This week flew by extremely fast. I was able to sit in with the remedial teacher who takes students out when they need extra help. I found this very interesting as she is not trained as a special education teacher but she works on everything that a special education teacher would work on. She had notebooks where the students work on phonics, tracking, sight words, sentence building and more. This was a good experience because it opened my eyes to how Kingswood staff works with students who need extra help. In my previous reflection, I said that students were not offered special education services, but indeed they are. The only difference is that in the United States, we have specialized teachers trained in the area.
I have been working on my pacing and wait time with students this week. In one particular lesson that dealt with students working in centers (half the class were working on level appropriate puzzles, and the other half of the class were working on their maths books) I made sure I gave students sufficient time to finish their work. I have been trying to focus on making sure the lessons are short enough to grasp student attention but long enough to be sure students are learning the content appropriately. It is my first time in a general education first grade classroom, and I definitely need to be sensitive to the age of my students!
I implemented a whole group behavior system with a shading chart. I shade a part of the Christmas tree whenever the whole group is on task. I think this strategy is working well because it teaches community building with the students and it allows the students who often are re-directed to still earn something instead of putting the focus on individuals. I also started a post-it note system with a student who is very impulsive and has auditory processing disorder. He is also being assessed for ADD. He can earn stars and bad marks everyday, and by the end of the week, if he has more stars than bad marks, he gets a piece of licorice as decided when we put together our contract.
So far, this has minimized his impulsive behavior (calling out and poking others) at some points of the day, but does not decrease his impulsivity. I am going to be strategizing this week to see if there is a better option to put into place. If he does indeed have ADD, the impulsivity is not oppositional behavior; he is not able to control it. I am going to keep an eye on his behavior this week and take some data to see if the behavior plan is working to minimize his impulsivity.
I have been paying close attention as well to how I think about the things I’m observing in South Africa in relation to education. When something is different, people often think that it means that it is wrong or not the right way to do things. I’m opening my eyes to experiencing things without being biased and I’m finding the good in everything I learn, even if I do not agree about something, because this is how I will grow as a person.
I taught a Michigan lesson for fifth graders last Friday in Philip’s classroom. The lesson went fantastic as I started it with K-Know, W-What to know, and L-What I learned, sheet. The students did a great job with thinking of one or two things they KNOW about the United States or Michigan and then we brainstormed things they want to know. I think I planned out the lesson and executed it appropriately for the grade level and I was happy with the pacing as well.
I told them after the lesson they would write down a few things they learned in the L box and if they didn’t find out the answer to one of their questions, they could use resources. The students were fantastic at naming what resources they could use i.e. internet, books, someone from Michigan. I read a from “A Curious Glimpse of Michigan” which gave some knowledge and background about Michigan as well as some crazy facts and we ended the lesson with a geography activity where students received a template of Michigan and filled in some important cities and economic resources in the Upper and Lower Peninsulas.
The lesson was only an hour, and the students were still coloring their maps when I left, so I told Philip he could later assess the lesson by asking students to fill in a blank template of Michigan and write 2-3 things they learned from my lesson. He enjoyed my lesson and I got some great feedback. Feedback is the only way we can grow as educators; we must know what other professionals think about the way we are teaching.
I started volunteering today at the Lebone Center, which is a center that is not directly a part of Kingswood but the Red Dragon, an ECD program, is located in the same building. The Red Dragon is funded through Kingswood, while the Lebone Center is a welfare program for students in the township who are “at risk.” The building provides food, play and games for the students and as a teacher; I am going to provide more structured lessons a few times a week! Of course I will make these lessons interactive and fun because the students are in dire need of extra love and affection. The students come after their school day is over, around 2pm, eat lunch and then stay from 2-4:30. The children are so full of life and I can truly say I know working with them will be a life changing experience. I want to try and do as much as I can to better this center while I’m there. Leah, Nichole and I will collaborate some lessons so the students can benefit from three teachers ideas instead of one!
I want to differentiate instruction this week with my students by doing some centers. Today we were able to have half of the class do an art project, while the other half worked on independent reading. I want to think of specific activities the students need to do with their reading, such as comprehension questions, writing down words they do not know on post its, or keeping a readers theater type notebook where they draw a picture in regards to what they read. I want to go deeper then just the surface content which is what I feel sometimes happens when we as teachers don’t think of individual needs!
All for now,I miss all of you!!
Miss P
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