Today I was able to go to art with the students. I was extremely happy about this. There is student artwork up on the walls all over the school! (p.s. the physical layout of the school is weird. really weird.) She had them finish up a project they were working on last time and then doing upside down drawings. I liked the way she ran class. She gave clear and concise directions at the beginning. Continually checked to see if the students were still on task. And constantly gave praise and recognition to all of the students. I loved it!
So today was the last day. I am a little sad about this. The kids were starting to let me in. I am really interested as to the reasoning for this. Why did the urban kids let me in so early? Because of their upbringing and life or because they were in kindergarten and were 5 years old? I wish we could have done both ages in both settings. It would make interpreting all of this, hopefully, some what easier. When I left today, one of the girls that gave me the most trouble gave me a hug. This really surprised me. I was not expecting this by any means at all. It feels good that she felt a connection to me. I know that she learned many things through me. I do hope that at some point I can go back and see those kids again.
The teacher went over her evaluation of me time in her classroom with me. I was extremely surprised at the scores I received and the comments she made at the end. I know that I was acting in a professional manner and was not doing anything different than I have in any other time spent in a classroom, but I did not feel as welcomed by this teacher. (Today there was a speaker. She told me like 4 minutes before we left. My urban teacher would have told me on Monday. Sometimes I feel like a high school student in there.) It causes me to wonder about what messages the students are receiving from her. If I, as an adult, feel as if she is not fond of me, when later she tells me that she really is and WANTS me to come back, what are the children feeling? How are these mixed messages affecting their education and in turn their life? I have enjoyed my time here at the local school. It was most definitely a completely different experience than my urban immersion. I still believe that urban is where I would like to end up teaching. I guess we will have to wait and see!! It is about the children -- their educations, their futures, and their lives -- not me and what I want.
Monday, March 3, 2008
February 28, 2008: Seventh Day of Local
Okay, so today I went to physical education and music again with the kids. Some interesting things happened.
Phy. Ed.
So, today the teacher had the kids play a couple different games. When she was done explaining them, she asked me "Mrs. Anderson" if I could do something. The kids all went "that's not Mrs. Anderson, that's Miss Sinnen." The teacher apologized and then asked me if I could do what she originally asked. While I did not mind that she got confused and called me by a different name, I understand that we are only in the schools for a short period of time, the thing that troubles me is that Mrs. Anderson is the Para for of the boys in the classroom. She is with him every moment of everyday. Has the gym teacher never noticed that one student does not follow the rest of the directions and has an aid with him at all times? She later apologized to me when the students were playing and told me that she met Mrs. Anderson the day before during the party when it was dark and therefore did get a good look at her. This really causes me to wonder. One of the first things that I noticed was that one student clearly was in special education. This was apparent in many ways -- he speech pattern, his physical habits, his social skills, his emotional level and the fact that he had a Para with him at all times. I do know understand how the physical education teacher could have just met this woman. I have no idea why or how this could happen and I cannot even begin to imagine all of the possible affects this has on the students. The students who receive special education as well as the "other" students. What is else is she missing?
Because of the confusion she asked me "Not to be rude but, what exactly are you doing here?" I told her that her question was completely fine and explained our class and the goals and objectives for it -- that we are learning about diversity and all that it entails within the classroom. She looked at me perplexed and then looked at the class playing Turkey Shoot. She then asked me why I was at that school. I told her that we were comparing teaching techniques and styles between urban and local, diverse and "un-diverse", here and there. We then began talking about this idea and the entire concept of teaching to different types of children. She told me that taking a look at special education and teaching to a diverse study body in that aspect is something that should be looked at with my local school. This conversation with her caused me to further think about what all "diversity" entails.
It also made me wonder how she had never met a special education teacher but realized the prevalence of the program in her school.
Music.
Okay, so the teacher yesterday was a substitute. Good. Right?! Well, until the real teacher asks me about how yesterday went and how the teacher explained things and I, in a nice and professional manner, told her that it was unclear as to what they were suppose to do. I also told her that I would have explained what the song meant because they children were not seeing the point. Grain = cereal. Giggles. She then told me that the substitute the day before was her daughter. Yeah. Foot in mouth. So then, I watch carefully how she ran the classroom. While she seemed to have more of the students’ attention and respect, she didn’t really seem to have a point either. It was still like the students were leading her down the path instead of the other way around.
Tomorrow is my last day. Right when I am starting to feel almost at home here, I need to leave.
We played set again today...I won.....by lots!!!
Phy. Ed.
So, today the teacher had the kids play a couple different games. When she was done explaining them, she asked me "Mrs. Anderson" if I could do something. The kids all went "that's not Mrs. Anderson, that's Miss Sinnen." The teacher apologized and then asked me if I could do what she originally asked. While I did not mind that she got confused and called me by a different name, I understand that we are only in the schools for a short period of time, the thing that troubles me is that Mrs. Anderson is the Para for of the boys in the classroom. She is with him every moment of everyday. Has the gym teacher never noticed that one student does not follow the rest of the directions and has an aid with him at all times? She later apologized to me when the students were playing and told me that she met Mrs. Anderson the day before during the party when it was dark and therefore did get a good look at her. This really causes me to wonder. One of the first things that I noticed was that one student clearly was in special education. This was apparent in many ways -- he speech pattern, his physical habits, his social skills, his emotional level and the fact that he had a Para with him at all times. I do know understand how the physical education teacher could have just met this woman. I have no idea why or how this could happen and I cannot even begin to imagine all of the possible affects this has on the students. The students who receive special education as well as the "other" students. What is else is she missing?
Because of the confusion she asked me "Not to be rude but, what exactly are you doing here?" I told her that her question was completely fine and explained our class and the goals and objectives for it -- that we are learning about diversity and all that it entails within the classroom. She looked at me perplexed and then looked at the class playing Turkey Shoot. She then asked me why I was at that school. I told her that we were comparing teaching techniques and styles between urban and local, diverse and "un-diverse", here and there. We then began talking about this idea and the entire concept of teaching to different types of children. She told me that taking a look at special education and teaching to a diverse study body in that aspect is something that should be looked at with my local school. This conversation with her caused me to further think about what all "diversity" entails.
It also made me wonder how she had never met a special education teacher but realized the prevalence of the program in her school.
Music.
Okay, so the teacher yesterday was a substitute. Good. Right?! Well, until the real teacher asks me about how yesterday went and how the teacher explained things and I, in a nice and professional manner, told her that it was unclear as to what they were suppose to do. I also told her that I would have explained what the song meant because they children were not seeing the point. Grain = cereal. Giggles. She then told me that the substitute the day before was her daughter. Yeah. Foot in mouth. So then, I watch carefully how she ran the classroom. While she seemed to have more of the students’ attention and respect, she didn’t really seem to have a point either. It was still like the students were leading her down the path instead of the other way around.
Tomorrow is my last day. Right when I am starting to feel almost at home here, I need to leave.
We played set again today...I won.....by lots!!!
February 27, 2008: Sixth Day of Immersion
Today I went to physical education and music with the kids. Where do I even begin?
Phy. Ed.
The teacher is very excited to be around the kids. It is easy to see that she has a passion for her job. However, there is no order or control within her classroom. The students are well aware of the fact that they can walk all over her and get away with it....so they do! Today was "Jump Rope for Heart Day" so the students were having a party. The students were either to jump rope with the small ropes by themselves, with the large rope together, or dance under the disco ball. Oh yeah, all the lights were off, there were disco balls going and there was 70's music playing. After about 15 minutes of mass chaos, the teacher turned on the lights and asked the kids if they were doing one of the options. She then re-listed the options. This is when I learned what the options were. At the beginning of class, I guess she stated these options, but I never heard her. I heard her talking but she was not making any sense to me. She turned off the lights and the students did what they were supposed to be doing for about....a minute, and then went back to what they were doing. Class ended 15 minutes later. I want to know how that class pertained to jumping rope for heart.
Music
So, music was chaos as well. It feels as if the students have no respect for the teachers. The music teacher had them fill out this song sheet. It was changing the words to 'O, Beautiful' so that they could better understand the words to the song. She split them into small groups, handed them the worksheet, told them that they could just figure it out themselves, and that in a little bit they would be performing their new version to the class. The kids did not understand the directions by any means. Many of them also did not understand the point of what they were doing. While they understood the concept of synonyms and knew that the words were examples of synonyms, they still did not understand what the song as a whole was saying. There are many, if not all, aspects of this lesson plan that I would change. The kids did not sing their songs to the rest of the class because they ran out of time. I do not know if I have ever seen a less productive and chaotic class in my life.
Phy. Ed.
The teacher is very excited to be around the kids. It is easy to see that she has a passion for her job. However, there is no order or control within her classroom. The students are well aware of the fact that they can walk all over her and get away with it....so they do! Today was "Jump Rope for Heart Day" so the students were having a party. The students were either to jump rope with the small ropes by themselves, with the large rope together, or dance under the disco ball. Oh yeah, all the lights were off, there were disco balls going and there was 70's music playing. After about 15 minutes of mass chaos, the teacher turned on the lights and asked the kids if they were doing one of the options. She then re-listed the options. This is when I learned what the options were. At the beginning of class, I guess she stated these options, but I never heard her. I heard her talking but she was not making any sense to me. She turned off the lights and the students did what they were supposed to be doing for about....a minute, and then went back to what they were doing. Class ended 15 minutes later. I want to know how that class pertained to jumping rope for heart.
Music
So, music was chaos as well. It feels as if the students have no respect for the teachers. The music teacher had them fill out this song sheet. It was changing the words to 'O, Beautiful' so that they could better understand the words to the song. She split them into small groups, handed them the worksheet, told them that they could just figure it out themselves, and that in a little bit they would be performing their new version to the class. The kids did not understand the directions by any means. Many of them also did not understand the point of what they were doing. While they understood the concept of synonyms and knew that the words were examples of synonyms, they still did not understand what the song as a whole was saying. There are many, if not all, aspects of this lesson plan that I would change. The kids did not sing their songs to the rest of the class because they ran out of time. I do not know if I have ever seen a less productive and chaotic class in my life.
February 26, 2008: Fifth Day of Local
I know that it is bad to compare/judge people but I feel as if apart of this class is doing just that. Taking a very close look at what works and what doesn't work and why between different students and different teachers. Something that I have noticed that is significantly different from the urban schools is the amount of recognition or praise that the students receive. I do not know if it is because of the location of the schools, the teaching theories of the teachers, or the diversity factor but the students in my local immersion classroom receive little to no praise when something is completed correctly. If praise is given it is given in a different manner than was given in the local schools. The teacher is not as peppy or excited as the urban teacher. It causes me to ponder why this is. Maybe it is the teaching theories of the teacher. But maybe one location attracts a certain kind of theory for the diversity factor there. Maybe the teaching theory of my local teacher would change if she began teaching in an urban school. Or maybe the teaching theory of the urban teaching would change if she began teaching in a rural environment. It forces me to wonder if the location attracts the type of teacher or the teachers are just different because they are.
Do the children in the urban schools need more praise and recognition than the rural students?
Do the teachers simply have a different teaching technique?
Why does one "type" of teacher teach in one area?
I wish that we could have been immersed in more than once classroom in each location. Maybe in different schools in each location.
Is there a right way to teach within a certain environment?
Is there a right way to teach in ALL environments?
Does a teacher change/adapt to the environment or does the environment adapt to the teacher?
Sometimes I feel as if my local teacher is....almost annoyed with me. She is never mean or rude to me but I often feel as if I am more of in her way than helping/aiding her. If I feel this way, how do her students feel? How is this affecting their education? Their self-esteem?
Do the children in the urban schools need more praise and recognition than the rural students?
Do the teachers simply have a different teaching technique?
Why does one "type" of teacher teach in one area?
I wish that we could have been immersed in more than once classroom in each location. Maybe in different schools in each location.
Is there a right way to teach within a certain environment?
Is there a right way to teach in ALL environments?
Does a teacher change/adapt to the environment or does the environment adapt to the teacher?
Sometimes I feel as if my local teacher is....almost annoyed with me. She is never mean or rude to me but I often feel as if I am more of in her way than helping/aiding her. If I feel this way, how do her students feel? How is this affecting their education? Their self-esteem?
February 25, 2008: Fourth Day of Local
Conferences are tonight and tomorrow night. Because of that, I helped the teacher file and sort paper work into each student's folder. It was interesting to see the trends in each subject area within the class and trends within each student’s achievement. Most if not all of the morning is focused on writing and reading skills. I am told that every afternoon there is a math lesson. I know that they have science units because they were finishing up the sound unit the first few days I was in the classroom. However, I do not know how daily or consistently these other subjects occur. I know a lot of emphasis is given to the language arts portion of the curriculum. The teacher and I had a lengthy conversation covering their math curriculum. According to the teacher it is an advanced curriculum. While it is challenging for the majority, some students are left struggling. Overall, the teacher feels as if it is a good program for her specific class and for this specific school. She spoke of how repetition only works for so long. There comes a point when a student is not going understanding the concept at this given time. There comes a point when the class needs to move on mastery of the subject can be obtained at a later time. The teacher feels as if this program is a good balance between the students who excel and need to be challenged and those who struggle and have difficulties with grasping concepts.
Today I learned this new game during snack time. It is called set and is a rather challenging game! It was fun to play. I was kind of bad at it today. The kids thoroughly enjoyed this. Hopefully tomorrow we will get a chance to play and I can possibly beat them.
Oh, and one female student today stated that she wasn't going to wear her glasses because she looked stupid in them and only weird people wear glasses. I am wearing mine tomorrow!!
Today I learned this new game during snack time. It is called set and is a rather challenging game! It was fun to play. I was kind of bad at it today. The kids thoroughly enjoyed this. Hopefully tomorrow we will get a chance to play and I can possibly beat them.
Oh, and one female student today stated that she wasn't going to wear her glasses because she looked stupid in them and only weird people wear glasses. I am wearing mine tomorrow!!
February 20, 2008: Third day of Local
Today, I was able to lead a read-aloud. All week long, the teacher is having adults from different areas of the building come and do read-alouds to the students because it is "I Love to Read Week." I like this idea a lot. I think it is helpful for the kids to see that reading is something that everyone does -- It is not just an activity done within the classroom and for homework. Reading is a beneficial thing for anyone with any kind of job at any point in life. The teacher wanted us to read one of our favorite childhood stories to the students so I read Love You Forever. I absolutely LOVE this book!! I believe that there are so many messages and deeper meanings in the pages if one only looks at it closer. The actually reading time went really well. The teacher was out of the room when it "was time" for me to read, so I just took control and told the kids to come and sit on the floor in front of where I was going to read the story. The kids all listened well and came and sat on the floor in a relatively reasonable fashion. I read the story. When the story was done the teacher asked me if I had read the story as a child and why I enjoyed it. I answered her. There was no interaction between the story and the students. There was no time for their interpretation, input or thought. I do not like this. I believe that even if it is a story simply read for enjoyment purposes, the students should still be able to say anything that is on their minds when the story finishes.
Overall, the day went fairly well. The teacher gives me a lot of opportunity for giving direction to the students and having large group guidance. I also bring them to music, physical education, and art. The kids are not quite listening to me yet, but they are also not completely disobeying me like they were before. I still favor urban. I do not know if it is the urban factor, or the specific experience. This weekend is long weekend for the college. I will not be with the students again for a little under a week. We shall see what happens then!!
Overall, the day went fairly well. The teacher gives me a lot of opportunity for giving direction to the students and having large group guidance. I also bring them to music, physical education, and art. The kids are not quite listening to me yet, but they are also not completely disobeying me like they were before. I still favor urban. I do not know if it is the urban factor, or the specific experience. This weekend is long weekend for the college. I will not be with the students again for a little under a week. We shall see what happens then!!
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
February 19, 2008: 2nd day at local
Okay, so local experience is a lot different than urban and I do not like it. I do not know if it is the specific classes, or the specific teachers or if it is because I like urban schools better, but I do not like the local immersion. My cooperating teacher is very organized and has everything planned out, but she does not include or inform me on these plans. She just goes. She will say, 'Here, take these kids and lead them in this activity,' when I haven't even read the activity yet.
Overall, I feel as if the school as a whole is not nearly as welcoming. I do not know if this is due to the diversity factor or the fact that one is public and the other is private. The fact that the urban school is more welcoming than the rural school goes against my prior preconceptions. I do not know what to make of this. I believe that the diversity factor plays a role in why the urban school was more welcoming. A part of the mission of the school is to be welcoming and accepting of all. The rural school does not have this component to it's education. This frustrates me. I do not know if it is because of the diversity or the fact that it is a private catholic school. I wish we could have gone to a public and a private school in the urban and in the rural. It would help in taking a closer look at the reasonings schools have for certain decision.
Today, the students had AR time as soon as I got there. Then a custodian came in and read a picture book for 'I Love to Read Week.' Then I lead a small group in reading a book on Chinese Immigration. Two of the students told me that "Chinese people do not matter. We don't even need to read this book anyway." I was shocked. I understand that there is almost no diversity in St. Joe, but really?! Then the kids went to Phy. Ed. and Music. So I was actually with them for like an hour. sweet. Hopefully tomorrow will be better! I get to read one of my favorite books: Love You Forever by Robert Munsch. I'm excited for that!!
Overall, I feel as if the school as a whole is not nearly as welcoming. I do not know if this is due to the diversity factor or the fact that one is public and the other is private. The fact that the urban school is more welcoming than the rural school goes against my prior preconceptions. I do not know what to make of this. I believe that the diversity factor plays a role in why the urban school was more welcoming. A part of the mission of the school is to be welcoming and accepting of all. The rural school does not have this component to it's education. This frustrates me. I do not know if it is because of the diversity or the fact that it is a private catholic school. I wish we could have gone to a public and a private school in the urban and in the rural. It would help in taking a closer look at the reasonings schools have for certain decision.
Today, the students had AR time as soon as I got there. Then a custodian came in and read a picture book for 'I Love to Read Week.' Then I lead a small group in reading a book on Chinese Immigration. Two of the students told me that "Chinese people do not matter. We don't even need to read this book anyway." I was shocked. I understand that there is almost no diversity in St. Joe, but really?! Then the kids went to Phy. Ed. and Music. So I was actually with them for like an hour. sweet. Hopefully tomorrow will be better! I get to read one of my favorite books: Love You Forever by Robert Munsch. I'm excited for that!!
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