Over the course of these past few weeks, I have learned that the most important thing about being a teacher is being there for your students. Every student comes with a different set of needs and problems, and there is no one-size-fits-all for teaching. Each student needs individual attention, evaluation and care. If a teacher doesn't care for her students, there is no point in teaching them.
I have always known that if you don't care for something, you're not going to invest time or effort into that thing. It's the exact same with teaching. If a teacher doesn't take time to know her students both academically and personally, there is no way she can tutor them to reach their full potential. Without this love and respect in the classroom, a teacher isn't going to have patience or desire to teach any student.
I think all teacher need to make an effort to invest in their students more: play with them at recess, listen to them during breaks, most of all just get to know what is going on with their lives. The more a teacher invests in a student this way, the more teachable the student will become to the teacher.
Friday, March 7, 2014
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
The Substitute Teacher
On Monday, I went to Westridge Elementary where I thought I would be helping Ms. Gardiner with her second graders. Oh boy, was I wrong!!
Please consider these next few paragraphs a classroom management "What NOT to Do."
Ms. Gardiner was not feeling well that day, so naturally she called in a substitute. I don't think that this substitute had any experience with children, let alone second graders. After yelling at the students for twenty minutes for them to quiet down, she finally started math time. While she was explaining math, she managed to take a little boys paper and rip it up because he "started before she said it was okay." To discipline the children, she made two lists on the board. One was labeled "Keep up the Good Work," and the other was "You can do Better." Her exact words were, "Now you know if you've done something bad, and everyone else in the class knows too." She was awful! She even made a little boy cry because she wrote his name on the naughty list. What was worse is that she told the children there was no redemption, once they were on the naughty list there was nothing they could do to get on the nice list. It was terrible, she was so mean to the children!
Also, when that little boy started crying, she stopped the whole class on focused everyone on it. "Alejandro, WHY are YOU crying?" she snarled to what seemed like the whole class. I feel like this was not only inconsiderate to the student, but it probably also emotionally scarred him as well. Especially because she reprimanded him for crying in front of his friends. Even after the tears, Alejandro stayed on the naughty list for the rest of the time I was there.
Another incident happened when a little boy was called down to the office to be picked up. The sub wouldn't let him go until he told her that he was being checked out for a doctors appointment. I feel like the sub had no right to question this little boy or keep him from going to the office.
What was even weirder is that I told her I was only supposed to be there for an hour, and she timed me. TIMED ME. Every ten minutes she would come over to me and say "You only have this many minutes left here, so..." and then she would walk away and yell at the students some more. I got the feeling she definitely did not want me there for some reason, even though I was there to HELP HER. I was in the middle of helping a student with her math when the teacher announced to the class, "Okay everyone, Miss Young is leaving now, thank you Miss Young!" I was appalled. I finished helping the student and waved goodbye to the class. All of the students called out to me "Don't go Miss Young!! Please Stay!" at which point I received the dirtiest look from the sub.
I think that I have now seen the two sides of teaching. I am really glad that she is not their permanent teacher, and I'm sure that the kids are as well. The procedures the sub used were not effective in keeping the class focused and engaged. I felt like she was enforcing rules that not even the best second graders could have followed. Overall, it was a very different, eye-opening experience for me.
Please consider these next few paragraphs a classroom management "What NOT to Do."
Ms. Gardiner was not feeling well that day, so naturally she called in a substitute. I don't think that this substitute had any experience with children, let alone second graders. After yelling at the students for twenty minutes for them to quiet down, she finally started math time. While she was explaining math, she managed to take a little boys paper and rip it up because he "started before she said it was okay." To discipline the children, she made two lists on the board. One was labeled "Keep up the Good Work," and the other was "You can do Better." Her exact words were, "Now you know if you've done something bad, and everyone else in the class knows too." She was awful! She even made a little boy cry because she wrote his name on the naughty list. What was worse is that she told the children there was no redemption, once they were on the naughty list there was nothing they could do to get on the nice list. It was terrible, she was so mean to the children!
Also, when that little boy started crying, she stopped the whole class on focused everyone on it. "Alejandro, WHY are YOU crying?" she snarled to what seemed like the whole class. I feel like this was not only inconsiderate to the student, but it probably also emotionally scarred him as well. Especially because she reprimanded him for crying in front of his friends. Even after the tears, Alejandro stayed on the naughty list for the rest of the time I was there.
Another incident happened when a little boy was called down to the office to be picked up. The sub wouldn't let him go until he told her that he was being checked out for a doctors appointment. I feel like the sub had no right to question this little boy or keep him from going to the office.
What was even weirder is that I told her I was only supposed to be there for an hour, and she timed me. TIMED ME. Every ten minutes she would come over to me and say "You only have this many minutes left here, so..." and then she would walk away and yell at the students some more. I got the feeling she definitely did not want me there for some reason, even though I was there to HELP HER. I was in the middle of helping a student with her math when the teacher announced to the class, "Okay everyone, Miss Young is leaving now, thank you Miss Young!" I was appalled. I finished helping the student and waved goodbye to the class. All of the students called out to me "Don't go Miss Young!! Please Stay!" at which point I received the dirtiest look from the sub.
I think that I have now seen the two sides of teaching. I am really glad that she is not their permanent teacher, and I'm sure that the kids are as well. The procedures the sub used were not effective in keeping the class focused and engaged. I felt like she was enforcing rules that not even the best second graders could have followed. Overall, it was a very different, eye-opening experience for me.
Friday, February 21, 2014
Active Engagement!
So this blog actually has dual meaning, as I observed a teacher who actively engaged her students, and I am actively engaged right now! So fun!!
Anyway, on Thursday I had the opportunity to volunteer with a teacher who is absolutely amazing with keeping her students engaged. She uses "token towers" and when the kids earn thirty tokens they get a prize. When a kid is off task, she tells him or her that shes going to take a token. On the other hand, she awards tokens to students who are doing well in the class.
I have noticed that a reward system works the best with kids. The prizes are never big things, usually pretzels or goldfish crackers, but the kids love it!
Anyway, on Thursday I had the opportunity to volunteer with a teacher who is absolutely amazing with keeping her students engaged. She uses "token towers" and when the kids earn thirty tokens they get a prize. When a kid is off task, she tells him or her that shes going to take a token. On the other hand, she awards tokens to students who are doing well in the class.
I have noticed that a reward system works the best with kids. The prizes are never big things, usually pretzels or goldfish crackers, but the kids love it!
Friday, February 14, 2014
Double Trouble
This past week was so fun! I got to volunteer with the kids at Westridge AND the kids at Wasatch!! Each classroom is unique and comes with it's own challenges, but both classrooms have amazing teachers.
First, Ms. Gardiner is an amazing second grade teacher to the kids at Westridge. Her most important role she plays is supporting those kids and individually helping each one to learn.
Second, Mrs. Clark is so good working with the special education students at Wasatch. She is so good in keeping each student on task and teaching them specifically what they need to know.
I look up to both these teachers, I think the most important role they play is a friend to their students. Each student comes with their unique set of needs and flaws, but it is the role of the teachers to love and accept and teach each one.
First, Ms. Gardiner is an amazing second grade teacher to the kids at Westridge. Her most important role she plays is supporting those kids and individually helping each one to learn.
Second, Mrs. Clark is so good working with the special education students at Wasatch. She is so good in keeping each student on task and teaching them specifically what they need to know.
I look up to both these teachers, I think the most important role they play is a friend to their students. Each student comes with their unique set of needs and flaws, but it is the role of the teachers to love and accept and teach each one.
Friday, February 7, 2014
Monday 2/2/14
This past time volunteering I got to watch the teacher administer a test to a student who was falling behind in school. I also read questions to a student who could not read well, therefore had to have help during the test.
The teacher also told me about how she measures students progress. What she does is she has them take a pretest before she teaches the material, then she administers the same test after. This was a really good assessment of how the students learn the information, and it was extremely reliable.
Although this was an effective way of measuring progress, I feel like testing the students beforehand stressed them out more than necessary. One student refused completely to take the test because he couldn't handle not knowing any of the answers. So while this worked for some students, it did not work for all her students.
Overall it was a very interesting day for volunteering. I now know that tests make students more riled up and ready for recess.
Although this was an effective way of measuring progress, I feel like testing the students beforehand stressed them out more than necessary. One student refused completely to take the test because he couldn't handle not knowing any of the answers. So while this worked for some students, it did not work for all her students.
Overall it was a very interesting day for volunteering. I now know that tests make students more riled up and ready for recess.
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Westridge Elementary 01/27/14
Today was so fun!! I volunteered from 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm in a 2nd grade classroom with a teacher named Ms. Gardiner. I really enjoyed being with the kids for this long, I felt like I really learned a lot about classroom management. In this particular class, there are many kids whose first language isn't English.
To help these kids, Ms. Gardiner taught in a very visual manner. I especially commend her for having visual representations during math time. Math can be very difficult for 2nd graders, especially if they don't speak or understand english very well. I feel like showing the students instead of telling them is always a better teaching method, no matter what the subject is.
To help these kids, Ms. Gardiner taught in a very visual manner. I especially commend her for having visual representations during math time. Math can be very difficult for 2nd graders, especially if they don't speak or understand english very well. I feel like showing the students instead of telling them is always a better teaching method, no matter what the subject is.
Another approach taken was that after a concept was explained, the teacher would go around and help students individually with their work. I feel like one-on-one time is so beneficial for students, especially if they are learning english. Ms. Gardiner was so great at working with each student, I could tell that she really cared for each one and wanted them to succeed. I learned a lot from being in this class, and I can't wait to go again next Monday!!
Thursday, January 23, 2014
January 23, 2014 (Second Fieldwork experience)
Today I spent 12:30 to 2:30 at Wasatch Elementary, and I loved every minute of it! I spent the first hour reading with a students named Beckett, and he was so sweet and funny. After we passed off his reading (which took full hour) we moved on to math. Beckett has dyslexia, and it's extremely hard for him to organize letters and numbers in his mind. Words problems were extremely difficult for him, but we got through several before he had to leave to his regular class. During math time, besides working with Beckett, I worked with two other students named Esther and Eli. It was really exciting working with this small group, and they all had such personalities.
When Beckett left, I went and sat in a class with a down syndrome student named Andrew. He was so sweet, but it was really hard for him to focus, so I ended up taking him back to room 200 to do some homework.
This school is different than schools in earlier periods of history because it offers not only a program for disabled students, but it also offers a chinese program for chinese speaking students.
Overall it was a very fun day!
When Beckett left, I went and sat in a class with a down syndrome student named Andrew. He was so sweet, but it was really hard for him to focus, so I ended up taking him back to room 200 to do some homework.
This school is different than schools in earlier periods of history because it offers not only a program for disabled students, but it also offers a chinese program for chinese speaking students.
Overall it was a very fun day!
Friday, January 17, 2014
First Fieldwork Experience
Hello there! My name is Kimberly Young, I am a student at UVU, and I have recently had the opportunity to volunteer with some children at Wasatch Elementary! They were exceptional students, and I absolutely LOVED working with them. We did reading, spelling and learned rhyming words. After that the students had "computer time" where they did reading exercises. Overall it was a really great experience, those kids were so cute!! I cannot wait to go back next week and learn with them again.
It was so cool to see the different learning behaviors in the classroom. I saw a lot of different intelligences in this particular classroom. The teacher used visual and musical ways to teach the students, and the students really understood the material.
It seems to me that teachers are so busy all day! They are constantly running around, reading to students, spelling words and making sure everyone is paying attention. Being a teacher is a very demanding and stressful job, but teachers always seem so happy and fulfilled. I am very excited to become one someday.
It was so cool to see the different learning behaviors in the classroom. I saw a lot of different intelligences in this particular classroom. The teacher used visual and musical ways to teach the students, and the students really understood the material.
It seems to me that teachers are so busy all day! They are constantly running around, reading to students, spelling words and making sure everyone is paying attention. Being a teacher is a very demanding and stressful job, but teachers always seem so happy and fulfilled. I am very excited to become one someday.
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