Blog Number 5

I just finished my last day of tutoring on Tuesday the 1st. It was so disappointing because my teacher was out sick and all the students were split up into six different classrooms. I guess that is their alternative for not having a substitute. The kids seemed very stressed out, misplaced, and I assume really missing their teacher. Even though my last day did not go as planned, I found the whole experience very helpful and it really has prepared me for what to expect in a classroom setting. There was one day where the teacher had to run out of the classroom to go deal with a student who had wet her paints in class and she gave me a book to read. All the kids sat down on the alphabet rug and listened closely. It was a rhyming book that most kindergartners have in their class because it is a skill that is required to learn before 1st grade. I acted just like a teacher and I sat their reading one page, stoping, asking them what rhymed, describing the pictures, and moving on. Observing the teacher as she was teaching really helped because she is always questioning the students and getting them to critically think. Ira Shor, talks about this in his article "Education is Politics". He states that their is a curriculum that is forced apon the teacher and that the teacher must use her "teacher talk" to inforce it on the students. There are ways of simply just sitting their and teaching rhyming straight out just like a highschool teacher might do with a history book but my classroom teacher teaches in a way that is benefical to the students. She has all the students participate and gives each one a chance to share ther ideas just like I did when she gave me the oppurtunity to read that book. What I am going to teach in the future maybe decided for me but I will be able to make the decision on how to teach it that will make a difference in my classroom.
I also got some lessons on how to control the classroom by using the "can I have your attention please position" which is simply hands behind the back and looking at the teacher as well as how to disapline a child that did something inappropriate. One teacher I met in the school used a "put your head down method" and I remember doing this as a kid. I just think the only problem that this teacher was not doing in this particular class was not talking to them afterwards about why they did what they did and explaining to them that it was not ok. I took it upon myself to go over to the student and ask them what happend. They openly talked about how they jumped around in line and I just let them know that they were in trouble because their teacher does not want them to fall and get hurt. He understood. Communication is essential.
I learned that it is always important to stay organized and make sure that everything is set and ready for the students. I think an organized teacher is a better teacher because that way I can model that for my students. My teacher identity is slowly coming together but I still have a lot more to learn and I think being in the classroom is the best way.

Blog Number 4

I think it is important to understand your personal history and accept it the way it is in order to move forward and better understand others. After reading Browns article "In the Bad and Good of Girlhood" I could really relate to the middle class girls from Acadia. My highschool was in a very small town of mostly white people and therefore we were very segregated. Our parents all taught us how to be respectful, use our manners, and keep what we had to say to ourselves. Us ladies grew into very passive and secretly competitive adults that tried to best follow proper feminie ideals. There were a few in my school that seemed to be from Mansfield because they were rebellious, loud, demanded respect, and used their voices to really make point. This was seen as disobidient and not proper. They would often get in trouble and wonder around the hallways during class because they did not seem accepted in the classroom. As a soon to be teacher, I would try my best to talk to my students and develop relationships with them to make sure that we all understand each other in how we act and how we speak. I do not want how I grew up to influence how I teach because I think it is important for children to voice their opinions and stand up for what they think is right. Yes, my classroom needs to be controled but I want everyone to have a safe space to share their feelings when appropriate. As a student, I tend to keep my mouth shut if I dont like a teacher or I tell my mom when I call her in the afternoon and talk about them behind their back. This is something I would not like to see happen in my classroom because if im upsetting someone I would like to know why and what I can do to change that. It is necessary for myself to accept all students how they are. It is going to be challenging working with diverse groups of students sometimes because you can not always relate to their lives. The students could be a different race and speak a different language and practice different traditions at home. They maybe shy and quiet or loud and assertive. You never know what your going to get and what they are going to bring to the class. I have not really had any misconceptions about different cultural groups because I know already that all cultures and students themselves have something to offer.
The best reader in my kindergarten class is a little african american boy who can read everyone of his classmates names on envelopes as he passes them out. He has a lot of self motivation because he wants to learn how to read. He will sit with a book and pretend to read it just to push himself and his imagination. The only thing is that he has horrible behavior problems and gets in trouble atleast once a day. It is hard for me to understand what is going on in his mind but I believe that he may be so bored in the class and so frustrated that he is not being worked enough that he is acting out for attention. This is a wake up call for my future teaching because I know that I am going to have to understand all my students and accomodate each lesson for each individual so that this does not happen.