LAST DAY!!!!

Today was my last day of student teaching and it was a bit better than yesterday, but not much. The kids are being rude and disrespectful and I still can't find an explanation for it. The good thing is that because they are so young they were so sad that it was my last day that they were semi-obedient.

I really did enjoy my student teaching even though it took me a while to get used to it. The age is so different that the work load and the way you deal with them is so different. I've worked with this age group before but never in a school setting like this. It was a struggle, but I would definitely do it again! It has opened my eyes to new possibilities and shown me another aspect to children and teaching that I hadn't really considered before. Overall, it was a growing and learning experience for me.

it's is ALMOST finished...

The kids have been so wild today that I don't understand what is going on! They will not listen and will not follow directions. Worst of all is that what we usually do to get them quiet is not working. They are blatantly misbehaving! What is a teacher to do when children are like this? We wanted to send them outside and get their wiggles out but because of the rain that wasn't even possible. We let them play in centers and they are being so rowdy and fighting with each other that we had to sit them in a timeout. Is it because of the weather? Is it because the end of the school year is right around the corner for them? What is a teacher supposed to do when kids get this out of control?

Fort Worth Zoo

Today we went out on a field trip with the third grade to the Fort Worth Zoo. The kids were so excited it was hard to keep them focused on anything! I learned a few valuable lessons from this experience that I would like to share:

1. The more parents the better, but there is such a thing as too many. If your main goal is to get the kids to interact and you have parents going that are too attached to their kids, your goal will not be reached.

2. When dealing with young ones in Pre-K you should have no more than four in a group. The kids were so excited and wanted to see all the different animals that they would start going and not necessarily wait for the adults in the group. To make matters worse there were a lot of other schools there too, so you couldn't always tell which ones were in your group and which ones were from other groups.

3. It is very important to wear a shirt that stands out (you as the adult as well as the kids in the school). The kids were to wear their uniforms but white shirts and blue pants don't do too good of a job in standing out when they are standing next to children from other schools.

4. Make sure that your cell phone is on the paper with all the directions for the day that you give to the parents. Also, before you send each group off make sure that you reiterate the number. (Some parents might not even look at the paper and not realize they have your number accessible.

5. When planning the exit time, have it be earlier than what you want to leave. We had a couple groups show up really late and in finding trying to locate them and loading we ended up leaving about 30 minutes later than what we were planning.

we rocked at chapel!!

Today our group was in charge of chapel. I was so nervous, mainly because we didn't practice that much. The kids were so excited and ready to do anything that needed to be done.

Again I was reminded how efficient children can be when you give them a little responsibility over something, but most importantly how innocent kids are. We had two kids do prayer, one opening and the other closing. And their prayers were so simple and meant just for God that it just touched my heart. The chapel turned out great! The best part was the kids saying their books of the bible by memory. I will admit they weren't as loud as they usually are, I think it was because they were nervous. If it had been totally up to me we would have practiced at least once all the way through, but things don't always work out how you want. And even so, the program must go on and you must do your best. And with that thought we went out and rocked!

oh no! not the worksheet teacher?! AHHHH!

The more I look at my teaching the more I realize I've become one of those teachers I always despised growing up. The type that just give worksheets, and worksheets, and more worksheets! I've been so lost with this group that I've done the safe thing, and just done coloring sheets and circle the right answers instead of games and interactive lessons.

I kinda think this strengthens my journal entry last week about not having time. If I end up teaching this age group at some point in my career I will need to plan ahead. I want to incorporate more unit studies where we could be covering a variety of subjects through a project or an experiment. In that way it wouldn't necessarily be so many worksheets and needless work.

considering the future...

Today 2 girls from the university came to teach a lesson on the senses. I was so impressed and it gave me a different outlook on teaching. It was so fun and interactive and the kids did so well with it. They divided the group into 3 and had them rotate through centers. Each group had hands on activities, not one did a worksheet or a coloring page. They ended each group with a talking session to see what the children had learned.

This semester I've been so busy with classes, homework, work, and still hanging out some with friends to keep me sane; that my teaching has suffered. I've kept telling myself that when I get out in the real world it will be different because I will only be teaching. But today it struck me that this is not entirely true. Even in the real world there are a million things to do! You have to keep up a house, kids, a husband, and your own personal upkeep as well. Not to mention all the work associated with masters classes on top of your classroom grading and what not. If I can't manage all this now, what makes me think I'll be able to do it then?

i need help...please?

I was evaluated today and I couldn't help but notice that one of my critiques was on how we find the page. My professor asked if there is a more time efficient way to do it. It is quite time consuming; first we say the page and have the kids go through trying to find the page. This is all happening while the teachers are walking around and turning the book to the right page. When I first started observing I asked myself the same question, and I can't seem to find one. We have bookmarks and all the kids have to put their bookmark in the page we are doing. As we move through the book we have them move the bookmark to the page we are on. In theory this works great but somehow in reality it doesn't. Bookmarks don't seem to stay where you put them, the kids don't seem to understand the concept of leaving them on the page you are on, and somehow many bookmarks get lost.

I don't have an answer to this problem...if you do, by all means come and enlighten me!

OMG! what am I gonna do with myself

The kids have been really rowdy and the management plan the teacher has had set in doesn't seem to be working much anymore. I constantly have to put kids in timeout and walk laps, but it doesn't seem to faze them. Instead of having a negative system I wanted to try a positive system of reinforcement. I am trying to give stars to groups who are actively listening and following directions. Following the system, if they are continuously talking they will get one of their stars erased. At the end of the day which ever group has the most stars gets a sticker on their hand.
It seems to be working well! This is the second day I've had it in place. The kids are trying to keep themselves quiet and listening in order to get the star. I would say the only problem seems to be remembering to give the stickers at the end of the day. It gets so busy towards the end that I don't remember and the kids don't either. I know it is important to go through with what you say, obviously, there is room for improvement on my side.

letting the kids lead

Lately during worship the kids haven't really wanted to sing or follow along with us. I've changed from just me picking the songs to having them pick the songs as well as teaching them new songs that they might enjoy and giving other songs a break. Even so they still haven't really picked up on the singing. Don't get me wrong it helped for a while, but the kids still seem to be very talkative and not wanting to sing very much.

Yesterday the teacher had 2 students lead out in song service for the class while students came trickling in. I was surprised to see how the students were responsive and so excited to lead out. And even today they were so pleased with themselves and even cooperating to sing during worship. But what shocked me even more is that they are singing loud and proud and even smiling while singing instead of dragging through songs.

I imagine this is because they are taking ownership of it. It is no longer an adult telling them what to do but a 'student-led' activity. It reminds me of how we've learned that when you want the kids to take well to the classroom rules you need to give them a chance to have a say in them and feel ownership in it. I guess it's true in activities you do in the classroom even for kids as young as Pre-K!

just evaluating...

Today I've been thinking about higher order questions. I was going through past evaluations and came across one from my first round of student teaching where it said I had to use more in my lessons. I know that we usually don't think in higher order so it takes some serious pre-planning to get the questions for the lesson. My problem is that I like to ask questions I know the kids can answer, I don't like to ask questions and just sit in silence while they dilly dally to tell me something that most likely is no where near the answer. Then usually I break it down into pieces until it's something they CAN answer. As I write this I think my answer lies in practice. If I continue using these types of questions with my students there will come a time where I don't have to break them down. I can, in a sense, wean them off of the extra help to the point where they are beginning to think at that level by themselves.

I don't know what would be considered higher level for Pre-K; I can't even begin to guess. What I've seen works best is just asking comprehension questions, which is another very crucial skill that is needed throughout the grades. If I could integrate both of these things and still keep the student's attention, they would have the hope of being a well-rounded student. Now I have something to think about, investigate, and work on.

Man this teaching thing is a learning experience...

One thing that I've learned from teaching in Palau and I'm sure has been stressed in my classes, I just don't remember, is to always plan ahead and be prepared. Yesterday afternoon the copier broke down right before I went to make copies for today. Since it was down, I decided to come early today so I could make copies. However, when I came this morning it was still down. On Thursday of last week I had made copies of the main assignment for this week. Instead of panicking that I didn't have the worksheets for today's morning work, I made small changes to my lesson plan. I did our book work for our morning work and I did our daily assignment for our group work.

You never know what will go wrong, you could be totally on schedule but you never know what could happen in your surroundings to throw your schedule out of whack. By making some copies ahead of time or even by planning extra book work, you leave yourself some cushion for error or unexpected circumstances.

and....THEY READ!!!

This week is our Phonics week and we are going over beginning sounds so the students can begin reading. It's funny because most of them say, "I can't read, I can't read" whenever you ask them, "what does this say?" Today was no exception. We began by going through each sound that was in the word and before you know it they were reading them. At the end of the lesson I told them, "You wanna know a secret? You just read! And not just one word but 12 words! How do you feel?" We even wrote sentences on the board and they read those. When the lesson finished they were so excited; it was so cute, they all had grins on their faces and they were telling each other that they had read and rereading the sentence out loud.
It made me think two things, one, kids are so easily impacted by things we say. This can be in the negative and in the positive. It is so important to always keep that in mind, you are working with a easily wet sponge and everything you say can affect them. I know a lot of days I can come in sleepy, tired, and worn out and I am just waiting for the week to end. If I am not careful, pretty soon all my kids will start giving off the same vibe. Just the way you act they will act also. Two, how far a word of praise can go. Who knows, maybe one of them is just thinking that he will never read, and with today's lesson it gave them a glimmer of hope that, yes, they CAN! It even gave one of them a fresh breath that soon they will be reading on their own! Maybe I'm giving them too much credit, but I am an optimist and I like to think that these thoughts are the ones that cross their little brains, even if it's really, REALLY deep.

finally accepted...

Since the beginning I haven't been thrilled about being in Pre-K. I just felt like all my learning and classroom knowledge really wasn't being used. It really wasn't until this week, or even today, that I can truly say that I am content here. The kids are just so loving and truly look up to you, the teacher, without really even deserving it. I think I would still prefer a little older because you are quite limited in what you can do with Pre-K kids, but I have definitely opened my eyes to new possibilities and can definitely do this again! This of course is a good thing because half of my plan is to someday open up a day-care/pre-K in my home while my children are young. If I can't handle or cope with this age a group that could be a bad business move! I hope to continue growing and having a positive experience here in Pre-K.

April FOOOLS!!

Today was April Fool's and the kids, like the rest of this week, have been silly and rowdy. They had to go down for another nap because they just will not listen or follow directions. The teacher thinks it's the time change but I personally have NO IDEA what is going on. Could it be possible, that even weeks later they are now barely showing signs of exhaustion? The time change is barely hitting them? Could it be that even one hour of difference can affect them this drastically?