Reflection Journal #2-Domain #2 and #5: Teaching ad Students/Teaching and the Profession

Student diversity in the school

The student body diversity is African American, Hispanic and white. The school is very centered around the Hispanic and African American culture due to the majority of the students are of this decent. For example, the students are learning about black history and this whole month they discuss the history of African Americans by reading books, and also on the daily announcements a student reads an essay on a famous African American.

Student involvement in the classroom

The students are involved in the classroom by completing work on the front board, through discussion, activities, bulletin boards, holiday decorations, classroom announcements and the daily routines. The class is very students oriented and the teacher is extremely focused on reaching each child’s needs. The students are nice to one another, they have groups (1,2 and 3) in which they sit at their desks. So when there us group work they work well with others to complete the task, sometimes they’re arguments or students who do not pay attention therefore, the whole group gets punished. The entire class works together well. All the students know one another by name, and I’ve noticed some students are closer than others; some students are separated as the teacher has noticed that they often get each other in trouble and become instigators. But, for the most part the students are hard workers, helpful, involved, good communicators and enjoy succeeding.

Exceptionalities in the classroom/school

I completed 15 hours of observation for a special education class at Greenbay Elementary school last semester so I was privileged to observe a 3^rd grade special education classroom, as well as observing a student in Mrs. Marrons 1^st grade class, this student was going through testing as a mainstream student. While I was in the 3^rd grade class, I noticed the class had 10 students, 2 teachers and 2 teacher aides. The class was very organized it had a structured schedule and also was at a slower pace. Most of the students had a learning disability and two students were autistic and each had a teachers aide. When I observed the 1^st grade students that was going through testing I noticed the pace was so much faster and the student was regularly pushed to the side because he was the only student who was struggling to the degree he was. The teacher usually had me work with him, doing other activities as the class continued on with their lesson. Mrs. Marron, would ask me to work on the alphabet, sounds, and words, for example I would use alphabet magnets and I would put “a” and “t” together and ask him to place a letter in front of “at”, and then sound out the word or tell me what it says. I felt like the tasks the teacher had me complete with him were not that structured or planned and seemed all over the place. But, I definitely enjoyed helping the little amount that I did because he usually was pushed to the side during class because he was unable to keep up with the class. It made me think of the times that I wasn’t helping him, how he was just being swept along. The teacher discussed with me that it was difficult for her to see him suffer, and especially made her upset when talking with his mother because she was in denial that her son needed to be put into a special ed. classroom or needed extra help; the mother would say that she helped him with homework/or activities, but it was obvious that he received no help at all. To conclude, I felt like this was an eye opener to me because it allowed me to see a difficulties that teaching brings and also ways to handle these different experiences. Therefore, I felt like the school is attentive to the students and their needs. I thought the teachers did a good job and it definitely made me think about when I have my own classroom and how I could easily have a student that struggle or has a learning disability that needs to be identified.

Teacher and Staff collaboration

The teacher I observe is Mrs. Marron, she has many teachers aides that come into the class to take out certain students that speak Spanish (their first language) to work on their speech, also they take out a couple of students that struggle with reading. The teachers’ aides come into the class at a scheduled time so students don’t miss lessons, this schedule is discussed week by week, and there is an open line of communication. Sometimes when the student(s) haven’t cooperated or misbehave with the aide, the aide will delivery a note with the student for the teacher to read; I thought it was essential how the teacher disciplined the student(s) as if they were in her own classroom. The teachers and staff seem to have a great environment with one another because there is communication, respect and structure.

Family and community members involved in the school

Family members and other members of the community are accepted into the school with open arms. When I started observing in October 2009, the staff was accepting and happy to see me involved with the school and community. A couple of the parents in the classroom are apart of the PTO, and others are active volunteers within the classroom. I have attended the Halloween, Christmas, 100^th day and Valentine’s Day party and there have always been parents that helped or participated by supplying something for the party. For example, when the school celebrated “Hello to our Heroes” they celebrated a football player of the Chicago Bears, they welcomed him into the school where he discussed his experience as a football player and also help the students write letters to members of the military who have recently returned from overseas. I felt like this was a great opportunity for students to meet a hero/superstar because it made them feel special and fortunate.

Keeping track of students progress

The teacher keeps track of students’ progress by making notes in her lesson plan book, she notes who understands or struggles, also areas that she needed to revise in the lesson to help students learn a concept or idea. She also has a daily homework that goes over what was taught the past day, she collects the work and stamps their planner to indicate it was completed. Mrs. Marron says that she marks student’s progress and also where students are struggling when she collects homework.

Extra duties/tasks

Mrs. Marron has a couple extra duties around the school, such as organizing PTO meetings at school, monitors the lunch room every other week and at the present time she is organizing a play for black history month for her 1^st graders and another class of 1^st graders. Therefore, Mrs. Marron does a good job handling all of her tasks and also her classroom.

Reflection

Since I’ve been observing I have thought about all of the challenges that teachers face on a daily basis. One thing I am excited to do is complete our final project, such as the power point and brochure on a certain critical issue topic because I can definitely see myself using it as a beginner teacher. I feel like this because at any moment you could get a new student or be in a situation that you are uninformed of at any time. I thought of this as I helped the boy with his literature and how the teacher wasn’t prepared to handle the students’ needs, or didn’t know how too. I believe this is important because you need to be prepared for any situation that a student may have. As the book says “Teach our Children Well, Essential Strategies for the Urban Classroom” and I put the emphasize on essential strategies because the book does a great job discussing strategies for communication with parents, students, other teachers and also effective ways to connect with students in the classroom and the school. One important aspect a school should incorporate is pride of place because that sets up an environment that students can excel in. I think the school and teachers do a great job incorporating a well structured environment, but one thing the school has no control of is the students home lives, unfortunately this is something that the school struggles with. I think Mrs. Marron does a good job connecting with the students because it feels like she can separate their home life from school. The students have talked to me regarding their home lives and all the problems (family members in jail, alcohol/drug abuse, and violence between family members) and I am so happy that they don’t allow those experiences at home or in their life affect their performance in the classroom and that is something that makes me proud of these 7 year olds.