Wednesday, March 28, 2012
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!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
That is so exciting and rewarding to know that she feels highly enough of you to have you back next semester! Congratulations! Why does the school have to create command signs? Is it to help the students learn vocabulary, or to focus more and be on task, or behavior management?!
ReplyDeleteI was discussing this with my cooperating teacher and she told me that the command signs are a new strategy the school is trying out with just her classroom for English Language Learners. It is a way to implement daily routines and will also help the students develop their language (since only 3 of 19 kids in the class speak only English). Right now, like I said, just my classroom is doing this as a "model classroom" to see how this strategy works with the students. If it proves to be successful, I believe they will implement it in the rest of the building.
ReplyDeleteI think that is very interesting! It probably will help them develop their language because seeing the command signs will spark their thought process and every time they see those objects without the signs there is a good possibility that they will mentally picture the sign or say it in their head! That's just my opinion but I truly believe it'll help them! We use command signs with children who are born into english too, just to help them learn better, faster, and with more depth!
ReplyDeleteThe command signs are really cool! I haven't really thought of things like that, but i can see that it would be very helpful. I'm glad that you got to experience having the teacher be absent, though. The first time that happened to me, it seemed that the students looked more to me for direction than the substitute, and it made me feel really integrated into their classroom. I was so grateful that they thought of me as a teacher that much.
ReplyDelete