Student Teaching Journals 7-9

I am going to continue sharing these journals here (since I can go back and read them).  For more info. on what these journals are and to read  previous journals, please click here http://sfraww.blogspot.com/search/label/Teaching

Week 7

I only went to the school on Tuesday and Wednesday last week, but I have learned a lot in 2 days. I taught the whole morning on Wednesday and I realized I need to work on my classroom management skills. I feel like since I am the youngest teacher (by age and looks) that works with the students, they have become too comfortable with me so they don’t take me as seriously as they should. They do respect me and we get along fine, but I have found that I have to repeat myself a lot to get all the students attention and sometimes I have to even raise my already loud voice, which I don’t want to do, especially with a sore throat.

There is always going to be at least one student who gives teachers a hard time, and there is one student who likes to push my patience. I try hard to be patient with him, but sometimes it becomes annoying and very distracting, to me and others. This boy in particular and another girl are very clever. They can tell if I am being sarcastic, when I am not impressed with the class’s behavior, what their teacher’s intentions are, etc. It is amazing how fast some of these 3rd graders are growing mentally compared to when I was there age. 

Because I am teaching a lot more now, I have to frequently freshen up my content knowledge. It has been about 12 years since I was a 3rd grader so I obviously don’t remember everything I learned. I don’t mind having to refresh my memory, but it does take some time and teaching does help. I can’t imagine what it will be like when it comes time for me to teach all day every day in the future!

The past week has been a little overwhelming. I am halfway done with student teaching and the initial excitement has honestly faded. It takes A LOT of hard work, time, dedication, and love for teaching to actually be a teacher. I hear some teachers complain about students, other teachers, what they have to teach, etc. and it is discouraging. I have wanted to be a teacher since I was in 4th grade and many times I have been told to consider another career. I have stuck with the decision so far and I don’t want to regret it, but with a lot of distractions and things not going as smoothly in the classroom as I had hoped for, it is sad that I am looking forward to a break.

Week 8

My fourth observation this week didn’t go as well as my last reading lesson in my opinion. Now that I am teaching all day, I had other things on my mind and not just my observation, so I don’t think I was as focused. I also didn’t have my printed lesson close by so I couldn’t go back to see if I was sticking to my plan. As a result, I forgot a few things and did some out of order. I might be too hard on myself, but it was nice to hear good feedback from others!

I worked with a few lower performing students one day for math this past week and really enjoyed it! I was helping them subtract using 3 digit numbers and after a while, they seemed to get it. I was really proud of them and I let them know to encourage them to continue. Another student wanted to join our little group so he came over too. I didn’t think I could work well and enjoy teaching classified students because it requires A LOT of patience. However, I think I might work with these students again when it comes time to centers in math!

A higher performing student in class asked me during the week to give him some improper fractions on a number line after I had given his group fraction task cards for a review. Improper fractions are not in the standards for 3rd graders but it was a PARCC practice question. He constantly asked me during the week, so I finally came up with a few problems for him. He was really happy and enjoyed the challenge. When planning for instruction, I need to keep in mind the high performing students so I find work for them that is challenging and fun.

Due to PARCC this week and not being a proctor, I was able to observe a 2nd grade class on Thursday and a 4th grade class on Friday. The 2nd grade class was nice and roomy, had colorful anchor charts around the room, convenient storage space for backpacks, work displayed around the room, and a lot of books! While in the 2nd grade class, I was asked to cover for 2 neighboring teachers for a few minutes so I was able to see more classes. The students in all the rooms were extremely open and friendly, which was pleasant. The 4th grade class had a lot of students in the room and I didn’t like the setup of the desks. I sat at the back to get some work done, but I did watch the students and teachers during two lessons.

There are only 6 more weeks of student teaching left! Although my time is short and has been enjoyable for the most part, I am really looking forward to a nice long break before having my own classroom next September. Being with 3rd graders this semester and kindergarten for practicum, I came to the conclusion that at least for the first year or two of being a full time teacher, I prefer to work with the youngest elementary students. I feel like I could better manage them and would have little to complain about. I would eventually teach 3-6th grade students, but I plan to start with kindergarten.

Week 9

My first social studies lesson the past week went well in my opinion. Besides the fact that I couldn’t get the students to interact with my review “game”, I was pleased with my lesson overall. I ended on time and got everything on my lesson plan done. The students were a little lost in the beginning even though directions were provided verbally and written down, but that day was the first for them to get with new partners and move around in stations for the lap books. The students are not used to having social studies right after homeroom, so they were all over the place before my lesson as well. 

Taken out for personal reasons.

My relationship with most of the students has been going well as usual. However, one student has been pushing my patience for a while now and he went a little too far last week. He made a really disrespectful comment to me in front of a few students and I couldn’t let him slide like I did in the past (when he tried to trip me and made a rude comment related to my head covering). I tried to ignore his comment this time, but he kept talking to get a reaction out of me. When I did confront him as polite as I could, he was really surprised and tried to act innocent when students around him heard and told me what he said. After what I said to him, he got the message that I won’t tolerate his rude comments anymore and he needs to control his mouth. With only 24 more days left, I want them to go well like they did in the first few weeks.