Why do I want to be a teacher?

As internship and graduation draw neard, I find myself asking hard questions. Today's questiion is, "Why do I want to be a teacher?"

That is a loaded question. Let’s see how well I can unpack it. I will begin when I first knew that I wanted to be a teacher. I worked in a child development center through high school. I enjoyed the time I spent there and the kids really related to me; however teaching never crossed my mind. I was set on being a physical therapist. I went back to the development center the summer after my sophomore year at Auburn. They were getting ready for the new school year and I got so excited over school supplies. Something so simple, but I truly was excited. I stayed just to help set up the classrooms.

That is where it started, and the idea of freshly sharpened pencils still makes my heart race a little. Maybe I am being dramatic, but I love school and everything about it. I can also remember a specific day when I thought, “Hey. I could be good at this.” I was sitting with my class of three year olds. They had little chalkboards they were scribbling on. One asked me how to write his name, so I showed him. Step by step, I showed him how to make each letter. Eventually, he did it all on his own. I was so proud of him! And I would be lying if I said I wasn’t proud of myself too. I was thrilled that I was able to teach him something.

As a teacher, that is what I get to do. I get to teach children the information they need to succeed in school, and not only school but life as well. That is huge! I think it will take a lot of patience, and I am certain it will even by trying at times. But I know that it will be worth it. Freshly sharpened pencils and molding young minds is just icing on the cake for me though. My motive for pursuing this degree is so I can use it in Africa.

In the bigger picture of what I want to do, I want to teach orphans in Africa. I do not say this lightly or to impress people. I mean it sincerely. I spent a few weeks in Tanzania, and the little orphans changed my view on life completely. I would love to go and teach them and make an impact in their lives for good. Be more than a teacher, but possibly even a mother figure; someone to care for them and teach them about life. I want to encourage them to move on from where they are, and do bigger and better things. Which I know teacher’s become that a lot anyway. I thought, what a better way to equip myself than to learn methods of teaching that have been well tried. It is a heavy load to take on, but that is what I truly want to do and why I want to teach. To make a difference even if it is just one child at a time.

Africa Painting image found at: http://www.jeron.je/stARTing_points/new%20art%20pages/ks2/Organised%20images/KS2/Painting/p5/4%20African%20Painting%203%20-%20Y5%20copy.jpg

Classroom Management

My plan for classroom management is to set clear rules and boundaries from the very beginning. I will ensure that my students know what I expect of them, as well what the consequences are for choosing to be disobedient. My rules will be something along the lines of: 1.) I will listen the first time and every time. 2.) I will keep my hands to myself. 3.) I will only talk when I have permission. The consequences for disobeying these rules will be: after the first offense, they are given a warning. After the second offense, they will be separated from their friends for 15 minutes. After the third offense, their desk will be isolated for the remainder of the day, or until they prove that they are able to sit with their friends by working diligently. (Of course, there will be some variation based on the age of my students and what is developmentally appropriate.)

I know that it is important to have a minimum amount of rules which are stated clearly with set consequences because students work best in a structured environment. It is useful if they know what to expect. Therefore, having set rules with set consequences is important. However, each child is different; what’s punishment to one is reward to another and vice versa. So, along with the general rules, I plan on implementing natural consequences. For example, if a student decides that it is okay to blow his nose into his hand, instead of playing at recess, he will practice blowing his nose. He will bring with him a box of tissues and a garbage can, and practice blowing his nose until either recess is over or he runs out of tissues.

I think unconditional positive regard is very important in classroom management. I feel that if it is made clear that you care about the students no matter what their behavior, they will benefit greatly. The number one rule in child psychology is “A child does nothing without reason.” So, everything my students do is with a purpose. If they act out, it may be that they do not receive the attention they need at home; so any attention, even if it is for negative reasons, is better than no attention at all. I will do my best to watch them and try to recognize these types of things. That way, I could try to put more emphasis on the positive things they do rather than on the negative (which should be done anyway). It could be, that they are just having a bad day. In that case, I may just need to talk to the student about what’s going on, or possibly even let things go and hope for a better day tomorrow. Ultimately, unconditional positive regard is viewing the child through the scope that they are “behaving badly” not that they are a “bad child.”

One thing I will NOT do for classroom management is assign my students schoolwork for punishment. Schoolwork is not punishment. I may make them finish what they should have already completed, but I will not give them extra work. First, that sort of “punishment” most likely does not correlate with the behavior I want them improve, and second, that gives them a negative view of schoolwork.

Frog image found at: http://www.todaysteacher.com/images/frogtext.gif

Military Children

In my lab placement, one student's father is in the military. The little girl and her family have moved more times than she can remember. Her latest move was all the way from Egypt. On many occassions, she has told me that she can't read because her dad has made her move so much. She says, "It's his fault." She seems very bitter about it. For such a young child, that seems like a heavy load to carry. She should be going into the second grade, but didn't pass the first grade markers. On top of that, she is moving again in a few weeks.

I imagine moving so much really does cause problems. It is difficult for an adult to adjust, much less a child who is still figuring things out. Every teacher is different, with their own ideas and methods of teaching and every state is different with their required objectives. I can only imagine how different a military base in Egypt would be.

I admit feeling a bit helpless when she tells me these things. I want to offer her an encouraging word, but have to dig really deep. It is hard for me to imagine what that lifestyle must be like, and how confusing it must be for a child. The first time she told me she wasn't good at reading, I said, "How do you become good at something?"

She said, "Practice."

"Exactly." I said. "Becoming good at something just takes practice. That is why you are here in summer school. To give you extra time to practice." She seemed content with that answer.

The next time she told me she wasn't good at reading, she went into more detail about her dad. She blamed him for everything. Perhaps I should have just listened, instead I offered words of advice. I said, "Can you control what your dad does?"

"No." She said.

"Whose actions can you control?"

"My own." I went on to tell her that sometimes things happen that are out of our control. We can control our own actions though, so we should always try to do our best no matter what.

I suppose that lesson is for me too. When it comes to my students lives outside my classroom, I have no control. However, I do have control of what goes on within my classroom. What can I do to help students like her? Definitely something to think about...

Military Child photo recieved at: <http://www.viswiki.com/en/Military_brat_(U.S._subculture)>

First Grade Summer School

This summer, my lab placement has been spent with

first graders at summer school. One might ask, "What do first graders do at summer school?" I asked the same thing. Apparently, the main goal is to keep the students from forgetting the knowledge they have already attained.

I have found myself becoming very frustrated for these students. There are 9 of them, 3 of which should be going into second grade. The remaining 6 are rising first graders who struggled in kindergarten; i.e., they still struggle with letter naming, letter sounds, rhyming, and basic addition. These students struggle so much and I don't feel like anything specific is being done for them. The main thing the teacher uses is direct instruction. I can't stand direct instruction. I'm sure it is somehow useful, but I don't think it is helping these students at all. Most of her time with the students consists of her reading from a script, and them repeating her. I don't get it.

I don't have much control over what goes on.
However, if I did, my outlook would be much different.
I would go into each day thinking, "These students are going to learn something today, and it is my job to teach them." I would have them do more practical things. I would take away the work sheet and have them use manipulatives. Instead of the direct instruction activities, I would use picture books, reader's theatre, and a word wall.

After observing my students, I know that they are all capable of learning. I am afraid they have just been written off and given up on. It breaks my heart.

A typical day looks something like this:

8:40 - Smartboard Activities This includes the calender, the number of the day, the clock, money (pennies and nickels), and patterns.
9: 30 - Reading Rotations While small groups work with the teacher doing direct instruction activities, the other students work on a number of the day math worksheet. The other lab student and I help the students with their worksheets.
10:00 - Play Outside
10:15 - Snack
10:30 - Centers There are three centers that the students rotate to. One is direct instruction activities with the teacher. One is a math center with the other lab student. Lastly, my center is a word/phonemic awareness center.
11:30 - Go home

Word Wall image found at: <http://www.hammond.k12.in.us/kenwoodes/kindergarten_word_wall.htm>

Chris: An ELL Student

Chris and his family moved to Alabama from Mexico when he was a baby. Besides struggling with English, he is a fairly typical 6 year old who enjoys laughing and playing with his friends. Even though Chris is a happy child who desires to do well, he has a hard time understanding English. Because he is an English Language Learner, he struggled through the first grade. He is now attending summer school and is being retained in the first grade for next year.

I am a lab student in Chris’s summer school class. I enjoy working with him because he is so joyful. However, it seems that he struggles to understand what is being said. When I ask him a question he usually gives me a blank stare. If he catches on that I am asking a question, he usually says something random that has nothing to do with my question. A perfect example of this is a day when we were listening for rhyming words. At first, the teacher said two words and asked the students if they rhymed; they answered yes or no. Then, the teacher went around the circle and gave each child a word and they were to come up with a rhyme. When she got to Chris, the teacher said, “What is a word that rhymes with sock?” He said “Yes,” as if saying, “Yes, the words rhyme.” The teacher had only given him one word though. He did not understand the directions, so he went back to the last thing he remembered.

Chris becomes discouraged very easily. When he realizes he doesn’t understand something, he reverts to acting very silly. He covers his face with his hands, makes funny faces, or looks away as if looking for something to distract him. Sometimes, he wiggles in his seat, changes the subject, and even distracts the students around him. One day when he was being particularly silly, I told him that horses used blinders to keep them focused; so in the same way, when he starts feeling silly he needs to put his blinders on. So now, whenever he starts disrupting I will tell him to put on his blinders. He will put his little hands up next to his face and in his cute little Spanish accent, “Okay.” Then he will do his best to get back on task. A few days later, during a different rhyming activity the same thing happened. I said, “I have a secret word in my head. It starts with P and rhymes with mat. What is it?” The other students caught on very quickly, but he didn’t understand. After guessing a few times, he became discouraged and quit trying. He looked around the room; he made silly faces, and then started talking about something else. I tried rewording my question and giving him hints. He still didn’t understand.

That same day, his mother was late picking him up. We called her cell phone and her voicemail was in Spanish. We asked Chris if he spoke Spanish at home, and he said no. However, I think he misunderstood the question. At school, he talks in very short, broken sentences. It is often hard to understand him. I feel that if he spoke primarily English at home, it would not be so difficult for him to speak and understand it at school. My thoughts were confirmed when his mother finally came. She herself did not speak very much English. When she was spoken to, she simply nodded and waved with a smile on her face. In my past experiences with non English speakers, that is there way of being polite when they don’t understand you.

This child simply does not understand the language and he receives no reinforcement at home. His coping mechanism is being silly and being off task. There are two problems at hand. The first being, how do you teach him in a way he understands? The second being, how do you keep him from distracting his classmates in the mean time?

Spanish-Face image found at: <http://vivirlatino.com/i/2009/01/face-spanish.gif>

Pencil Sharpeners and Natural Consequences

A friend of mine, who happens to be a wonderful teacher, told me about natural consequences. It is just what it sounds like. An example she gave me is, “If a child keeps flipping out of his chair, then he doesn’t deserve to have a chair anymore. He gets to stand until he decides that chairs are an important thing to have and should be treated properly. If a child ties his shoelace to the chair, then he can drag the chair with him until he figures out how to untie his shoelace.” I really liked this concept and decided I would see how it worked.

One particular day at my service learning site, the teacher who is normally in the classroom was not there. It was a second grade classroom, and the stand in teacher was a man who was normally with 6th graders. There were three students playing at the electric pencil sharpeners. I tolerated it for a minute hoping the teacher would take care of it. However, he said nothing. I gave them ample time to do what they needed to do, but they broke their pencils over and over so they would have to sharpen it more. Finally, I went over there and told them to go sit down. They argued with me so I unplugged the pencil sharpeners and took the cords. Two of them went and sat down, but one of them threw a fit! He started throwing things and yelling. I just sat there and watched him act out. The teacher then handed him another pencil. I was so mad! I was trying to prove a point, but instead I was undermined and made out to have no control at all. The little boy gave me this devious grin. Later, I even saw him stealing classroom pencils. The teacher saw it too, but said nothing.

It was quite frustrating. That is why the students act the way they do. No one makes them do anything. They are in control and they know it.




Electric Pencil Sharpener image found at:

My Personal Approach

I know that there is no best practice for teaching. It is personal, and unique to each teacher. I feel that for me, the best way to teach is by allowing my students to see that I am a learner much like they are. I am only a little further along in the process.

I am all about putting myself in my student's shoes and investigating along with them. The students will benefit from this because I will be setting an example for them, giving them something to model rather than standing at the front of the room spitting facts at them. Scaffolding is important. If I assist the students, they will be able to do more than they could have done on their own. They will be challenged and will gain more from the learning experience.

If I come alongside them, they will know that I have not asked them to do something that I am not willing to do myself. It makes the material seem more important and worth learning if the teacher is involved. I did not appreciate it when my teacher would just sit at her desk, drinking diet coke, flipping through the latest issue of Cosmo while I sat and did pointless worksheets. It seemed like a waste of time.

Lastly, working alongside my students will allow them to relate to me. Hopefully, it will break down the student/teacher barriers. It will help them to see that we are ALWAYS learning.

I am the type of person who appreciates when a teacher not only gives me instructions but comes alongside me and helps me figure things out. How much more will my students appreciate it?

World Image found at: <http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/thumb_285/1215021545N7x6ZT.jpg>