student teaching

I've survived my second week of student teaching, save for this terrible cold! *yea*!! So I thought I'd write a blog about my experiences thus far, but then I thought better of it -- Part of my student teaching experiences this semester includes reflecting in an online journal. So I'm just copying and pasting the entry I submitted for this week. :) Haha...I'm a cheater I know.

I'm really pleased with the amount of progress, although small, that I've made in just my first week. I think one of the things I really like about teaching is that the progress that is made is visual -- I can see that J and I are starting to make a real relationship with the students in the way that they talk to us and are responding to our questions during our lessons. I am starting to see progress in myself, too -- I feel like my energy is starting to build, as well as my excitement. I'm more inspired than ever to develop my skills and learn, and I think that the inspiration is coming from my students. One of the first things I noticed in both Mrs. C's and Mrs. O's classes was the great emphasis on learning-by-the-textbook. Neither of the teachers seems to make a big effort to think outside the box in their teaching, which is something I'd like to do in my lessons. I worked with the students a few times this week, and each time I tried to do something a little more creative than what they were used to -- making word problems out of the questions in their math book, for example, or letting them show their work on the board and share with partners, rather than working by themselves. They seemed to really respond to these fresh changes in their usual routine, and that inspires me to continue making more changes. Eventually I'd like to do a few lessons with the students without the textbook, focusing more on manipulatives and concepts rather than computation and problem sets; but of course, this is something I will have to build up to.

On Thursday, I did a lesson with a small group of students in Mrs. C's class and I had them take turns "teaching" the other students by sharing their answers to math problems. They told me that they were having so much fun that they wanted extra problems to do, and that completely made my day! It meant so much to me that they were having fun and were genuinely interested in what they were doing; I think that will be my main goal for every lesson I do. I want my students to be excited about learning for the sake of learning, which is something that I think is lacking in the students I am working with now.

In my last entry, I mentioned that S.M.E. would be a challenge because the environment is much different from the one in which I was educated. S.M.E., as I mentioned, is a beautiful campus in a rather wealthy area. Their is a definite sort of white middle-class culture associated with the school, which, for better or worse, is something for me to take note of, simply because it is a culture that I am now interacting with for the first time. There are some things about S.M.E. that I am really impressed with -- the amount of family support, for example, is incredible; I am constantly seeing mothers and fathers of students coming into the class to volunteer their time. However, I do see a lack of diversity in the class and in the overall culture of the school. There is an obvious rift between the students who are from the general neighborhood, and the students who are bussed in from other parts of Pasadena (usually lower-income areas). In my interactions with some of the students, I have seen some students who are lacking in cultural sensitivity; this is something that J and I can easily try to address in our social studies or language arts units, but I do think that cultural relevance and appreciation for diversity takes time to develop in students, and I wonder if we have the ability to instill these values in our students with what little time we have here. At the same time, being a part of that school as a teacher will change me, I'm sure -- because I am experiencing a new culture, I am sure that my perspectives of teaching and perhaps life in general will change as a result.