-Americans, and mixed race students. At least half if not more speak Spanish at home, but none of the students have serious issues with speaking English.
This class has a range of abilities. I have been able to work with the 4 special students in this class. One of the boys doesn’t do well when it comes to reading and writing. He asks me to read words for him and doesn’t try if he is asked to do something he doesn’t know. I have asked him a few times to either read or answer a question and he shrugs his shoulders when he doesn’t know or says “no” even after I tell him to try. I don’t want to discourage him or push him further away, so I help him to read and spell. Another girl really has trouble understanding and working. She has great manners, but performs below grade level. She needs a lot of help and I try to assist her along with the other 15 students in the room, but I feel she needs someone constantly by her side. There are at least 4 higher performing students in my CT’s room. One boy asks for more difficult work, which is provided at times, because he feels like he already knows what his peers are currently learning and says it is easy. The other 3 students answer a lot of questions that are asked to the class, showing their understanding of the material and their good listening skills.
I’ve noticed that a lot of worksheets are used and group work is essential in this classroom. For group work, the students are placed with peers that are at the same level as them. This way, the higher students aren’t held back and the lower students aren’t made to feel inferior. Since a lot of worksheets are used, which is easier, the students don’t get many chances to do hands on learning in my opinion. I think they would like the latter better and more frequently, but of course it takes a lot of time to plan lessons and having too many hands on tasks could become too much to handle for teachers. For my lessons, I like to include games which I think students really like. Of course these are related to what they are learning. Even if I can’t have the students play games, I like to have them come up and show the class their understanding and ask students to explain themselves.
I have been able to teach more this past week, but of course I have a lot more to learn and improve on. I feel like since I am the newer, younger teacher in the room, the students try to take advantage of me being nice. I don’t mind helping them, but a lot of them call me for help and it gets to be too much sometimes. One boy in particular seems to be my “shadow”. If he can’t physically follow me, I’ve noticed he watches me around the room. He constantly wants my attention and help even for simple tasks. I don’t feel this is inappropriate behavior, but I think I should distance myself from him so he doesn’t become too dependent on me.
Week 5
In 5 weeks, the school has been closed 3 days due to the weather and there has been 1 early dismissal and 1 delayed opening. I feel like we are getting used to 3 day weekends, especially the students, who have been less focused the past 2 weeks. I wouldn’t mind a longer weekend, but it does affect my observation days. Like for this past observation on February 11th I didn’t get a chance to discuss my lesson in person with my CT until the day before my observation. I know I have to submit my lesson plans 48 hours in advance, but with school closings, it can be a challenge to plan out a lesson and get materials ready without prior approval from my CT. My CT has been understanding and I plan to give in the rest of my lesson plans on time.
On the subject of my observations, I felt like my 2nd one was okay. After my lesson, I realized I need to work on time management. More practicing teaching and writing lessons will help, but also if I don’t have to include so many different elements into my lessons. I think the 5Es are a lot to include in a 45 minute lesson and I don’t feel like I spend enough time on the last few sections. For my second math lesson on fractions, I felt like I rushed through the evaluation because I didn’t have enough time. However, I think the 3 games went well and the students seemed to enjoy it. Thanks to the setting I am in for student teaching, I can take advantage (in a good way) of having a lot of adults in the room. This helps for group work and also for helping as many students individually as possible.
My CT was out Wednesday and Thursday because of strep throat so I had a chance to run the class the whole day basically, with the help of substitutes and SPED teacher of course. Instructing the students most of day was definitely a challenge. Because there were no plans, the SPED teacher and I had to work with what we had. I looked up worksheets for the students on what they were currently learning, for example verb tenses. My CT had mentioned to me the week before that she wanted me to start taking over reading and if I could teach a lesson where the students had to interview a classmate. So, I wrote up a list of questions, put students into pairs, and had them ask these questions. We did this the first day and a little more on Thursday. Then I had them start writing a biography after we brainstormed some strong beginnings. The website, teacherpayteachers.com has become one of my favorite places to find ideas and materials.
Something I wanted to do while I had the chance was to let the students clean out their desks. I am glad I gave them time on Thursday to do so and according to some students, because they had more organized desks afterwards, they were better able to find what they needed when they needed it. This may be minor, but I think students should be given time in the middle of the year to clean and organize their desk and lockers. This way, their spaces won’t look like a hurricane went through it and they can easily find what they need and fit more.
Journal 6
During this past week of student teaching, I have been taking over a little bit more. I have given the students their spelling test for the 2nd time as well as taking over reading. I helped introduce cause and effect by defining what they are, giving examples, writing on an anchor chart, doing a shared reading, working with students individually and in their groups, etc. I have also made a handout on the topic I think the students could benefit from, but I haven’t had the chance to give it to them yet. Hopefully, I can give it to them this week. I have realized that it is not so difficult and actually fun to come up with one’s own handout/ worksheets. Although teacherspayteachers.com has become my favorite site recently, if I can’t find exactly what I am looking for, I can make up my own handout to introduce a topic and for the students to refer back to.
Since I do a lot of math with the students, I have been looking for fun ways to teach them. I know the students like games, even if they are educational, so I have found fraction games I think they would like and can still learn from. Again, teacherspayteachers.com has been a really good source for this, and I think I will eventually share some of my work on the site so others can use them as well! The site has a lot of great materials, many of which are free. I have found games that I think work well with the 3 leveled groups. I try to keep the students who need more attention in mind when looking for teaching materials, but also the higher performing students because I want them to learn something new as well.
When planning for instruction, I find that it helpful to write an outline rather than in boxes. I write what I want to say, questions I will ask, what I want the students to do, etc. Just like any lesson plan template, I include what I think is necessary, but without the rule that it has to be a certain amount of pages. I think having a plan in mind and written on paper is a good idea. Of course being flexible is a must for a teacher.
My first reading lesson for my 3rd observation went well in my opinion. Although there aren’t a lot of students in the class to begin with and even less that day, I still felt everything was fine. The students participated well and we accomplished what I wanted. It seemed like after a week of doing cause and effect, they are finally getting a hand on the subject. Time went by fast as it always does when one teaches, but I think I managed my time well. When working with my group of three, Tachanta’s behavior was a little discouraging. I thought she was mad at me for some reason so when I asked her later during gym, I was relieved to hear her say that she wasn’t mad, just tired. Working with students who put up barriers isn’t fun work, but they have to be brought back in eventually somehow.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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