Rachel Johnson

Observation

June 18, 2013

Reflection 6

What I observed in the first class, is that teacher is really calm, but he lets them know who is in charge. He sent half the class outside reading the passage for today and to do the worksheets. The students seem more in control and had little to no behavior problems. He played music that the kids wanted to hear as long as they were on task and the teacher set a time limit to which they were suppose to be done. Which I noticed actually made them stay on task to meet the time requirement. For the second part of the class, we came Inside and students had to work on a prezi. He instructed the students that wasn’t there In a small group and gave the rest of the students a paper with all of the instructions and detail about what the assignment was, and what they were require to do, just in case they forgot. He never once sat down, he walked around making sure each student was on task and if they needed help or was getting frustrated he helped them without doing the work for them. His room Is set up In a circle, so he can walk around the class easy and see all laptops. The second class was more hyper and loud. Right when students started walking in the class, he pulled the kids that cut up in class to the side and showed them their name on the board and explained to them if they do something to distract the class he was going to erase a letter and once all the letters were gone, they would be asked to go home. I think that was a great approach because they actually did pretty good. A few tried to see if he was serious and got a couple letters erased but once they saw he was serious they calmed down and completed the task that the other class had. Considering that this was summer school there wasn’t much in the classroom he had the desk in an ‘O’ shape and students could sit wherever as long as they was on task. A couple students he moved around so they wouldn’t get in trouble. I noticed that the teacher did a lot of positive reinforcement. He let the students know when they were doing something distracting and also gave them positive feedback when they cleaned up their act. As kids were getting frustrated at the task he told them that its ok, ask for help because he’s there to help them. He really didn’t have discipline strategies accept the one i mentioned earlier. Overall he had a good class and I had a good day observing the class and talking to the kid, it was very interesting.

Erik Erikson

Me and a 3 more students made a presentation on Erik Erikson's stages of Psychosocial Development.

The kids named the baby deer " Bambi ".

Discussing the best way to address the topic of race.

Interviewing professionals.

Looking for bugs.

Mud painting with one of the kids at F.L Schlagle.

Reflection 1

Rachel Johnson

June 9, 2013

Reflection

I think the hardest thing about today was trying to put myself in the mind of a five year old and the things they like to do. I wouldn’t think playing in worms would be fun, but to them it is. I like how the camp directors completely let us do our own ideas and were open to suggestions, and our creativity got to come out. I like the fact that we will be able to do something interesting and fun for the kids and hopefully they’ll love it and enjoy it. I’m looking forward to working with them & interacting with them. Sooner or later i’m going to be planning my own lesson plan so this activity helps prepare me for that. I am nervous and excited at the same time. So many things can go wrong but so many can go right. I hope the kids have fun and enjoy what we have planned for them.

First Teaching Experience

Rachel Johnson

6/11/13

First teaching experience

I went to observe McDaniel special needs school. The setting in their classroom is very different from a regular classroom. They have their lights covered... they said because it affects the kids learning ability. In the first classroom, it was only a few students. it took a lot more to keep Abby engaged in the activity that the rest of the group was doing. On the other hand, Gabby just needed someone to show her a few times then she got it and was engaged. Bobby was a lot more hard to work with. He crawled instead of walked and often threw fits. He was still in the baby stage. The next class was calmer but more teachers in the room so they can attend to every student need. There was a boy who was really good at math and struggled in reading. I think if he was in a higher class with his grade level he would probably do a lot better because he would be treated like his age and can get help with the stuff he struggled in. Instead he’s in a class were the rest on the kids are still learning ABC’s , how to spell words, etc.

I think it takes a lot of patience to be a special needs teacher because you constantly have to repeat yourself and some days are better than others. I saw most of the teachers very patient with the kids but one you could tell she was getting frustrated which caused the little boy to get upset and eventually he gave up and they moved on to something else. There was also Grandma who didn’t play; she made them sit there and work weather they wanted to or not. Most of the kids only needed someone to show them then after they got it. I saw them get frustrated because they couldn’t understand the material or kept getting it wrong. So it not only frustrates the teacher it also frustrates the kid as well.

Reflection

College Panel Reflection

Rachel Johnson

June 10

I think the college panel was really helpful. It’s good to have people that have been through this experience to give you good tips and helpful tools. It also helped me realize my strengths and weaknesses and what I can do to better them. Time management is a hard thing for me so I know I have to start working on that right now in order to be able to do that in college since the schedule is way more hectic and my mother isn’t going to be around. I also liked how Andrew was talking about staying and giving back to the community and trying to make a change. I think if everyone didn’t run away from Kansas it would actually be a better place. People always say “there’s nothing in Kansas” but what are they doing to help Kansas? He said a lot of inspiring quotes that stuck with me through the whole panel exercise. They talked about not being ashamed or scared to get help on certain stuff, to use your resources to help you, make a relationship with your professor, and make time for study groups.

How to deal will Race

Rachel Johnson

June 25, 2013

How Will You Deal WIth Race?

       As a teacher, it is important to address the issue of race among students, administrators, and colleagues. As a teacher they should be comfortable enough to bring this issue up because it is an ongoing issue. Most people tend to be uncomfortable about this subject when it's just reality. Students tend to distance their self from the conversation when the teacher is the opposite race. Example, a class where majority of the students are African American and the teacher is Caucasian and the teacher tries to bring up a conversation about race its going to be awkward and uncomfortable. 

    It's a little different with administrations for the simply fact that their grown. They know racism is and has been a very controversy topic. If they can't talk about the issue among each other, how do we expect them to bring it up in a classroom where you have people from all different cultures, raised with different opinions about the topic, and some might be immature about it. So it takes a well structure group.