This past week has been quite eventful! I completed my last yoga class on Wednesday, which means this week I will now be only mornings and will completely be leading the handwriting lesson each morning, which is both exciting and anxious. I think that the main reason that leading the lessons has felt more stressful, is simply because my schedule has been disrupted with my yoga class and other things, so I am happy to now be only on mornings so I can really be a part of the morning routine. :)
We have now really begun the rock, soil, and sand exploration science kit and the children are absolutely enthralled with it! They have an entire wall of rock words that they developed after only a week or so of bringing in rock shares and a couple of science lessons. Even I am excited to bring in a rock to share that I have had since I was about ten years old AND it has a fossil print on it! Very exciting!
Jean and I have been making time to talk more about the 'why things are done the way they are done', so that as I am leading more lessons, I can understand the reasoning behind the lessons or even the group management techniques. We are also preparing for conferences, which are led much differently than the traditional conferences I have heard of or experienced before. (More to come later) I am quite interested to see how they go as well as be a part of this portion of education. Now that it is the second month of school, I am really starting to feel more teacherish and am becoming more aware of all of the responsibilities that come with the job. For example, I always new that there was quite a lot of prep work required of a teacher, however, I had no idea how much extra time Jean has to spend outside of regular work hours to keep the room up to date and ready to go. It's definitely something I will have to start considering and working into my own schedule as the year goes on. So much to do, so little time! :)
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Making Family Connections
One of the unique features about Chugach Optional, is all of the family help and volunteerism that we have in our classroom. In fact, there have been times when we have been over flowing with parent participation! In light of this, I am provided with many opportunities where I can interact and chat with families and build positive relationships with them.
While most of the families are very open to communication or have time in the morning or afternoon to talk, we do have some that for whatever reason, are harder to reach. Therefore, one of the ways I try to extend an invitation for building relationships by talking to them about the activities that are happening in the class or talking about the positive experiences their child has been engaged in. This seems to be helping open up the channels and it certainly helps when I am there in the morning during drop off, because I usually see at least one of the parents in the morning, while the afternoon varies. Overall though, I feel as though I have already built several strong connections with several of the families and others are still being worked on.
While most of the families are very open to communication or have time in the morning or afternoon to talk, we do have some that for whatever reason, are harder to reach. Therefore, one of the ways I try to extend an invitation for building relationships by talking to them about the activities that are happening in the class or talking about the positive experiences their child has been engaged in. This seems to be helping open up the channels and it certainly helps when I am there in the morning during drop off, because I usually see at least one of the parents in the morning, while the afternoon varies. Overall though, I feel as though I have already built several strong connections with several of the families and others are still being worked on.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Mornings
Well I am not going to the classroom in the mornings and boy does my body have to adjust! The other kink is that for the next two Wednesdays I have my yoga class in the mornings, which means I am there in the afternoons instead. Although this throws a wrench into my sleep schedule, I do like being there in the afternoon, because I still feel that connection to the afternoon schedule that I have been helping with for the past month.
Now that we are doing a morning schedule, I have been mostly observing and always interacting with the children, and this week/beginning of next I will begin to lead the lower case letter learning, since we will be finished with the capitals on Tuesday. I look forward to this piece, because leading lessons helps to boost my confidence as well as help me reflect on my skills as a teacher. I mentioned to Jean earlier this week, that I have really taken to heart the positive learning instruction and how she encourages independent learning and thinking amongst the students. After co-teaching with Jean, I realized that at work I have been over directing the children and have taken a few steps back and put the responsibility of learning and problems solving back into their hands, rather than trying to take over and do it for them. I think that as adults sometimes we instinctively want to 'make things right' and since it's quicker for us to lay down the rules, we forget that children do not learn self control or how to think for themselves if we are constantly jumping in. Therefore, I am appreciative of this reminder and have been reminding myself to allow the children at work, as well as at Chugach, time to be responsible for their own actions and giving them that time to take control of the situation or themselves rather than telling them how it needs to be done.
Overall, it has been quite a new week with this new transition and the morning play times have provided me opportunities to observe the children as well as build lasting relationships with them and their families. More and more to come I'm sure!!
Now that we are doing a morning schedule, I have been mostly observing and always interacting with the children, and this week/beginning of next I will begin to lead the lower case letter learning, since we will be finished with the capitals on Tuesday. I look forward to this piece, because leading lessons helps to boost my confidence as well as help me reflect on my skills as a teacher. I mentioned to Jean earlier this week, that I have really taken to heart the positive learning instruction and how she encourages independent learning and thinking amongst the students. After co-teaching with Jean, I realized that at work I have been over directing the children and have taken a few steps back and put the responsibility of learning and problems solving back into their hands, rather than trying to take over and do it for them. I think that as adults sometimes we instinctively want to 'make things right' and since it's quicker for us to lay down the rules, we forget that children do not learn self control or how to think for themselves if we are constantly jumping in. Therefore, I am appreciative of this reminder and have been reminding myself to allow the children at work, as well as at Chugach, time to be responsible for their own actions and giving them that time to take control of the situation or themselves rather than telling them how it needs to be done.
Overall, it has been quite a new week with this new transition and the morning play times have provided me opportunities to observe the children as well as build lasting relationships with them and their families. More and more to come I'm sure!!
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