Student Teaching Journal: Day 5

August 13, 1999

My favorite thing that happened today was DL made me a Pokémon bracelet.  He said it is Squirttle. (sp?)

This kid was freaking adorable.  And smart.  And creative.  I was actually jealous that he made these bracelets for the teacher, the aide, and some of the kids every day, but I never got one.  (Reality check?  This was the fifth day, I.)  I was overjoyed when he made one for me, but I had to play it cool. 

 I think it was right at the beginning of school, I saw him making a beeline for me and I wondered what he would say.  He came right up to me and said, “Miss Institutrice, I made this for you because you help us.”  How sweet!  I wore it all day, I was so proud!  When I went to the grocery store after work, the cashier asked me if I was a teacher – because of DL’s bracelet!  I was grinning from ear-to-ear. 

Today had its good and bad parts.  The spelling test went pretty well.  I remembered to use Mrs. J’s strategy of fingers in the air, etc., when they were ready for the next question.  Also today I didn’t have 5 kids asking me, “What is it?” on each one.  Maybe because it was test day. 

“Fingers in the air” means I would say the word, use it in a sentence, say the word again, and then wait a few seconds.  Then I said, “Show me two fingers when you are ready for number two.”  I used this for a long time on tests, but not in a few years, especially since fifth grade spelling tests have 20 words.   

 Also in this paragraph is one of my old lower case “k”s.  Boy does it looks weird.  I remember by this time I was having a hard time reading my own writing sometimes because of my “k”s – they ended up looking like an “l” and a “c”.  This school used Denelian handwriting, and the printed “k” looks like a (correct) cursive one.  We did a write-to every day, and I wanted to use the same handwriting as the school; you are paying so much attention to your writing when you write in front of kids that it was easy to remember to change it.  But, I wanted to change it in my everyday writing, too; it was really super hard, but by Christmas I had changed my writing to use the Denelian “k”, and I still do. Now the kids give me a hard time because in printing, they think it is an “R”.  I say, “Does that make sense?” (especially if it would be a capital R in the middle of a word.  I know how to use capitals, not like you, kids!)  Now I do most everything in cursive – which they can’t read, hah hah – so it doesn’t matter anyway.

 Reading went okay.  I thought we would be doing the Health shared reading then, but it was the regular book so I wasn’t even sure what they were reading.  It was a riddle that some of them know so they were reading fast, and too fast for the others.  That happened again later.  I’m not sure what to do about it.  I try to read loud and set the pace, but I don’t want to go too slow and not too fast either.  That is a tricky one.  I think that’s why I don’t like choral reading so much, it can hold back the good readers and frustrate the slower ones. 

I use choral reading in fifth grade, but I guess it goes better than described here because they can read better.  I explain that reading out loud is different than reading in your head, that they have to make sure other people can understand them, and that when we read all together we need to stay together and sound good.  I start my voice loud at first, and then soften up as we get into the paragraph, so I can hear them.  If they start reading to fast, I get loud again, or sometimes I just stop reading.  It’s amazing they can hear me over everyone else because they stop almost right away after I do.  I also only use it for short things, or to wake them up.    Now choral responding, that I do a LOT of! 

 Holy crap this is a long paragraph – two pages, handwritten! 

I had brought 2 books about friends to read after lunch because I thought we’d be doing Health before lunch and I could tie the two together.  (Ch. 2 in the health book was about family and friends.)  So that didn’t quote work out the way I planned, but they liked the books.  When we sat down to read after lunch, they asked who could pick a book, and I asked if I could pick the book today, and I had brought 2 from home.  They really liked that!  Ones who don’t usually pay so much attention were listening, maybe because they had never seen it before.  And then a few (AB, ES) were not paying attention at all.  At least it wasn’t as bad as what happened during Health.  They sat on the floor and we read.  That went okay.  There are questions at the end of some of the paragraphs.  I wanted them to discuss them and they raised their hands to answer, so that was good.  The “bad” part is, once they start talking, some stop paying attention and start chattering.  Then it is hard to get them to refocus and start reading again.  That was manageable though, and we were getting through it.  Toward the end, AL asked if she could get a tissue.  I said yes, and in the blink of an eye, half the class was over at the trash can!  I had no idea what was going on.  I was completely confused.  Then I realized Miss J (the 2^nd grade aide) was taking down the temporary name tags and putting up the permanent ones on the cubbys.  They were fishing their names out of the trash! 

This is why I don’t like other people in the room. 

I just thought to myself, How and when did they even get over there?  I just looked over at Mrs. J and pointed my thumb at them and mouthed, “What’s going on??”  I think I was so shocked I couldn’t even think of what to do or say.  We talked about it later.  I told her we were reading, A asked for a tissue, then half the group was at the trash can.  She couldn’t believe it either.  She keeps telling me to stop the problem as soon as it starts.  I thought I had been doing that, but either I’m not, or else I’m not noticing problems soon enough ?  I know part of it is I get really annoyed with repeating myself.  How many times can I tell them to stay in their seat? 

I would like to point out, THIS IS THE FIFTH DAY.  The fifth day of my teaching career, and I was already saying, “I can’t stand repeating myself.”   

But, if I do it the way Mrs. J does – by putting it back on them by asking them, “What are you supposed to be doing?” or “Where are you supposed to be?”  Because they do know and it is effective when she does it.  She also said if I ever have to, to say it’s a warning, and they can choose to behave or choose to not participate, and if I have to, send tem to their seat and the others will get the message.  What she suggested to do in a situation like Health when there were questions to answer is #1 set a number of responses for each question (otherwise it can go on forever and they start repeating) and #2 state up front that I will choose people exhibiting behaviors I want, like sitting properly or reading along, etc.  I did do that with the sitting today, praising the ones who were sitting nicely; it worked a little bit. 

This is the stuff they don’t teach you in college.  My “Classroom Management” course was all about personality types; we spent 8 of the 16 weeks on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.  (I go back and forth between INTJ and ISTJ – it depends how I’m feeling that day if I come out iNtuitive or Sensing. ) It was hugely fascinating, but unless I administer the test to my class, how is it going to help me?  New teachers need these kinds of tips - how to get kids to be quiet, sit right, raise their hand, engage in a lesson, etc. 

On the good side for the Health lesson, they had some excellent ideas for what is a family, a friend, and rules families have and why.  They all knew about Stranger Danger and don’t play with matches.  They are such good kids. 

This is also the class where my stereotypes about Hispanic and Poor families were (thankfully) disproven.  Almost all of the kids came from two-parent, married homes. 

I also have to keep in mind this was just my first week.  I am still learning!  I know the strategies, I just have to give myself time to practice them and get comfortable with them.  The students seem to like me, but they are just testing me because I am new.  I know they aren’t doing it on purpose, it’s just human nature. 

When I was helping ER and IV with Math, somehow we got talking Spanish.  ER and AR were playing teacher and testing words I know, it was funny.  And they loved it!  They go their work done, too, so I thought it was okay.  It made a connection and also lets them show off what they know! 

I guess Mrs. J wasn’t close by – I wonder if this journal will go up to the time she reprimanded me for giving directions in Spanish to a girl who had just moved up from Mexico.  Gringa.