So I have decided that the rest of the week will be a complete reflection over the past 16 weeks of this semester. I have had many of things come to me and of course, it’s me. I love to write and so here I am trying to type as fast as I can think. It’s difficult though because my thoughts are going a mile a minute. We’ll give it a shot. Hopefully I remember everything that I am thinking! I’ll start off with how things went today.
Welp. It’s already hump day. Only two more days life. What an experience. My first class today got to teach their games to other classmates. I think that they enjoyed it. I saw a lot of the students becoming engaged and participating in each other’s game. After observing each group and their game, I tried changing one of them up a little bit because there was a lot of waiting. The students seemed to go with it and didn’t complain. The changes seemed to be an improvement on their game and they said that it makes it better. After about 10 minutes of observing and making sure the students were participating, I started jumping into the games and playing with the students. I saw an increase in their intensity of participation. This just really goes to show that whenever the teacher participates, the students participate more. I realized today that I haven’t done a lot of that (playing with the students) lately. I guess I just get lost in observing and watching the students.
Before class, I was standing outside talking to one of the other teachers at the school. I noticed this boy was lining up for P.E. and he was crying. I pulled him aside and started talking to him and asked him what was wrong. He immediately started telling me “They won’t leave me alone. They keep harassing me.” “Who is they?” “All the 6th graders. They keep bullying me.” Oh boy. Really. I have to have this conversation with this student so soon after the recent events. I just wasn’t ready to deal with this kind of problem so soon. He was reluctant to give me a kid’s name, but he told me eventually. I sent him to the counselor so he could talk to someone and I told my cooperating teacher.
At the end of this first class, the principal came into class and talked to everyone about their behavior. She had made an announcement over the intercom, but all of our students were outside. She talked to them about their pushing and shoving, inappropriate contact, and gossip. She said that it had to stop or they are immediate write ups. I hope that there is still the support there whenever we actually start sending the students to the office because of this kind of behavior. It is so prevalent anymore these days. Then again, it’s amazing how these kids are so protective of their sexuality, but yet they can hang all over each other. Then when you call them out on it, they begin defending themselves. There needs to be a change in student behavior and I don’t think that continuous write ups are doing the job.
The second class today was our adapted physical education class. They are so much fun and with this class, I have probably had the most fun all semester. Today, they finally brought all of the students instead of just a select few. We got out the scooters and some of us played scooter basketball while others got ropes and tied them on the scooters to pull the kids around. It was such a somber day with those kids because today was our last day with them. They were such great kids and a wonderful group of staff members who brought that class every week.
The third class was my honors class. My honors class started teaching their dances today. We only got to two of the groups because people in other groups were still on their fieldtrip. I must say that they did a fantastic job. I absolutely loved it. I started the class with a six minute warm up dance in which the students danced to how they feel the music. Well, I had a few girls doing it every once in a while and there was about three or four girls who didn’t really move. They did such a good job teaching. At the end of class, I had enough time to teach the Cotton Eyed Joe at the end of class. I combined 3 different variations. I believe the students really enjoyed this.
Dr. Oliver came to observe this class today and that was a lot of fun too. She jumped in and started dancing. It was really fun to dance with her even though she was very hard to lead. I am the same way though. That is why I always take the lead when I dance. It was so funny when the girls went to leave the class. I told one of the girls what a good job they did today dancing. The girl responded “Of course. We are cheerleaders. We know how to count beats.” I just kind of chuckled as she walked out the door.
The third class today also got to teach their games to each other. This class was more difficult to get involved and engaged. They got everything set up and played for the first 10 minutes. After that, they kind of just stopped playing. I had them switch who was teaching the game and once again, after 10 minutes they got bored. There were only a few groups of students who really got engaged in one another’s game. Near the end of class, I pulled them inside and talked to them about their participation and gave them the same speech about boredom and their games as I did with the first class.
Today I had to tell one of the students in my class that he had to stop touching me the way he does. Every time he comes into class, he always starts talking to me and puts his hands on my shoulders and has to face me and be real close. I just straight up told him that “it’s okay to talk to me face to face, but you need to stop putting your hands all over me.” He seemed a little taken aback by this, but he seems to be okay with it. It was just putting me in an uncomfortable situation and I finally had enough of it because it just kept progressing from one hand to two hands to actually up in my face. Some students just need to learn boundaries.
Overall, today I felt content with what the students were doing even after seeing some of the kids waiting around. It’s probably the senioritis setting in and me not really making a big deal out of the situation because I am leaving soon. I feel like if things were going to be changed and made different, it would have been done by now.
I am going to use the next couple of days as a time of reflection and remembrance of all that has occurred over the past semester. I have made it my personal goal to be the happiest, most optimistic person at any school I go to. I can’t believe the amount of negativity in some of the teachers that I have come across over the past 16 weeks and even here at the middle school or their lack of caring for the students. Then we wonder why students are the way they are. We wonder how they could be so bad and not care about their education. School should be a placed filled with people who teach because they care, not because it was the easiest thing for them to do to earn a half decent paycheck. School may be the only place children can go where some receive the attention they need because they aren’t getting it at home. I believe it’s when they don’t get it at either place is when they begin to act out. Acting out is a way for them to get attention. Most teachers succumb to it because it disrupts their classroom. Other teachers handle it pretty well and know how to react to those situations.
Over the course of the past 16 weeks, I have experienced two different groups of students. The students know when there is a newcomer. I have had a lot of students staring at me as I am walking down the halls or standing in their classrooms. One type of student will welcome you with open arms. They are glad that you are there because they like meeting new people or getting a chance to “suck up” to a new teacher. The other type of student will be resistant. They want nothing to do with you. They don’t acknowledge your presence. They feel as though they don’t have to listen to you because you haven’t been around. Some teachers are like this too. There are some who welcome you, want to work with you, and get to know you. They feel relieved whenever you come and want to do some of their job for them. Then there are others who don’t acknowledge the fact that you are in the school. They hate that you are there because they may feel like you are treading on their space. Some may think, it’s my way or the highway and you do what I tell you to do. I wonder if this is innate in all of us because I see it at both levels. Will the children grow out of it or will this aspect of their life remain the same. Meaning, they will never like new people coming in and out of their lives.
Some battles are not worth fighting for. As an instructor, you have to pick and choose and decide what is really important. Safety, first and foremost, should be on the top of the battle list. Setting up protocols is equally as important. A teacher doesn’t want chaotic classes, so he/she must set up the rules even when in later classes he/she will be constantly reminding students of those protocols. To me, protocols need to be something that is reinforced daily. You can’t just let it slide once because then every student will think that he/she can get away with it. However, the whole “coach” issue is something I have just let slide. Every once in a while, well almost every day, when a student says “Coach M,” I always say “Miss M.” It’s one of the things that I don’t put much emphasis on at this point because there are more important things on my list, but it is still something that I gently remind my students about.
It is so important for a teacher of any grade level or specialization to set up rules and protocols for the class and then consequences for breaking those. Without them, students can take advantage of you. Although, as a student teacher, this is difficult because rules and protocols are already set in place before you get there unless you start at the beginning of a new school year. This has been a challenge for me, but it is also teaching me how to work with my cooperating teacher. It makes it an easier student teaching semester when cooperating teachers are willing to work with you and incorporate your ideas into their lessons. I have had a different experience at both places. One was very supportive and always there but the other one was not as much. Not only is it a learning period for me, but they are gaining a good experience as well (or so I think).
A teacher needs to be firm with the students, but yet respecting and nurturing at the same time. This is something I struggle with, although I have gotten better at disciplining (considering where I started from). I always catch myself giving students “second chances.” Those second chances turn into 3, 4, or 5 chances. I know this is something I struggle with and it’s not because I don’t want them to think I am mean (that’s far from it). I just like to see the good in everyone and I, for some reason or another, think that maybe this time they will listen. Well, the majority of the time, they don’t!
Well, only 2 more days. Until tomorrow!
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