Blog Entry 8: The Most Important Thing I Learned

I learned a lot of important things while working for Mrs. Call as her TA.  I learned how to manage a classroom.  I learned how to teach.  I learned a ton of fun activities that I plan on using in my future classroom.

But by far, the most important thing I learned was why people become teachers and why I should become a teacher.  This actually didn't happen during the brief time that I was doing fieldwork observations but instead happened in January.  At Lincoln Academy TAs work as the substitute teachers if the teacher ever has to leave.  There had been a nasty flu going around and Mrs. Call was not exempt.  She missed four days of work and I was left to teach.  These four days, although miserable for her, were the best four days of my life.  It was the longest stretch in a row that I had to sub. And because she was sick her sub plans were somewhat incoherent which means I also had to use my own knowledge and skill.  But I loved it.  I even started crying one morning because I just so happy to be there and knew that my students were going to come in soon.

So, what was the lesson I learned?  Being a teacher is hard.  It requires a ton of hard work with little respect, little pay, and little reward.  So, why do people do it?  They do it for the kids.  They do it because they love the kids and because they want to see the kids grow up and succeed.  And I knew that I needed to become a teacher for that reason.  Nothing made me happier than seeing kids get concepts that had been hard to them previously, a smile on their face when they realize that you care about them, or the kindness that they showed to each other and me.  I would do absolutely anything for those kids, and that includes the daunting task of finishing college and becoming a teacher.  Which leads me to the path that I'm taking now.  I'm not very good at University but I'm doing it and finishing my degree for them.

Blog Entry 7

Mrs. Call was really good at keeping students on task and making sure that they behaved.  She would use rewards such as treats, kisses, and table points.  She would also take away minutes of recess if they were misbehaving or unable to finish their classwork on time.  She taught me that one of the best ways to manage a classroom is to have the students respect you.  However, I quite frequently felt like the students were more scared of her than just respected her.  And although I was trying to learn from her, this was one aspect that I felt like I could not apply in my future classroom.  I do not want my students to be scared of me.  I want my students to feel like school is a safe place and that I'm a safe person to talk to.

Perhaps not using fear relies too much on intrinsic motivation, though, I'm not sure.  Because I was terrible at classroom management.   I did feel like the students definitely respected me, because they knew I respected them.  They definitely didn't fear me.  I was told that I was "too nice to be strict."  But they didn't take me seriously either, probably because they saw me as more of a peer rather than an authority figure.

Learning how to manage my classroom is one of the things that I look most forward to learning.  I know there must be an in between from having the students fear me and having the students not take me seriously at all.

Blog Entry 6

Mrs. Call does quite a few different activities that encourage student participation such as interactive notebooks, classroom discussion, and science experiments.  But one that I noticed that she does that the students really love and seems to be very effective in a 5th Grade classroom is her reviews.  She'll keep a container full of chocolate kisses and ask review questions that will help the students on the test.  Immediately most, if not all, of the hands in the room are in the air.  She waits a few seconds and then will call on someone.  She's really good at knowing who she's already called on and her withiness is really good too so she's equally as good at making sure to call students in all parts of the classroom.  I'm not entirely sure how she does this.  If they get the question right she'll throw them a piece of candy.

I actually did this technique myself one time when I was teaching the class.  There were no students that weren't paying attention and all of the students really enjoyed the practice.  I was actually surprised because there were certain students who I would think would not pay attention.  But getting candy thrown to them is a lot of fun.  And it's a good way to get feedback of what they know.