Tutoring on March 27

This week in tutoring my first job was to assist two students who were having trouble combining the important things from a few sentences into one sentence with many facts so they wouldn't plagiarize. It was actually sort of difficult for me to do! We would have to combine 2-3 sentences but the sentences were already so short and to the point that it made it very difficult! And anyways, I didn't learn about plagiarism until years after second grade!

Either way - doing all of these activities with children is really helping me learn how to break something down and make it easier to understand for children. As a speech pathologist I am going to need that skill when working with children who need to learn how to make sounds correctly. Luckily, working with speech we have the resources such as our own production of sounds and the actual visualization of our mouth to assist these children. I find it slightly harder as a teacher because with teaching a lot of things that are being taught are abstract, there aren't many visuals to work with. Yes, there are visualizations such as pictures and things, but why do we spell 4 four and for without a 'u'? -- Because we just do! If that's not confusing to a 5-7 year old I don't know what is! Teaching takes such abstract ideas and teachers must find ways around the abstract-ness of it all to help children understand.

Before tutoring I always found myself to be very nervous and uneasy when it came to explaining things to children. I was always second guessing myself. Tutoring has taught me ways around that and has boosted my confidence in working with children and has taught me ways to better teach and explain certain things to children. :)

This Week!

This week, my cooperating teacher has been out sick Monday and today due to personal reasons. On these two days, I felt very privileged to be able to assist the substitutes, since I know the routines and daily schedule of the classroom. It was very encouraging to see how the substitutes responded to my comments and actions, since I am not technically a "teacher" yet. This made me feel more confident as an educator. I was also surprised to see the students behaving and listening to me, since the cooperating teacher wasn't there (usually students act horribly for substitutes). On Tuesday, my cooperating teacher was in school. I assisted her with creating command signs (such as classroom rules and certain times of the day) and classroom job signs, (such as Line Leader, Pencil Sharpener, etc.). We did this using a new program that the school must adapt to, as of recently. Since my cooperating teacher is not very technologically savvy, I figured out how to work the program and created the things she needed for the classroom. Also, while the students were watching a surprise educational film after gym to calm down, I was able to chat with her more than usual. I've never really had the chance to talk to my cooperating teacher personally, so I really felt like I bonded with her during this time. She answered questions I had based on classroom management strategies and gave me many hints as to how to go about gaining management. She was very straightforward with me and honest about her comments that she gave back to me, and I really appreciated it. My cooperating teacher even mentioned that she would love to have me next semester, which is awesome because I plan on taking this course semester as well. So I really hope it all works out!

Bullying

Like I said in the last post, the students in my classes have been learning about bullying. Everything they've done has related to this. THey had their Rskills tests on Tuesday and Wednesday, and all the readings and writing was about bullying. As a reward for their focus on the test, the teacher let them watch a video on bullying on Thursday. The video was 30 minutes long and was based on a true story about a boy that was severely bullied by three other boys in middle school. This video showed reenactments of what was happening and I was having a difficult time holding back tears. They showed the kid being pushed and hit around by these other boys and it was actually pretty disturbing. The bullying goes to far and one point and the boys lock the victim in a bathroom and try to give him a "swirly." They accidentally drop him and he hits his head on the toilet seat, knocking him unconscious and putting him in a coma for a couple of days. The three boys are arrested for aggravated harassment. When the other boy returns to school two weeks later, the school holds an assembly in his honor against bullying. Like I said, I had a hard time watching this. It made me sick to my stomach.

After the movie ended, my teacher turned the lights on and one of the girls was crying uncontrollably at her seat. It was heart-wrenching. I think that maybe this video was too much for the age group, but I'm hoping that it helps in the long run. The students all took it very seriously. A lot of the kids in the class have behavior issues already, and have gotten in trouble for bullying, so I'm hoping this video will help change this.

To me, this was the most important thing that happened during tutoring this week. I think this had a bigger impact on the students than anything else they did.

Poems

In my classroom, for the past couple of weeks, the students have been learning about bullying. This is actually really good for them because they've had a lot of issues with this in the past. I tutor at School 5 and this is the only school in the district with a "break program" or a program that works one on one with students that have behavioral problems. This means that any students that get expelled from other schools end up at School 5. In fact, just today, there was an issue with one of my students bullying another in the bathroom. He has been doing so well lately, too, so this really hurt. Anyway, today they were writing poems and it went over really well!

At first, the students groaned when they heard they were writing poems, but they quickly realized how fun they could be. Some wrote acrostic poems, some wrote cinquains, and some wrote 5 senses poems. My personal favorite of the 5 senses poems was that a student wrote that bullying sounds like "zombies eating brains." They're so creative!

I have also started working individually with students on worksheets along with the oral clozes. In their folders are sheets that describe their benchmark. It then explains what issues the students need help on. I find worksheets that coincide with their trouble areas and work with them one on one. So far it seems to be working, but I'm excited to see how much farther they can get on their benchmarks!

Math with an ESL student

This week, I had the opportunity to work with a new student who has been in the classroom for three weeks now. He moved here straight from Mexico and had absolutely no English language. The student has picked up on many words in the past few weeks just from being in the classroom, which is so exciting to witness. For the past three days, I have worked on counting numbers with this student. He is able to say "1, 2, 3, 6, 9," in that order. I have been consistently working on number order with him by showing him the numbers and pointing out, with number cards, that he skips some (I have him point to the cards as he counts). Seeing his facial expressions, I know that he knows he is skipping some numbers, but he just can't remember how to say them. I gave him hints by saying the number in Spanish and asking him, in Spanish, to say the number in English. This helps the student a lot. Today, before leaving, I asked him to count with me in English. Without any help, he counted from 1 to 10, without exempting any numbers! It was so exciting!

Even though the student usually has trouble counting from 1 to 10 in order, he has been doing great with comparing two different numbers. Most of the class can take a sum of two numbers and another sum, and state which sum is greater. But since the ESL student is at an American Pre-K level, he is not able to do that. Instead, him and I compare only two individual numbers (instead of the usual 4). The student is able to tell me which number is greater, or mas in Spanish, which is awesome for the level he is at. I'm eager to see how well he will improve throughout the rest of the year!

Fluency!

In my placement last week one of the teachers who assists with the class during groups was absent. Because of this I was able to take over her position for the day. I didn't do anything extremely exciting or get to teach the students, but I was excited to be in charge. All of the students in the classroom were preparing to present their country projects for the following day. In my group the students had a sheet that they had to pratice reading so that they were prepared to present it in front of the school. I did not make the connection that this was a fluency building task until I read for class! I was excited to see how well they related. In the text (and in class actually) it discussed that allowing students to reread the same text/story could only be beneficial. It is so true! Time after time of reading they began to feel more and more comfortable reading the story. Some even restated it by memory! I was so proud of them!

Another fluency related story - today my teacher had to call one of the student's parents and discuss their reading response homework. For reading response the children get a sheet that they have to fill out while reading a book. This sheet includes the title, author, main characters, plot, and something interesting that they read in the story. Most all students get sent home with a book to read, and they can choose to read that one or any other of their choice. Anyways, I overheard my teacher on the phone with the parent, who seemed to be complaining that her son did not have stories in his folder that were correlated with his reading level. The teacher then stated, "He can read any book he wants. He can read the same one over and over and over if he wants. Any reading is going to help." I related what she said back to fluency and it is so true. If he did choose to reread one story he might create sight words for himself which may increase his fluency in the future.

Very interesting. It was nice to be able to relate something we discussed in class to real-life examples! :)

This week

This week wasn't too eventful for me in my classroom. My teacher has been asking me to do a lot of creating recently, which I really enjoy, but I miss working with the students. Every day, the students do a brain bonus, which is a question based on language. They write their answers individually on a post-it note and then stick it to the door. The next day, my teacher reads the answers to them, and if the student got it right, they get an x next to their name. Once they have ten x-es they get to pick a prize. Although the idea is good, the students never got to learn from their mistakes. So, my teacher decided to make posters that labeled the issue the brain bonus was focused on and past brain bonus answers will be stuck to them as a reference for a student. For example, if the brain bonus asked students a question about the main idea of a story, they could look for the poster labeled main idea, and past brain bonus answers will be on there for a reference. My teacher asked me to make these posters, and they turned out great! I just wish I could have been working more with the students instead of creating things for the classroom. It did give me a chance to have discussions with other teachers in the lounge, though.

Education... Speech Path

While I've been in my classroom this week the students have spent the majority of their time completing their country projects. This consists of researching the United States and Canada and talking about each as well as comparing and contrasting them. They have been creating posters with fun facts about each. I have found myself walking around and assisting the groups that the teacher asks me to, guiding them and making sure they are on task. I know that this doesn't relate to literacy as much as other student's placements, but I am enjoying the spin mine has taken. I keep thinking back to my degree in Speech Pathology and realizing that if I were to take a position as a Speech Pathologist in a school one my jobs could be to push in to a classroom and work with a student. I would work with them on speech, obviously, but I believe that I would also simply help them go through the motions of the classroom, quite like a teacher's aide.. which is what I sort of feel like now.
I understand that it's not 100% literacy based, but I truly am enjoying the way my placement has worked out. I am learning a lot about being in a classroom setting and a lot about what it takes to be a teacher and have the weight of the world on your shoulders. While I can't implement literacy techniques that I have learned, the truth is I haven't really learned a lot being a non-education major. I feel as though my undergraduate career has been based a lot around language benchmarks that children should be meeting and how to determine if they are at the appropriate language level based on their age. I have also been learning about assessment for those who need speech services. The NEXT step in my education is implementation, unlike education majors who get to experience that in their senior year.
With that said, plain and simple, I feel that my placement suits me and I am content with how it is going!
-Ashley