Students' Growth

It was so great returning to my kindergarten main placement class today and seeing all the children again! Although it has only been two months since I've seen them, they have grown and learned so much! The students are becoming much more independent and responsible. They have become very familiar with the classroom routines and transitions; my cooperating teacher no longer has to bring them to the rug to re-group and re-direct nearly as frequently. The classroom community feels even stronger than it did in September. It is quite evident that students feel comfortable and that they are an important member of the class, they have learned much about each other and have developed strong relationships while I have been away.

I was impressed with how much the students have grown academically as well. In their reading workshop, students are learning a variety of tools to read tricky words, in writing workshop, they are learning to write small moments with details, and in math, they are learning how to read, write, count and make the numbers 0-10, all of which is so very exciting!

I could not be more pleased to be back! :)

High expectations, with room for mistakes

I felt that the video we watched in our Instructional Design class brought up some great points we have been discussing throughout our program. One of which I believe to be the most important being that as teachers, we need to believe that every class (and student) is gifted and talented; our students need teachers who believe they are capable of achieving anything. We must hold high expectations for every student.

Closely related to the idea of high expectations, another valuable idea the video touched on was the importance of showing students that we, as their teachers, are learning every day, too. As role models, we need to show students that it is completely okay to make mistakes and that when we do make mistakes, valuable learning opportunities arise. Students should be encouraged to realize that there are many ways to be intelligent and that there is always more than one effective way to solve a problem.

Professional Development & Collaborative Literacy

Last week at my dyad placement, I was able to take part in a professional development experience with my cooperating teacher. Teachers from third grade through sixth grade from my placement school met at a neighboring elementary school within the district to discuss and observe a demonstration lesson taught by an exceptional sixth grade teacher surrounding collaborative literacy and guided practice. Overall, I felt this was a very constructive and beneficial professional development workshop for everyone who attended, as well as a wonderful learning opportunity for me, a developing teacher.

Prior to observing the literacy lesson, we discussed the importance of guided practice, small group practice and one-on-one conferencing as an effective way to maximize instruction for each individual child and in meeting each of your student’s needs. We also went over focus questions and shared what we hoped to take away from this observation experience personally.

When I stepped into the sixth-grade teacher’s room we would be observing, I was so excited, yet completely overwhelmed. There was an unbelievably amazing amount going on within this classroom, it truly was alive with learning. The room itself was so bright and friendly with lots of student work on the walls, there was a daily letter from the teacher to her students taped up to the whiteboard, their class mission statement, “To live, to love, to learn and to leave a legacy” was displayed proudly; the relationship that existed between teacher and student felt so personal. Her classroom was a culture of leaders; every student had a leadership role within the classroom and you could truly feel the thriving sense of community.

When she began teaching her poetry lesson, the students were completely engaged. Each student seemed so excited and eager to be there, to learn; everyone was actively listening and taking notes, offering insights and asking questions. The level of respect between teacher and students was inspiring. She welcomed comments and questions and verbally requested that students disagree or challenge her thinking if they thought or saw something differently than she did, making it clear that she was there to learn along with her students.

After the poetry lesson was over, the students began to work on their individual literacy activities specifically chosen for them, allowing the teacher the opportunity to meet with individual students or with literacy groups she needed to check-in with. The students’ sense of community was apparent during this time as well; as students worked independently, I saw students asking for and offering help to one another in a variety of ways and on a number of different occasions.

Overall, this experience provided me with a wonderful opportunity to grow in my own professional development. Although I have only touched on a few of the things I took away from this experience, it truly was amazing and inspiring to see a teacher’s deep knowledge and understanding of her students and their needs, as she strived to meet them exactly where they were in their development.

Celebrating Reading & Writing

I have always had a love for reading and writing, and as a teacher, I will aspire to instill that love in my students. When it comes to children’s literacy development, I understand the importance of reading and writing every day and referring to your students as “readers” and “writers;” if your students are to see themselves as readers and writers, you must first show them you believe in them. As teachers, we must see and appreciate what our students can do, recognizing their efforts and celebrating their achievements. By celebrating children’s efforts, we show them what we value and what we see as worthwhile.

Bilingualism

One of this week’s readings I found particularly interesting was Lily Wong Fillmore’s article, “When Learning a Second Language Means Losing the First.” Wong Fillmore and a group of researches decided to carefully examine the rising phenomenon of “subtractive bilingualism” in the United States through careful interviews of hundreds of immigrant families. The researchers’ findings, and the subsequent implications, are quite concerning and disheartening.

Previously, I had not considered the significant consequences of a young English Language Learner being immersed in a school culture that speaks solely English, or very little of his/her native language. Because of powerful forces of assimilation, social pressures, a desire to fit in, a need to communicate, etc., as children spend more and more of their time in this school culture they begin to lose their native languages, creating a language shift within his/her family; although the phenomenon is present in other areas of the world, the United States appears to have a much higher rate of subtractive bilingualism because we do not especially value ethnic diversity. Losing a primary language can have far-reaching effects on a child and his/her family. In many cases, parents are no longer able to socialize or communicate with their child, nor share their values, beliefs, understandings and wisdom with them, all of which holds the potential of breaking a family apart. Children can experience educational difficulties as a consequence of losing their primary language as well. Often times, children give up their native language before they have become efficient in English and risk the chance of never fully developing either language.

As a future teacher, I am concerned and disheartened by what we have learned from Wong Fillmore and other researchers’ findings. Learning a second language should not mean having to lose the first. Thus, I completely agree that children should not be required to learn English before they have fully developed their native language, but is this idea even possible in our present education system? How can we transform our school cultures into more accepting places where it is easier for children to maintain their cultural identities? 

The human component of teaching

I have mixed feelings about Sugatamitra’s video from TED.  While I agree with some of what was presented, that many times “good” teachers don’t necessarily go where they are needed the most and that children are completely capable of learning on their own, which they do every single day, the idea that Self Organizing Learning Environments and “granny clouds” could potentially take the place of the human component of teaching is quite troublesome to me. Isn’t there something to be said for the human relationship that develops between students and their teacher over the course of the year that they spend together? What about the consistent guidance, kindness and support present in traditional classrooms as the teacher carefully and thoughtfully supports individual growth in her classroom? It seems to me that everything we have learned through our program thus far goes against this idea of sitting kids in a small room as they watch someone impart their knowledge to them from a screen. Where does differentiated instruction and designing lessons for students’ individual needs and interests fit into all of this? Are there different avenues for students to access learning and show what they know? Is this supporting educational equity? What does this form of education prepare a child for? While I do believe that technology has great potential in positively influencing education, a simple yet important question we must continue to ask ourselves is, what is technology good for and what is it not good for?