Hs Week 2

Week 2

                This week was strange for me and all throughout this week I’ve been debating with myself whether I wanted to discuss the content of the classes or some things I’ve learned about myself as a person that may come into play when I am a teacher. I’ll write about both as I think they are both important but I’ll start with the latter of the two options.

                So going into school this week me and Cindy had a chance to mingle with some of the other teachers. Some of them were awesome, some not so much. I wouldn’t begin to say anything about any of their teaching performances, I haven’t seen them in action and even if I did let’s face it I’m so low on the totem pole it would be asinine to make any sort of negative judgments. What I will say is I met one teacher who I thought was a genuinely great guy who made an effort to make me and Cindy feel welcome in this school. We saw him teach our cooperating teachers class, as she had to attend a student teacher meeting, and honestly I can’t speak more highly of this man. The way he walked into a classroom that he had not established a community in and engaged the students was incredible. I think that speaks miles to his skills as an educator and as someone who makes a point of knowing not only his students, but also the students of his school.

                There was another teacher who was, unfortunately, slightly weird/inappropriate towards me and Cindy. I will not say much about him other than that he honestly made me feel uncomfortable to be around. It is what it is and the good of this week largely outweighed the bad.

                That being said I happened upon the school early enough to have to be part of the pledge of allegiance. I’m not wholly against the concept of it, but I myself don’t feel comfortable taking part in it. It got me thinking about my place in the school system and what it will be like when I run my own classroom. I felt I had to take part in it during my stay in someone else’s class, I don’t want to make waves, but in my own classroom I don’t want to have to do it. That got me thinking about the nature of it. Am I there to set a good example? I mean partly the reason I went ahead with it while I’m a guest in someone’s class room is because I feel I have to set an example for the actions the teacher/school want performed. That being said I myself don’t believe in it and, if I’m going to speak honesty, find the idea of watching a bunch of children recite something in unison kind of creepy. I don’t think I have an answer to any of these questions, but it is something to consider when I’m planning out what school community I want to be a part of when I’m looking for potential jobs.

                Well that’s probably enough heavy discussions for one blog post. Time for what I saw in the classrooms. So the train of progress seems to be moving pretty steadily. I’m still not sure where I can find my openings to become a larger part of the classroom dynamic, but I’ve been more motivated to look. We have the two classrooms that we will be focusing on. They’re reading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is great, I love that book. We’re still formulating ideas as to what we want to teach with them. I’m been thinking of a few ideas, something involving memoir and recap. I’m not sure though. Right now I’m starting to consider what I want them to get out of this book, during this lesson, and that is proving an interesting challenge. The book is largely about relationships and what they mean, how they are different, but it is also about memoir in some ways. This class is primarily focuses on writing so I’d like to focus the lesson around that.

                The other two classes (I’m observing four but two of them are doing the same thing) are a junior level class and a senior level class. I witnessed some great mediation of what could have ended up being an incident in the junior class. One student had a moment where she could potentially have had an episode in class. The teacher expertly handled the situation by removing her from the class (a negative stimulation) and talking to her one on one. The students were mature enough to keep working while the teacher talked with her and gave her some alone time to mellow out and return to class. Sometimes I get anxious and think that all time has to be strictly about learning and this was important for me to see. That student would have learned nothing in that class, in my opinion, in that state she was in. Sometimes facilitating learning is just as important, if not more important, that the actual learning. You have to build a bridge to education otherwise most of the content will end up drowning in the river along the way.

                I spoke briefly about how I am in two classes that are doing the same content. It is still crazy to me how differently they behave. One class has such low energy, but have no behavioral issues. The teacher tells them to do something and they do it, no questions. The other is livelier, but it is mostly to goof off. A lot of the students seem like their primary interest is looking good, or being a class clown and disruptive, but they seem like good kids for the most part.

                I guess my biggest concern is I want to be a bigger part of the classroom. This week the students should be starting to write more. I think that is the opening I’m looking for.