FInal Day

Yesterday was my last week at Drayton Hall and I was so so sad to leave! I have absolutely loved the students, but especially working with Mrs. Fisher, she has been beyond fantastic. She is so well knowledged and I still feel like I had so much more to learn from her. She has been so welcoming and wonderful and I don't think that I will get that lucky again! This week we went and practiced the children's plays with them and it was so neat to watch them. They were great! When we came back into the room they were all hiding and yelled surprise! They had a cake for us and they gave us each a book where Mrs. Fisher had written in it with a neat quote and where the children had all signed it! It was so sweet and wonderful! I was so sad to leave but after a million hugs we finally did. This was such a great experience and I LOVED every minute of it!

Drayton Hall week 9

This was my second to last week at Drayton Hall and it is so sad to me that it is almost over. I have bonded so much with these children and especially with my cooperating teacher, Mrs. Fisher. I have learned so much from her and I am still learning from her. I feel so lucky to have been placed with a teacher that has so much experience teaching, she literally has it down to a science. 

This week Allison taught her final lesson, a social studies lesson on needs and wants and how the children can differentiate between the two. It was a really cute lesson. She explained to them about needs and wants and read them a great book called the Rag Coat. Then she gave each child a card with a picture of something on it and they had to place it under the need or want category. It was such a great idea because it started some great discussion between the children if they did not agree for it to fall under the same category so it was neat to hear all of their responses and It think that they really enjoyed the lesson. 

Also this week, I did my assessment plan. I did a spelling sort on the hard c and soft c sounds and it went so great. The children really understood what I was teaching to them and it was also a neat experience to teach an entire lesson in a one-on-one situation which I know teachers do not get to do very often. It made me see how much you can understand about the children in your class and what level they are on, and I think the children really enjoy the personal time with the teacher as well. 

Stop and Think Ch. 4

What are your earliest memories about how your family and your teachers reacted? Did anyone in your family visit school? Who? Why? What was that like for you?

I don't have a lot of memories about bow my parents and my teachers interacted but I know that it was very minimal. I do not remember my parents communicating with my parents at all unless there was a problem. I think that this has a huge effect on the student and forms a big disconnect between the home/school relationship. I don't remember my parents visiting school except for a parent teacher conference that would be required. Otherwise the parent teacher relationship was not there whatsoever. Now, as a teacher I have been able to see how important this relationship is for all that are involved. I think it does wonders for the students and can even help them improve in their academics. Because my teachers did not form relationships with my parents, I am going to do my best as a teacher to make sure that I form positive relationships with my parents because I know how important these relationships can be. 

Anti Bias Response Question Ch. 2

What overt and covert lessons might children get from their favorite TV programs? Who is visible? Who is invisible? About which groups are there positive or negative messages?

I think that there are several overt and covert lessons that the children can get from their favorite TV shows. Most of them are about doing the right thing, making the right choice, being a good child, or being a good friend. etc. I think a lot of these are hidden but most of them are open for the children to see and understand. I think that in most of the children's television shows that I have seen that african americans are greatly missing. Most of the shows have almost all white children with one or two black children. But still I believe that in most shows the white male is the most visible and black male and females are invisible. I think that almost all of the television shows that are acceptable for children have positive messages, I have not seen very many that have a negative message however I have seen some that show the negative consequences from a bad decision or a wrong choice before the help the children to understand what negative outcome could happen. 

Final Lesson

This week was my final lesson to teach and believe it or not it went the best of any of my lessons! I think I am really starting to get the idea down from watching Mrs. Fisher and Allison but mostly from learning from my mistakes from teaching in the past. I taught a lesson on frogs and the frog life cycle and the kids really understood it and I think that they enjoyed the lesson overall. I put the worksheet on the Smartboard for them to see and it was so beneficial because they were able to understand my description and my directions and I had the least amount of questions with it as I ever have in the past. I also had the most control over the classroom as I have ever had. Any time I saw a problem I asked the students to move or to please stay quiet. I felt like I had great control over the class and that the students are starting to understand me and respect me as a teacher and it was such a great feeling.