Apirl 7, 2008

Not teaching!
Today was one of the days I did not teach, but as I have learned that a teachers work is never done, although I didn't plan to teach I am in such a wonderful school, I teach every day almost every class. This morning I did a guided reading group, taught myself how to configure a video into a proper file and then work with a program to make it into a DVD, help with a spelling lesson, in the afternoon I aided with spelling in a science lesson, developed a center inspired by Eric Carle, and teach a Art lesson (because I had thought up the idea and was the most qualified to teach it as I had the knowlegde on how to implement it).
In my school everyday is a new adventure in which I continue to learn new strategies and ideas to teach my students. I think that today displayed my versitlity and I'm ready to learn from both my staff and my students which is a strong quality I have. I think this is one of the best experiences in my life, as everyday I become more confident in my abilities as an educator which I believe where I should be at this period in my life before internship.

Apirl 3, 2008

Not everyday is Peachy!
Everyday is different in the classroom and there are so many factors that can contribute to the students actions, and today was one of those days. No one day is horrible, but somedays it seems like its all off. The students have had a super busy week which has included so many guest teachers, oratory competions, and just over excitement left over from the Easter Break that it seems little struture has been in the classroom. As an educator I don't expect everyday to be perfect there has to be little bumps in the road, today the students weren't responding to the usual classroom cues even for the homeroom teacher, and I saw what happens when classroom management is stopped for a moment and the teacher must have a talk with the students. Our co-op has to just stop everything and give the students a stern look and change her tone of voice and the students sit up straight and begin to listen to the cues. For me as a future educator I feel its important to know that just because one day doesn't go perfect doesn't mean your a bad teacher or that you have bad students it just means it wasn't your best day and I think there are going to be lots of those days in your career but to become a great teacher you must learn from these experience to grow as you are their first for the students and their development of their education.

Apirl 2, 2008

To challenge students can expose their weaknesses and frustrations but can allow grow. This is the realization I came today as I reflect on my lesson today, many of my students are prefectionist by nature and they enjoy and strive to be right. My unit being cultural dance can become complex if I want to take it to the next level, such in the dance today I had the students work first individually, then in pairs and progressed to groups of four. Individually and with partners they grasped the concepts and were able to succeed with the dance, but as I increased the numbers within the group the dance became more difficult. The students had to really think about how the dance was to be performed, for the perfectionist it was hard to let go of some of the power to other students in order to make the dance work. I believe it was a learning experience for all, I saw growth in my students and I was proud to be there teacher as they began to critcally think and problem solve in this dance. My question for the journal asked which dance they liked better the one on the pervious day (indepentant) or the one today (groups) and then asnswer why they felt that way. The perfectionist in the class answered they like the indivdual dance as it was easy to do (they could succeed). I think by challenging my students I'm allowing growth so they realize they don't have to always be perfect they must always try and never give up. I explained to my students after the dance was complete how proud I was of there accomplishments in todays class as I wanted to let them know although the dance was not perfect it was a hard dance to do and they did a fabulous dance. By giving this encouragement I hope they are proud of what they achieved in this lesson as they are becoming critical thinkers and problem solvers.

Apirl 1, 2008

First Day Back!
Being back in the feild makes me feel excited and thrilled to be in education. This block I'm completeing a unit on cultural dance and today we just learned teh Hukilaui (Hula) from Hawaii and I think the kids loved it, as we filled out our journals as they wrote what they like and what they didn't like about the dance and even all the boys were excited about the hip motions which we were doing. The students explored the music first and were able to make assumptions about the dance and how it might look and after we learned the entire dance they were able to add their own flare to the dance, which I believed was really important as I wanted my students to take ownership of the dance so that they were able to remember it and begin to think about creating dances. Something that I'm happy I'm using this semster is dance journals where the students answer a question about the dance which they completed and think critically. This unit I wanted the students to think about themselves and how they act within dance so that if I ever used this unit I could suit the students suggestions to make it better or take the unit farther for the students, as they begin to have say (take responsiblity) in their education which is a system which we are further moving towards. One thing that I can't believe that how much the students have grown up in the past year, we have been with the students since October and they have reach a sense of indepence in a year which is amazing, I'm sad to leave these students in a week as I feel I have gotten to know each one of them on such a different level and their progress is something that is so inspiring to me, that makes me believe that I am truely in the right profession.