Today was a great day for our class! We got a lot of learning done and with less interruptions. It was also a great day for our class considering they were all coming back from a three day weekend. (It was also a good break for me too!) I started my bully unit today and it went great! I had students watch a child made video about bullying and then we talked about it. I also introduced the 4 types of bullying. I thought this would all be review for many of them but the different types was new. It was also interesting that a lot of the students I thought wouldn't pay as much attention really did. We also talked about why certain kids are targeted to be bullies and why kids might become bullies. Then I told them that we will be working on what we can do when we are being bullied and about what a bystander is and their roll in bullying.
After school I was able to attend a meeting for a student to help with behavior issues. To me this was fascinating because there were 5 people at the intervention for just one student. Each person played a different roll in the student's learning process. I thought it was awesome how each faculty member was so interested in helping the student and they really cared about getting them help. The meeting was about an hour long and in the time we were able to collaborate on what was being seen in and out of the classroom and then create a plan of action.
Tomorrow I'm going to start teaching math. Yikes. This is the first time I've been this nervous since the first week! Math is my weakest subject and I know I will be doing a lot of prep work after this blog is finished. It's reminding me that I have to let the students also know that I'm not all that great in every subject and I also have to work hard at things even though it might 'look' easy for me. One student commented on the fact that I could write really fast. (I was re-writing what was on the board onto a sticky note because it was hard for them to look from the board to their desks) I then told them that I wasn't always a fast writer and it had taken me a lot of years to learn how to write as well as write fast. They thought about that for about 2 seconds then began writing again.
A funny conversation started in the lunch line today. They were talking about what they wanted to be when they grew up and that conversation lead to me and how old I was. This lead to them thinking I was only 18. I said that I'm a bit older than that and then another kid piped in... yea your like 30. It made me laugh because of the way he said it making it seem like that was really old :/. Oh the things kids come up with.
Daniell--
ReplyDeleteI can definitely empathize when you talk about being nervous to begin teaching Math. Even though I have been studying Spanish for 8 years and I can understand it and speak it pretty well, there are certain rules and exceptions and things that I haven't considered in literally years. It's reminding me that just because I have a major in Spanish, I can't go in front of the class and assume I'll be able to wing it through a lecture on regular verbs. I have to review the material as they see it, review it once more, and then try to teach. I know Math is a little different, but those nervous feelings are the same. I think it's good, though. It keeps us fresh and really engaged in the classroom.
I hope your Math lesson went well! Maybe you wrote about it in your most recent post..I will have to check it out. :)