Day 8...I Used To Be Where You Are (3/10/10)

I don’t want to keep bashing these cooperating teachers. I know that what they are doing is different than what the other schools are doing in this area. It is just the first couple of weeks trying to figure out their systems and teaching practices. Today was a really good day with my cooperating teacher. We spent quite an amount of time talking about what I would be doing with the afternoon classes and telling her why I was doing it. She seems to be coming around to what I am trying to accomplish with the students.

Having my colleague here is really helpful and facilitates my teaching because we are going through similar things together. However, sometimes I wonder if it is taking away and hindering my relationship with my cooperating teacher. I feel as if I am relying on him too much rather than her. We haven’t done a lot of talking about teaching and how she experiences things like the way my last cooperating teacher and I did. I need to try to get out of this little comfort zone I am in with my colleague being here and start conversing with my cooperating teacher. I think that will make things go a little smoother and lessen the tensions between all of us.

Today, I told the one morning class and a few students in the second that I understand what they are feeling. The students are bored with Tae-Bo and they don’t like participating in it. I said to them “I know where you are coming from because there are times where I get bored myself with doing the same tape all day long with the other classes, but just do me one favor. You only have to do this one more time (Friday), so please give me your best effort. Then after this week, you don’t have to worry about doing it again. At this, I got a little bit more participation from the students, but it was still like pulling teeth. At the very end, I addressed the whole class and said “If you have me for next rotation, you will have more fun and like what we do.” I don’t want to discredit my cooperating teacher by saying this, but I wanted to provide the students with a little bit of optimism and hope for future P.E. classes. I will have to see if they do well on Friday.

While the students were getting changed for the class, I heard my cooperating teacher say, you can’t change in the bathroom. Curiously, I asked the teacher why. She explained to me that the students are not allowed to change in the bathroom or back where the showers are. I was completely taken aback by this. She further explained that they had that rule set in place so that there wouldn’t be forty girls changing in the stalls and the showers. I still don’t understand the rule. She said that some 6th graders will try this, but by the time they are in 8th grade, it doesn’t matter to them anyway. There are some pretty big girls who just don’t feel comfortable changing in front of people. I know if it were me, I would still continue to change in the bathroom or shower stall. At this time during a girl’s life, the last thing that she wants to worry about is if somebody is looking at her while changing and making judgments on her body. I know how they feel, I used to be that girl.

At the beginning of the third class, I had one girl walk up to me and we just started talking. During that conversation, she had mentioned that she was glad I was teaching the class now. “Why do you say that?” I replied. “Because you’re cool and we do more fun stuff,” she responded. “Haha okay, but why is it that you were one of the ones who complained about doing the boring work (paperwork).” At this she didn’t respond and we walked into class. Maybe these students are seeing what we are trying to do with them. Maybe she didn’t respond because she couldn’t fully express why she liked the class a little better than with my cooperating teacher. Then again, students seem to like having student teachers more and I think it’s because we offer a variety (I say variety not because of activity, but it’s being with someone new instead of the regular teacher they have all the time).

It’s amazing at how much the students still really enjoy participating in tag games. I always thought that they would view themselves as being “too good” for these “childish games.” Even when I told them we would be playing add-on tag, I had a little resistance from some of the students. After explaining them the rules, they still seemed a little slow to get it. However, just like yesterday, they just needed to get warmed up to the activity. After the first round, I asked the students what we are trying to learn from this. Some ideas were shot around and some of the students said the obvious: teamwork and communication. I let them play another round using my rules. However, before the third round, I asked them, if you could change the game, how would you change it? One student said play the whole court and nobody disagreed with him, so that is what they did. After this round, we needed to move onto another activity. I had a few complainers because they wanted to continue playing this game. I wonder if they like it so much because it takes them back to their childhood days when they would run around and try tagging people.

The next activity was all aboard. Before we began that activity, I told the students that in the next 8 weeks, they would spend a lot of time developing relationships with their classmates and learning how to be comfortable around them. I said that this activity will teach you to be comfortable with your classmates because we will be getting really close together. Needless-to-say, there was a lot of chaos and no real teamwork from the students as well as them being immature. I pulled them apart and asked them a series of questions starting with “what do we have to do to be successful as a group Now you are working as a team trying to reach the same goal, what do you need to do?” After a few ideas being shot around, they finally came up with teamwork and communication again. This time I asked them, “What do teams usually have?” Responses included captains, coaches, and leaders. I said “Who is going to step up and be a leader.” Immediately a few hands were shot into the air. One student was like “Pick me” while others were pointing to other students in the class. I responded, “I will not pick a leader, but if you want to be a leader, you have to reveal yourself to the class.

We continued into partner leads and partner falls. These activities are meant to build trust in each other. I asked them this and they responded with trust. I said, “I know we talked about creating a classroom that was safe for you as students. Is it important that you trust your classmates? This is what I am trying to teach you; to trust in your classmates, respecting them, and cooperating with them. If you can’t trust your class, then what I am trying to do with you just isn’t going to work.”

At the end of the class, I showed them the poster that I made for the class stating the rules and consequences for making those rules. I told them that they needed to sign it and by doing so, they were agreeing to follow the rules and consequences we set up as a class. They applauded me for doing their poster for them. I don’t know what the applause was all about, but it was nice to receive it. I also gave them a homework assignment in which they had to write down the 3 things they believed they learned from the class today. While many students were verbal during the class when I asked them questions, I want to hear from the other students who are too shy to speak up in the class and think that this is a good way to do so. I think that they got the general concepts of what I was trying to teach them, but still want to see if any student saw it in a different light. I hope they remember to do it. :)

At the very end of the day, I walked into the portable for advisory. As I walked in, the one boys sitting by the door said, “Hey aren’t you the P.E. chick?” I said, “Excuse me?” He just looked at me. I said, “You don’t refer to me as a chick. I am a girl and your teacher. You can refer to me as your P.E. teacher. I don’t want you to refer to me as chick again.” My cooperating teacher just smiled and said, “That’s right.” The student just sat there silently. Students these days just seem to not have any respect for their teachers or even their peers for that matter. I know it’s the dialect and language of this area, but they can still learn how to respect one another and those who are older than them.