PhyreBards

Last week I visited my practicum classroom Monday and Wednesday. I really really like the students in the class, although I have some reservations about the teacher and the classroom dynamics. The students are wonderful and seem motivated to do well, which is mostly what I was expecting in an AIG classroom (is that bad to say?). However, the teacher, both times I have been in, has assigned individual work during which they are not aloud to talk. This concerns me a little bit because I don't really know my role during this time... are they allowed to talk to me? Should I interrupt their reading or just let them read? Also, during the first few minutes of class, she does whole class instruction, and both days she has given them wrong information. Both days the students corrected her and, after some persuading, she realized that she was wrong. It just makes me nervous for the students who are not confident enough in their answers to challenge the teacher when she is definitely wrong. I don't know. I know that from our readings and experience it's okay for a teacher to not have all of the information all of the time. But I don't really think it's okay for her to give wrong information. I've only been in for two days though, so I hope that it will improve. I just sort of get the impression that she doesn't really want me there "interfering". And she had me introduce myself to the class both days, which was kind of awkward...

Cummings High school has a less than stellar reputation, especially among Elon education majors, and I have been getting the ‘I’m so glad that’s not me’ look from a lot of people these past weeks when I told them where I was doing my internship. I was a little nervous at the possibility of completing my methods and student teaching course in such a difficult environment than what I have been blessed to have been working throughout my Elon career. After my first very long visit to Ms. Roger’s room, my viewpoints have changed completely. We were able to talk her entire planning period before third period began. She was very interested in where I had been, what I had done, what I was willing (and required) to do, and was very encouraging of me to try to challenge myself this semester as an active volunteer all semester long. This is the first teacher I have worked with that actually cared about why I wanted to be a teacher and readily told me all about her experiences and reasons why as well.

Third period English I CP only has 13 students, 8 of which are repeaters; however, from the dynamics of the classroom and constant participation all period long, no observer would be able to distinguish who was taking a second stab. The whole class participated in the warm up, worked quietly throughout their test, paid attention (and asked questions!) during the introduction to Romeo and Juliet right up until the bell rang. Ms. Rogers had me administer a test to a student that needed read aloud, collect papers, and help introduce Romeo and Juliet by describing the Italian setting since I had visited the city (we discussed it prior to class). She then allowed the students to ask questions about my travels, which was a nice break after the test. I really felt like a part of the class on my first day!

There was a lot of side conversation and some off task behavior, but Ms. Rogers is very good at choosing her battles. She ignores the off task behavior and really focuses on the student that is engaged and participating. Each time the disturbance quieted down because it did not seem to get any attention from the teacher, and it really seemed that all of her students wanted her attention.

The classroom management method that they use at Cummings is also very encouraging, and I look forward to explaining it in my post next week after I observe it in more action!