ST

Today, the second day, I was able to begin to start getting a sense of certain small things. For example, I was able to get a sense of how some students will truly act. One girl who is very pleasant, will always act very pleasant, including the times when she is lying to you about something. Another girl is very bright and can become bored before moving on to the next section or example, and miss small things.

I have also been able to catch on to some things that pertain to teaching and classroom management. Transitions are hard. Period. During the afternoon, we have three subjects in a row. It’s probably pretty tough to have all materials prepared for the next subject so there will be some down time while things are being prepared. Even when the kids are given a task during that time, they still get fidgety and chatty, making it hard to get the next lesson started once everything is prepared. This is one thing that I am apprehensive about when looking forward to my full time teaching.

Thus far, my class seems to get along pretty well with each other. This works out nicely because there aren’t constant arguments disrupting class. However, when everyone gets along they like to chat and joke too much, and going back to the transitions, that can sometimes be a problem. I don’t say this to be misleading, because my mentor and I love to joke around and have fun with the kids. The kids just haven’t figured out the appropriate time for certain things. That’s the only reason I bring that up. Also, another golden problem is that many of the students love to read, but they can distract themselves with it during inappropriate times.

To end this post, I will tell about a fun activity we did today. It was titled, “Willy Wonka Needs Your Help!” My mentor teacher was able to integrate Math and Literature into this activity, which made it all the more fun. He read a passage from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, where Willy Wonka was sending out boxes of chocolate bars. The children then had to arrange tiles in as many ways possible to make an array for a certain multiple, thus finding all the factors of that multiple. They then cut out grid paper with the dimensions of their arrays and glued it to construction paper to be hung on the walls as references.