Well, its been a long time since I've posted. But now I'm not student teaching anymore, instead I'm subbing. So from now on my blog will be about the adventures of substituting. I'm also working at a private school before and after school as well so you will hear some of the stories from that too!
I would attempt to catch the blog up with everything so far, but then I would be typing all night and that would be boring. So This blog is dedicated to pre-school! The classroom I was in today as a para (which they definitely don't get enough credit because they rock) was insane! The room had 20 kids, 1 teacher and 2 paras. For those of you that don't know, para = paraprofessional. Basically paid less teacher's aids. The classroom was full of students that should have had one-on-one attention because as a whole the group isn't learning as much as they could because of these students. The first student (I'll call him joe) had major anger problems. I felt bad for the little guy because every 10 minutes he was in the quiet corner for bursting out, hitting, yelling etc. I think he just didn't know how to control his emotions. The next little tyke was a 3 year old, who I and the teacher think, might be autistic. He isn't able to talk yet other than the words nigh nigh when he lays down. This guy didn't follow any directions and basically the teacher let him do his own thing as long as he wasn't putting himself or others in danger. If she wouldn't ignore him, all her attention would be on him because that's how much of a spit fire he is!
Anyway, I have to give pre-school teachers more credit after today. They don't know who's coming into their rooms and they don't have any inkling of what they will be like or what they need. Branstead is trying to take these programs away or make them more expensive, but these children need the program. If they can start learning the basics of "school" before kindergarten, then they will be able to focus more on the learning once they get there. The basis of their study is to see how much progress academically the students make in pre-school. The problem is most of the grow is in the way they act, the way the are able to line up/sit down/follow directions etc. If they take the funding away from pre-schools like Polk, many of the families wouldn't even be able to afford the 3$ a week. That's a loaf of bread and peanut butter, or at least a pizza to feed a family. Either the family starves for a day or they send the kiddo to school? Politicians don't understand what it's like to be poor, but yet they make the rules for those that have to live that way. All they care about is the money that's going into their own wallets. I'd like to see them live off of even a teacher pay.
