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And thats all for this week,
Ms. Brookes
![]() As the semester comes to a close, I can't help but look back at the beginning of my experience with the residency and how it has begun to shape me into the person I've always wanted to be. I can honestly say that being accepted into UTRPP has changed my view of being a teacher and everything that goes into preparing to become a teacher to leading a classroom on your own. Each day it has seemed that I've discovered that there is another skill to master! Teaching, it seems, takes practice in every aspect like making copies or the language you use when teaching a lesson. This semester linked together literacy, classroom management, literature, and a child's development. Each class connected to each other, what we learned in emergent literacy was reiterated in children's literature, both classes sparked a love for literature and how much importance it holds in children's lives. We learned that literature has a powerful affect on students, its a wonderful starter for a unit or way to expose children to the vocabulary they need to grow. In classroom management and child development we learned the reasoning behind why children misbehave and how our teaching styles play a large role in how our classroom runs. As the days start counting down to when the semester ends, I find myself wondering how the time went by so quickly and while I'll enjoy the time off of school I know I'll miss my second grade babies. And thats all for this week, Ms. Brookes
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![]() Veterans day, fall festival, and more caffeine than healthy, oh my! In about two more weeks, (three if you count Thanksgiving!) the first semester of my teaching career will be complete. Just a few months ago, I was a confused and frightened resident cautiously entering a classroom full of other equally confused and worried students. I'll admit that some days I'm still that confused and frightened intern, but more often than not my head is swimming with all kinds of thoughts of classes, homework, and my babies. (My second graders!) This week in seminar we finished up Letters to a Young Teacher by Jonathan Kozol, the last few chapters touched on what happens to students after they leave the safety of elementary school. I can't help but think about my sweet second graders and what will happen to them when they leave the safety of our classroom. Some, I know, will continue to flourish and do well in school, one or two could even become famous because of how much talent they already possess. Some will not do well in the upper level grades, my friend who tends to make learning each day an interesting experience worries me the most. I know that the students attempts to physically harm my CT or the other students will one day become a safety hazard and negative consequences could come from the inability to control the frustration and anger that occurs. When I got to thinking about what my students will be up to when they are no longer in the same school, I was finishing up a PLC project that included a article about flooding students with vocabulary. It has been researched that students who are exposed to a wide variety of words before they enter school are able to get ahead in learning while students who haven't been exposed fall behind and never catch up typically. And thats all for this week! Ms. Brookes ![]() This week went by so quickly and at the same time was very productive. My CT put me in charge of the bulletin boards that sit outside our classroom, I will start decorating the door and the boards. I am now taking the lead of morning work and the bulletin boards, some might say that its not that exciting but for me it allows me to become more integrated into the classroom. My friend (student) who keeps us on our toes most days was suspended on the day of our awards ceremony, our classroom felt relaxed and I was able to sit through an assembly. Tuesday was an incredible day of learning and I was sad to leave. On Wednesday, I was able to remain in my classroom for the whole school day since my classroom management class was cancelled. I'm always amazed to see how excited my students get about getting to sit next to me during lunch or just getting to spend some extra time with me. Even though we didn't have management class this week, we still had some very helpful readings that spoke about how teachers can nonverbally stop a negative behavior. I was able to use some of the strategies from the chapter, the chapter described ignoring the behavior to see if the student will self correct, then giving the students the "look" or as we call it "the teacher look". If both of those don't work, the teacher can stand near the student to see if proximity will help the student self correct the behavior. The last resort is to place a hand on the students shoulder or tap the student. (The author spoke about knowing your students because some students do not like being touched and will react negatively or violently.) The useful part was that all of these can be used while the teacher is teaching, the lesson won't be disrupted and attention doesn't have to be drawn to the student. I was able to use these while I was leading or while my CT was teaching, it was effective with students who were just misbehaving because their 8 years old and just needed a little movement or lost focus. This tactics were not effective, however, with students who knew better but chose to misbehave because they were seeking attention. When ever a student acts out, I try my best to apply what we've learned about in my educational psychology class. This week in educational psychology class we spoke about instructional approaches and I found that I struggle with wanting to have a teacher-centered classroom or a student-centered classroom. I want to be a direct instructor but at the same time be able to let my students "swim" at points because letting the students figure things out on their own is what works best. I believe that the younger students (Kindergarden through second grade) might benefit from a teacher-centered classroom rather than a student-centered. It should be a gradual release of responsibility, as the students age they begin to become more accountable for their schooling and how they learn. In seminar, we're doing a book study on Letters to a Young Teacher by Jonathan Kozol. I was the co-facilitator this week with another intern. I discovered that almost nothing gets a teacher fired up more than the legislation passed about education and students not being pushed to their full potential. It always seems to lead back to legislation, the main issues in education, and my classmates an I spend copious amounts of time trying to problem solve the issues that seem to be crippling us. I'm interested in seeing how the last few chapters play out and also how the discussion flows. And that's all for this week, Ms. Brookes ![]() This week was emotional, both in class and in interning. We had a school wide Book-O-Ween, where students and teachers alike dress as characters out of a book. My class choose Superhero ABC by Bob McLeod, which was fun watching the students create capes with the letter they choose on it was adorable. We were hopeful that one of our students would be able to handle the walk but in the end was watched by the deputy of the school to make sure nothing would happen during our pep rally. It was a small hiccup during the day and I was more than glad to get to seminar that afternoon. Nothing could have prepared me for the emotional time that hour would be, it was humbling to see that my classmates are struggling with the same things I'm struggling with. Its truly an amazing feeling to know that I have an incredible group of people standing behind me ready to help or listen or support me through anything. I was also very excited to take the lead on Friday in my classroom because my CT was absent. I have never been so tired or thrilled about becoming a teacher. The last couple weeks in Emergent Literacy we've been working in professional learning communities and reading articles that give strategies that will help our individual learner with the struggles they have. My group works on fluency and vocabulary, the articles I choose to read were written by Stahl and Brabham. The Brabham article spoke at length about flooding students with vocabulary words, whether it be by reading a loud or having students read it in pieces for classwork. This related to our education psychology class which spoke about learning strategies, some of which include taking notes and help children to train in methods of doing tasks. The week was a light reading week, and I struggled with trying to find works that we read this week and to connect them to other classes. |
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