Placement+1+Week+3+Experience

Week of February 1st, 2010

2/1/10

Boy, today was a real learning experience in Kristy's room. I know you can't really pick your students, and honestly, if you don't build good rapport and use good class management skills any class could be a room full of misbehavior issues. I'm just not sure if I could ever //want// to teach students with emotional and behavior disabilities. I don't know how Kristy does it!

I was stunned to find myself actually tempted to argue with a boy who claimed he couldn't possibly complete a journal assignment because, as a Jehovah's Witness, it was against his religion for him to imagine what he'd do if he were to become President of the United States of America. How would you handle that?!?

Then, the boy who I've been working so closely with had a total meltdown when his painting didn't turn out like he wanted. A third boy known for his enjoyment of pointing out others' faults only made the situation worse by rubbing in my student's "cry baby" antics.

Finally, another boy in the class had several crying fits today because he thought his class work was simply too confusing, he didn't get enough play time on the computer, and he wanted more than one snack that afternoon.

The frightening thing for me is that, from what I could discern, Kristy and her two paraprofessionals thought it was a pretty decent day overall. I'm just glad I kept my cool with all the "bad choice makers" and didn't end up having a fit myself!

Kristy made me a copy of the IEP belonging to the boy with whom I've been working so closely. This way, I can better plan several lessons to meet his exact goals and needs. He's a first grader, but that doesn't make him any less of a handful. I hope I can get him excited about learning!

Gonna go work on his lesson and other homework. Hopefully I'll survive tomorrow!

2/2/10 Today was Groundhog Day, so Kristy's class spent time learning about these little animals. Everyone also talked about how and why we thought the groundhog could tell if there would be six more weeks of Winter or if Spring could begin.

I was very excited this morning when Kristy said we had a "Grade Level Meeting" to attend. This turned out to be a meeting where all the 4th grade teachers got together with Mrs. Holly Willis, the Principal, and Mrs. Becky Yates, the Literacy Specialist for about thirty minutes to discuss the impact of their current lesson planning and delivery strategies on their student's learning success. Some important points that were brought up were teachers utilizing key words from Bloom's Taxonomy in lessons, teaching "deep" to make learning significant, and truly ensuring the students are doing the learning - not just basic recall. A lot of the discussion centered around FCAT.

I liked sitting in on the meeting, and it made me feel great to understand everything that these teachers were discussing - it came straight from all my coursework! I did feel a little out of place when some of my suggestions for points raised weren't treated very seriously, but then I'm not quite a //real// teacher yet so I suppose I can't take it too hard.