307 & 435 Blog 3

The past month in my clinical placement really feels like a whirl wind!  I have no idea where the time went!  It has been so incredible to get to know my CE and other teachers in the school.  My largest personal takeaway this month was that you have to leave some things at school or you will drive yourself absolutely insane.  I have one student whose situation and at home and whose progress at school really worries my CE and I.  However, I have learned that as long as the child has an advocate at home who is doing everything to help him or her, there is nothing more I can do except encourage her in the classroom when she is with me and pray for her when she is not.  It will be so difficult to not take home the burdens of all my students when I have my own class one day.  There is only so much I can do for students, though.  If parents choose to never help with homework or sight words and choose to never read with students or leave them at home with big brother and sister all day, there is nothing I can do but try to fill in some of those gaps when the students are with me.  Another strange thing that has happened over the past month is that the students who are constantly poking me or wandering around the room or shouting out during my lesson have become the students who are nearest to my heart now.  These particular students have become some of the sweetest, most loving children.  They may be a little lazy sometimes and try to talk or hug their way out of work, but there is something in their little hearts that needs nurturing and I can't help but love them!
I have really had the opportunity in the past month to show leadership among my students and also among other teachers in my grade-level.  I believe I have gained two things that have allowed me to become confident in my demonstration of leadership.  I have gained relationships with the other teachers in my grade-level.  They were all very encouraging and helpful from the beginning but I was obviously not viewed as an equal.  After many discussions with all the teachers, I know that I am not nearly as qualified as they are, but they have began to respecting me in a way that I feel like I have a valued opinion and useful knowledge.  The past month has really proven to me that the students respect me and are thankful for my help in the classroom.  It is much easier to lead when you have a relationship with those who you intend to follow.  I have become comfortable asking students to do things and stating my opinion on students' work and giving help when needed.  I now know my students and I know what they need and how they like to be approached.  I suppose the most basic need for a leader to have is the ability build relationships.  I believe that in order for a teacher to be competent in the professional teaching standard that states "teachers demonstrate leadership in the classroom" they must be able to build relationships with those they intend to lead.
This month we have planned an Easter Egg Hunt and spring activities day and I can not wait to see how my students respond to that... I am sure they will LOVE it!  One of my favorite spring activities we did was an easter egg hunt involving math riddles.  I would absolutely use this in my future classroom.  The students were all sent out into the hall with me while my CE hid easter eggs all around the room.  She counted them and told each student how many he or she could retrieve.  Inside each of the Easter Eggs was a slip of paper that had an "I have..." and a "Who has..."  that included math riddles.  The student with "I have the first egg" would go first and the riddles continued throughout the classroom for almost 30 minutes!  The students loved this game and it was a great way to incorporate something they were excited about.  One of the best ways to grab students' attention when the holidays or a big break is near is to plan activities that they will be excited about.  In order to facilitate learning for a group of students who is absolutely stoked about easter, it would only make sense to rework all your activities for the week so they are based upon something having to do with Easter!   In my future classroom, I will be sure to use my creativity to guide my planning when it comes to the events that students are most excited about.
This month, any time my CE needs things hung up in the hallway during her planning, I always volunteer to go out in the hallway and help.  There are many other teachers who have planning during the same time who are also working on hanging things out in the halls or are wandering from the kitchen to the classroom or the copier to the classroom.  I have had some of the most wonderful conversations while hanging up and taking down posters in the hallway.  It has given me the opportunity to meet other teachers in the school who do not eat lunch or have grade-level meetings with my CE.  One of my favorite things about teachers is that they always want to give you advice and help you in any way they can... they are teachers!  Just in passing, I have gained so much wisdom about handling situations and different resources that are beneficial.  I even had one teacher say "I just got some new white boards for the class and I have some that are about five or six years old if you would like them."  Goodness, I was happy I decided to hang up posters that day!!!
I still believe that the times I learn the most is when I am in our grade level meetings.  Collaboration is such a powerful thing!  Sometimes teachers will be at the end of their rope with how to help students and another teacher will chime in and say "Well have you tried..." and there is another opportunity to help the student that the teacher has never thought of before!   In my last post, I explained that we have divided all the first graders into groups based upon what they need help with most.   They can be in as few or as many groups as needed, and the groups are pulled for help all day on Thursdays.  I have really seen the progress in two of my students who struggle with comprehension but not fluency.  There is something in their little minds that can read so so well but when they are asked to tell you anything about what they read, there is no connection to the words they just read and the meaning behind those words.  This past month, I have really seen that the Thursday tutoring and me pulling them out during SSR has really given them what they needed to grasp the meaning behind the words they have been reading!
The two students I mentioned in the above paragraph who have been struggling with comprehension all year, are the two that I typically pull out to work with in math and in reading.  The students can read and count and spout off answers to addition problems that they have memorized with their parents but there is no comprehension of number sentences or language sentences.  I made it my goal to break down this barrier for the students.  I have found a few articles online that gave me a lot of ideas of how to help these students and a few activities that are beneficial to the students. Here are some of those resources:
RESOURCE
The website above provides seven strategies that are beneficial to readers who struggle with reading comprehension.  For the two students that I have been working with, the most effective one for us have been to ask questions while they are reading so that they continue to think about what they are reading.  Another thing that I have found to be beneficial to students is to give them the story line worksheet that has boxes where they write down or draw what is happening in the story.  I have found that for the two students I am working with, when they doodle a picture for about five seconds rather than writing words, they can tell me everything that happened in the story.  Once I found how beneficial this was, I gave students two story line worksheets and allowed them to draw quick sketches in the first worksheet and then write what they drew in the first worksheet on the second.  This was a beneficial learning experience because after the students gave me their worksheets and we talked about them,  we had a discussion about how we should draw pictures in our brains while we are reading a story.  We practiced this skill and it was honestly very difficult for the students but they were able to tell me a few things about what they read by using this process.
My experiences in the classroom this semester have been the most beneficial to my education than any other!  Really diving into the classroom and being with the students is the best way to become comfortable in a classroom and confident in leadership skills.