#7 teaching

I absolutely love going into my classroom and I look forward to it every single week. I feel as though I made a lot of progress not only in my teaching but in improving these students lives. I worked with my two students every week on Dolch words which are simple words that the student should know quickly just by looking at them. These students shouldn't need to sounds out these words. At first my students did not know any of the words. I worked with my students every week on these words and they were tested again last week on the words and knew almost all of them. The reading coach was very happy with the progress my studnets had made. I also worked with them on phonemic awareness. I feel as though they have majorly improved and I am so very proud of them. I have also worked with second grade and fifth grade and it is very interesting for me to see how the students are behaved differently. I do not know if the teacher maks the difference or if it is the age but I feel like the fifth graders were so respectful of their teachers while the younger grades were not. I think that I am not sure what grade I would like to teach if I decide to become a teacher. All grades have there ups and downs. I think that I have learned patience and respect for different cultures throughout this experience. I learned how to keep a students attention even when it was extremely difficult. I learned that yelling is not fun for any teacher but sometimes it is nessecary. I think that this experience has been great for me and I am sad that this semester is ending.

#5 parents

There are many problems that I might encounter when dealing with students parents. I might have a differnt language, class, or ethnic background than my students. If the parent feels like I am not on the same level as they are when it comes to those particular issues then it might be harder for me to communicate with them. Some parents also think that their children can do no wrong so if a teacher calls to tell a students parent about an issue in the classroom the parent might automatically blame the teacher.
I think it is hard for some teachers to really learn how to communicate with the parents of their students. However, I think the best possible thing to do is to make sure they see all sides of the story and try to have respect for the parents. If a student is doing poorly in school it might be direct effect of something that is happening at home. I always worry that a student would be in an abusive household and would get in major trouble at home because of the teachers phone call home. I think that the safety of the student is extremely important and hopefully they are always safe.
I would deal with phone calls to the parents by always trying to mention the great things about their child before I mention any problems the child might be having. I would not show these problems as the child is a horrible person who I do not like having in my class. I would try to make sure that the parent knows that they have a wonderful child who brings so much to the classroom but who just needs some help in certain areas.

#2 culture

The classrooms that I go into are mainly filled with students who are hispanic or African Americn. They bring another language and a specific culture to the school. Some students in the classroom can not speak any english yet so it is a relief for the teachers to have other students in the classroom who can act as translators. I work with two children who I believe are both from hispanic decent. They are extremely smart students who like to work hard and seem to care a lot about learning. I also work in a second grade classroom and help the teacher with her students when they go into groups. I usually like to work with the reading group who individually read books to the other students in the classroom. The first time I worked with these students I was unaware that some students in the classroom could not speak any english. I was trying to help a little boy read and could not understand why he would not answer any of my questions. His friend told me that he was unable to speak any english and that little boy helped his friend to communicate with me. This was so moving to me that even at such a young age these students cared so much about helping one another. I think that this will stengthen our society by having amazing students working together to make sure everyone feels included and welcomed. I think that these students really inspired me to try and always help anyone if I can.

#1 Visits to My School

My first few visits at my school were just basically learning about the school and how the first grade classrooms functioned. Since I was not assigned to my classroom yet I decided to wait a little while on my first blog. This past Friday I was finally assigned to my children. I worked with two different kids at two seperate times. I first worked with a boy. I went over phonetic awareness games with him and also tested him on his ability to find the sounds at the beginning of words. We played a game called slowpoke slide where he would get an image of a pig and would slide the image down the slide while saying all the sounds in pig. I told the coach later that I thought he could handle harder words. I then worked with a girl. She was in an ESL classroom and was not as advanced as the boy. I also worked with her on phonetic awareness. We played a different game. We played a game where I would show her an image and she would have to find out the first sound in the word. She would then place the image on the train which started with that sound. So the pig image would go on the p train. I thought she could also be given harder words. I found that working with these kids I have come to realize that any child can be smart as long as they are given proper attention. These were two children that the school said needed extra help but I thought they knew so much more than they were given credit for. This week I am planning on staying later to help out with a second grade class as well. I am looking forward to it. I went onto the infoworks website and looked up my school. I was expecting the ethnicity to be exactly what it was. My school is mainly Hispanic and African American students. I was a little surprised to find out my school is not very advanced at all. They seem to be far behind in a lot of areas.

Wind-Wolf

I thought this story was a great explanation about the differences in cultures and how a child could seem to be slow but is actually not in a different environment. I feel like this related to our classroom discussion because Wind- Wolf was raised in an Indian household where he was raised differently and taught different things. When he was brought into a "white" school he did not know all the things typical "white" children knew. This made him seem dumb or slow to the teacher. This is how children who come from different cultures, such as Hispanic, Native American, or African American must feel when they enter a classroom that is being taught as if they were all raised in white homes.

Brand New

Hey. I'm Jana and I'm in Odile Mattiauda's FNED class on Wednesday at 4:00 to 7:50. So far I have only been to one class and it was a fun class. Two teachers came in and talked to us about teaching children to read. It was strange for me to go back to when I was a little kid and trying to learn how to correctly make sounds to be able to speak. It was interesting for me to learn more about the human brain and the way people learn and think. So far I am really enjoying this class and I am looking forward to start my hours at a school. This is exciting! =]