Week Three

            So, this week we needed to focus on how the teacher was teaching and while doing that, I learned quite a bit. Watching and focusing on the teacher was tricky with having little kids constantly talking and interrupting but still got to learn quite a bit. 

            The teacher gets the kids to do Jolly Phonics and she will sing the songs with them. She will make sure the students are making the correct letter sounds and the right movements/jesters to go with the letter. Whenever she sees a student following what she’s doing or if she sees a student doing the task right, she would high five them. We read a story about Remembrance Day before she started reading, she asked the students if they knew what Remembrance Day is. While reading the story, she would ask the students what they thought was going on in the photo before reading the page. She would also say some words and ask the students if they knew what the words meant. At the end of the day, she sang a song to let the kids get ready at the end of the day. She would sing the letter sound, and whatever students name started with that letter, they could start getting ready. The students are still learning their letter sounds but she would give some help to the students who were struggling in that area. We have one student in the class that needs a little bit of extra help. She doesn’t listen a lot, she throws a lot of tantrums when she doesn’t want to do, and she also knows how to manipulate new people that meet her. The teacher we are with, she has learned how to deal with her and has given us some help in trying to deal with her. She lets her go into the cozy corner and lets her scream it out and when she seems to be calmed down and then she will go and talk to her. It’s hard listening to her freak out and not do anything about it because she’s just doing it for attention. 

            The teacher I am placed with, her key support is, she rewards her kids with this thing called “dogo points”. The kids get very excited when they see they got a point. The students are aware when she gives them out and they act faster on their tasks when she has it up on the board. I think that teachers continue to learn from trying and failing. Teachers need to have that trial and error to see what will work for them, for their students and even the school. They also learn from their students, every student is different, with their own sets of needs.