SORAYAH G.
BLOG POST #1:
When i arrived to my CT's classroom that morning, to my dismay, she was not there that day. A substiitute was filing in for her. The substitute was known by thie students since she had worked in that school several times before. Getting started on the day and the tasks at hand were a little slow and drawn out because of misinterpretation of what was scheduled to happen throughout the day. I became an aid to the substitute by helping her make sense of the directions, handing out assignments to do, and helping the students with the work they were supposed to complete. I am interning in a classroom that only teaches reading and writing. There is a classroom next door that teaches math and science so they switch in the middle of the day. I realized that during the first half of the day, I was more helpful and engaged with what was going on in the class and with the students. By the second half, I sat for most of the time and just observed. I will ask my CT and her partnering teacher if it is alright that I switch with the classes. I want to also see and experience how they teach math and science at this school. Overall, the day was a successful one and I already got to meet some of the students in my class.
BLOG POST #2:
This week I finally got a chance to meet my CT. I realized a big difference in the class's performance when she was around in comparison to when they had the substitute. The class didnt ask what they should do in the morning but got straight to work on their folders. When the substitute was present, there was confusion about what they needed to work on. At first I had thought that it might have been due to a lack of proper instruction from the substitute, but it seemed to be that the students were just taking advantage of not having to start on their work right away since the sub was more focused on her instructions.
I have noticed a pattern in my CT's classroom. She will usually alternate from group work, pair share, individual work,and teacher assistance when they are doing assignments or reading, although her teacher assistance was less than what the substitute and I were doing last week.
The teacher review point of view with the students and had them do their vocabulary words. The children knew to either read or do learning activities on the computers in the classroom if they finished their work early.
My CT gave me the oppurtunity to work with one student during RTI. We read a passage together and I asked him questions about the passage. I aided him with answering the questions on the back of the worksheet. He will be my focus student. I recall the teacher mentioning that he had difficulties in reading or that he wasn't as quick-paced as the other students so she had him work with me for indiviudual attention. He read fairly well but did not really connect his words when he was reading. When I asked him a comprehensive question about what he just read, he would have to go back in the passage to provide the answer.
-This behavior chart would be implemented by having the children see how they are doing on a weekly and daily basis. I would ssend this chart to their parents at the end of the week and writpe notes about their child's behavior, positive and negative. I like this chart because students and parents can visually see if they are making progress or declining in their behavior with this chart.
BLOG POST #3
TEACHER INQUIRY
A teacher needs to be able to reflect upon the behavior and progress of his students. The book refers to a type of teaching reffered to as "process-product research" which basically says for teachers to regiritate what they are told to teach and how to teach it. They must abandon the things they see first hand in order to stay by the cirriculum. I feel like this is an ineffective way to teach. Teacher need to be resonsive to how their students react to the cirriculum.Teachers aren't just the echoes of experts that are separated from the classroom but have their own original voices of what they think works best for their class that they view first hand. Teacher Inquiry is vital to proper instruction. Although, inquiring and questioning set cirriculum can be difficullt alone. Collaborating with other teachers for finding the best plans for effective teaching can be a way of getting other opinions who are on the front lines of teaching.
BLOG POST #4
FOCUS STUDENT: WONDERING
"Jason" was the very first child that I met in my CT classroom. He was the student to walk into the classroom. My first impression of him was that he was a very active child, who was eager to help out. As I got to know him and see him interact with his peers and teacher, I realized that he had a little bit of a behavior problem. He would often try to do silly things to get the other children to laugh. I realized also that he likes negative attention from his peers and teacher. If Jason gets reprimanded by his teacher, he will joke around about it when she walks/looks away. If his peers are making fun of him or confronting him, he will either make fun of himself or start a verbal confrontaion with the other student(s). Jason has attention problems in class and would rather talk and distract others rather than do his work.
I chose Jason as my focus student because he seems to have the most noticeable behaviorable problems. My wondering about him would be what strategies or methods would Jason benefit from in concern to his behavioral problems.
BLOG #5
CASE STUDY 7.1
The case study reflecting on the issue of gender opened my eyes to many different things. In the case study, the teacher made it acceptable for the boys to make stereotypical comments about the girls during the competition to answer the test questions when they were placed against each other. I believe that the teacher should take the initiative to reprimand boys or girls that make gender comments in the classroom. It seemed like that attitude toward the genders existed because of the lack of an adult addressing it.
Also another point that brought concern when reading the case study was the lack of empathy for any gay or transgender children in the classroom. Gay children who may act more like the other gender may feel conflicted when negative comments about feminity (or masculinity) are made. Transgender children who are already facing enough social and personal conflict may not know what side to be on when dividing the classroom by gender.
All in all, I believe this case study showed a need for diversity in social groups, especially those in competition. Teachers need to be aware of the cmments made in the classroom by children and have zero tolerance for ngative ones. Also, empathy and consideration for minorities in the classroom that are different from the majority need to be realized before a situation in which they may feel left out of or uncomfortable in would occur.
BLOG POST #6
CASE STUDY 8.1
In the case study about Aiden, the student who needed headphones because he was disturbed by loud sounds, I agree with Mrs.Stintson because she is concerned about the child and adhering to what the parents asked for. I think that Mrs. Foster is taking the fire drill too seriously to feel like giving headphone to Aiden before then drill would take out the surprise of a fire drill for the other students. For a real fire drill, the students would be guided by the teachers just as in the drill so if they did not know what to do during the drill, it would not really affect the students in the real case scenario. Mrs. Foster is being insensitive to Aiden and his needs and also the need for little distraction in Mrs,Stintson's classroom if Aiden is effected it by the alarming sound days after the event.
I believe that Mrs. Stintson should notify the principal about the situation and also the parents. Mrs. Stintson could suggest for the parents to include that accomodation in Aiden's IEP so that his protection can not be up for debate by fellow teachers who do not have to deal with Aiden's potentnial behavior if he is not accomodated for.
BLOG POST #7
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
After watching the youtubeo video of David Spade entering the classroom as a substitue teacher, aside from the humor, I feel like there were a lot of real life problems that were reflected in the short television clip. David Spade walked into a classroom as a substitutute teacher who was unprepared, intimidated, and was not taken seriously by the students because of it. The video showed how most teachers usually feel stepping into a new classroom. It may be difficult to uphold dominance in a classroom, especially as a substitute teacher who may not be accustomed to a classroom's culture.
In the video, it showed that the principal would clear his voice to get the students back in their seats. This is an example of how classical conditioning is applied when trying to get students to behave. The students probably understood that if they did not go back to their seats and quiet down, they would probably be reprimanded. When David tried using the same method, it did not work because the children do not associate the voice clearing noise as having any consequences from a different person.
When David entered back into the classroom, he set his authority in different ways. He made them realize that he was once just like them and understood the tricks they did because he did them himself. He eliminated all distractions by addressing them first hand like when he took away the nintendo and the note that the girls were passing back and forth. What I like most that he did was he used humor to grasp the children's attention to the more serious things he had to say next at the end of the video. He also made up his own cue to get the children to focus.
CASE STUDY 9.4
BLOG #8
This case study discusses the issue of how to discuss the topic of diverse families in attention to same-sex households. In the case study, the teacher, Mrs. Gibson tries to widen her classroom library by including books that include same sex couples to accommodate for one of the sudents in her class that comes from a home with two moms. Parents of students in that classroom raise concern to if what Mrs. Gibson is teaching in the classroom is suitable for their children to learn about. I believe that Mrs. Gibson was right for introducing this topic to the class in the way that she did. If children want to read or learn about same sex couples and families, she just provided a medium for them to do so.
Parents usually over react when anything with the words “sex” is introduced in the classroom, especially when it follows the word “same”. Although parents may not particularly agree with the practice of the same sex marriage of same sex households, not educating children about it will not erase this type of family structure from existing or cause it to be known to their child.
I believe that it is right to raise awareness of diverse families within a classroom especially at a younger age. This can eliminate future stereotyping and bullying that ignorant children usually cause because of their lack of knowledge, understanding, and empathy.
CASE STUDY 10.1: STUDENT TRANSLATOR
BLOG #9
This case study talks about how a teacher, Mr. Clark, sees an opportunity to talk to one of his student's, Maria, Spanish speaking parents, Ms. Montes, and uses Maria's younger sibling, Marcella, to translate to her mother. Mr. Clark has to use Marcella instead of Maria because the topic is on Maria's behavior and he does not want Maria to mistranslate what he has to say to her parent.
There are a few issues in this case study that bring up alarm with how Mr. Clark orchestrated this impromptu parent meeting. Having Marcella translate for Mr. Clark puts both Maria and her mother in a weird position. Maria may be feeling like Mr. Clark does not trust her since he chose her sister over her to translate to her mother. She may feel embarrassed that her sister also now knows about her conduct in class. Mr. Clark does not know the premise of their relationship and Marcella may use that against her when at home. Maria may also feel that her sister, who is younger and not even in Mr. Clark’s classroom is getting praise for being smart when she might not get any at all in the classroom due to her behavior issues.
Ms. Montes may also have some feelings about Mr. Clark choosing her younger daughter to translate. Having a child in the middle of an adult conversation can make the parent feel incompetent to English since their younger child can speak it and they cannot. She may not want her younger daughter to know about the situation because now Marcella may feel authorized to comment on her older sister’s behavior.
Mr. Clark should have used that moment when he saw Ms. Montes to set up a meeting with a translator to talk to Maria and her mother privately. But yet, another problem arises with this because Ms. Montes may not have any other time besides the present to speak with Mr. Clark at all.
The whole scenario is a tough one for Mr. Clark and the Montes family. I commend Mr. Clark for being an opportunist but I do not feel like he took into consideration how Maria or her mother might have felt.
Within this wordle, it shows that the words I used most would be classroom, may, and students. I feel like these words stand out most because what I am dicussing throughout my blogs would be students and situations we find them and ourselves in within the classroom. I find it interesting that diiverse is very small in comparison to unsubstantial words like "drill, feel, and younger". One would think that since the blogs are about diversity, that word would be biggest. I don't think my wordle is a great summarization of what my blogs are about but rather my own comman vocabulary that I chose to use when writing about these diversity case studies.
I believe these case studes gave me a great outlook on scenarios in the classroom that usually may go overlooked or not stated as a problem. For example, the case study about the competition between geners within the classroom, the teacher failed to realize the negative affect his passiveness had when he didn't do anything about them fighting or having the competition in the first place. The case studies showed me situations that I would usually overlook or take care of in the wrong way.