This week in my Professional Development School I have already seen and learned so much! For the first time, I have a student in my class with Autism. I also have students who are on a very low level struggling with fine motor skills and processing and following directions. Among those students are also those who are high above their grade level in many aspects; reading, math, maturity, etc. Because of these many factors, I have seen how important it is to remain calm, pay attention to ALL students, stick to your rules and discipline as needed.
If you remain calm your students begin to trust you and respect you. They learn quickly that you are a person they can rely on and you will take care of them. I think this is important to develop in your class because the students then feel safe and feel accepted. This encourages them to participate and be kind to one another as well as the teacher. It builds great classroom climate.
I realized how important it is to keep track of all your students and make sure you help all students that need help. I have learned in just these two days, that it is hard for me to walk around and help the entire class when there is one specific student I see struggling. I want to help him and make sure he understands it, but I do not want to become a crutch for him and ignore the others. The first day I found myself standing at a student’s desk for most of the activity. The second day I asked myself, what would happen if I gave him more freedom? So right after the directions were explained I would look over. I would see him looking at me and then he would raise his hand. I walked over and explained the directions again, maybe even adding additional cues for him to look at, for example, like retracing the line that needs to be cut in a way that is more visual for him. I would then tell him to work on that while I help the other students. I would walk away and focus on other students, a little shy to ask for help, and then make my way back towards the student when I noticed him ending his task. Turns out he doesn’t need all the help I was giving him in the first place. Now of course I don’t want to leave him hanging, if he is truly struggling with the material or task at hand I will be there to help, so I am learning day by day, when I can leave him the responsibility and when my assistance is more needed. I think it is pretty cool, how already after only two days I am able to question my own teaching methods and come to the beginnings of conclusions. Inquiry learning anyone?
Like I mentioned earlier, being in this 2nd grade classroom and with my host teacher is a true blessing. I feel like this opportunity is going to be a great learning experience but hard challenge at the same time. Specifically from having the student with Autism in my class, my teacher has shown me the importance of not backing down, not giving up, and sticking to the rules. Every child is treated the same and encouraged to complete the same tasks. Each student will line up in a straight line after their assignment is completed, or their name is called. Each student will push in their chair. Each student will listen quietly. If a student, any student, does not follow the directions then consequences occur. It is used as a learning opportunity. Even if a student was able to get away with something in their classroom last year, it is very important (especially the first few days) to make sure you will not accept that behavior in your classroom. This is something my teacher and the other teachers in my PDS have shown me that is only something you learn once in the school environment looking from the inside-out.
I love that you are recognizing opportunities for inquiry. Already it's apparent that you're beginning to develop an inquiry stance....reflecting in action, making decisions, and gathering data about the consequences/effects of your decisions. This is something teachers do every day....and it's so important to provide scaffolding for students so that they can become self regulated, independent learners. We don't want students to exhibit a learned helplessness or too much reliance on the teacher for learning. It's one of those things you have to make decisions about and negotiate student by student.
It also sounds as if you're going to learn a lot about how to include students with special needs into your classroom. We want to treat all of our students fairly and to ensure that all of them are able to meet our high expectations. That may not mean treating each student in exactly the same way....but it does mean that we treat all students equally....and it seems that you're learning how to make that distinction.
I hope you'll continue to reflect on and blog about all those teachable moments that occur within a particular day. Our students are always learning....and we have to do our best to make sure they are learning what we intended.
This week in my Professional Development School I have already seen and learned so much! For the first time, I have a student in my class with Autism. I also have students who are on a very low level struggling with fine motor skills and processing and following directions. Among those students are also those who are high above their grade level in many aspects; reading, math, maturity, etc. Because of these many factors, I have seen how important it is to remain calm, pay attention to ALL students, stick to your rules and discipline as needed.
ReplyDeleteIf you remain calm your students begin to trust you and respect you. They learn quickly that you are a person they can rely on and you will take care of them. I think this is important to develop in your class because the students then feel safe and feel accepted. This encourages them to participate and be kind to one another as well as the teacher. It builds great classroom climate.
I realized how important it is to keep track of all your students and make sure you help all students that need help. I have learned in just these two days, that it is hard for me to walk around and help the entire class when there is one specific student I see struggling. I want to help him and make sure he understands it, but I do not want to become a crutch for him and ignore the others. The first day I found myself standing at a student’s desk for most of the activity. The second day I asked myself, what would happen if I gave him more freedom? So right after the directions were explained I would look over. I would see him looking at me and then he would raise his hand. I walked over and explained the directions again, maybe even adding additional cues for him to look at, for example, like retracing the line that needs to be cut in a way that is more visual for him. I would then tell him to work on that while I help the other students. I would walk away and focus on other students, a little shy to ask for help, and then make my way back towards the student when I noticed him ending his task. Turns out he doesn’t need all the help I was giving him in the first place. Now of course I don’t want to leave him hanging, if he is truly struggling with the material or task at hand I will be there to help, so I am learning day by day, when I can leave him the responsibility and when my assistance is more needed. I think it is pretty cool, how already after only two days I am able to question my own teaching methods and come to the beginnings of conclusions. Inquiry learning anyone?
Like I mentioned earlier, being in this 2nd grade classroom and with my host teacher is a true blessing. I feel like this opportunity is going to be a great learning experience but hard challenge at the same time. Specifically from having the student with Autism in my class, my teacher has shown me the importance of not backing down, not giving up, and sticking to the rules. Every child is treated the same and encouraged to complete the same tasks. Each student will line up in a straight line after their assignment is completed, or their name is called. Each student will push in their chair. Each student will listen quietly. If a student, any student, does not follow the directions then consequences occur. It is used as a learning opportunity. Even if a student was able to get away with something in their classroom last year, it is very important (especially the first few days) to make sure you will not accept that behavior in your classroom. This is something my teacher and the other teachers in my PDS have shown me that is only something you learn once in the school environment looking from the inside-out.
Hi Lauren,
ReplyDeleteI love that you are recognizing opportunities for inquiry. Already it's apparent that you're beginning to develop an inquiry stance....reflecting in action, making decisions, and gathering data about the consequences/effects of your decisions. This is something teachers do every day....and it's so important to provide scaffolding for students so that they can become self regulated, independent learners. We don't want students to exhibit a learned helplessness or too much reliance on the teacher for learning. It's one of those things you have to make decisions about and negotiate student by student.
It also sounds as if you're going to learn a lot about how to include students with special needs into your classroom. We want to treat all of our students fairly and to ensure that all of them are able to meet our high expectations. That may not mean treating each student in exactly the same way....but it does mean that we treat all students equally....and it seems that you're learning how to make that distinction.
I hope you'll continue to reflect on and blog about all those teachable moments that occur within a particular day. Our students are always learning....and we have to do our best to make sure they are learning what we intended.
Looking forward to your next entry,
Sharon