L13's blog

Field Notes: Spring Break

So these are unofficial field notes – just wanted to share some thoughts. Last week was a great week at my placement and very informative (see recently posted field notes) but this week is Spring Break for my placement so I haven’t been there at all. And two weeks ago I was on Spring Break so I missed going to my placement then. I guess I am saying, I feel anxiety being away from my placement so often in the past three weeks especially when my students are younger and may not remember me in addition to my role in the classroom being different from their regular teachers. I hope this week when I go back things fall in place and I have not been forgotten. (Or that I have forgotten their names – given that I have a terrible memory.)

Bringing this back to education related talk – rather than just feelings – I wonder if this type of break is good for students and teachers? Yes, I think everyone is burnt out and needs a break sometimes, but if I am worried about forgetting things over these two week breaks, couldn’t students also be forgetting things that are relevant to course material? While the break is needed for the body – does the rest also help or hurt the mind? I would argue that the rest/break helps everything but that might just be my own personal experience and maybe the break can be helpful or hurtful depending on age and learning style.

Field Notes:

This past week, a classmate of ours came to visit my placement with me. It was great. I was really stressed about this experience at first, mainly because I felt like I had to ask my placement advisor about this even though I didn’t know her that well, but it turned out very well. It was great to have a fresh and different perspective. Additionally, it helped me feel more confident in my role in the classroom as I was able to talk through he various day-to-day activities as well as introduce students to my guest.

            Beyond the visit, I was able to continue my conversation with my host teacher about the student who has autism (or suspected autism). Her parents found out that she is indeed on the autism spectrum. The teachers asked the parents how the testing went and they responded well. Apparently, they are not being communicative with the teachers about the student’s needs, especially now that they know that she needs specific care in the classroom. The teachers believe this is still due the parents not being able to admit that their child has autism.

Field Notes – Week 7

More than a week away and the students are really excited about Winter Break – making them somewhat distracted at doing work.            - I wonder if there is a way to involve holiday festivities in student assignments/work? Maybe if the break was acknowledge in class rather than ignored it might make the students more excited about some of their work?

Students are working more on grammar – reading from packets together as a class  - These workbook packets always kind of bother me. I realize that they are necessary but I wonder if maybe they could just be graded to see how the students are doing rather than have them as the driving activity because students ere clearly bored going through this and didn’t seem to really be learning so much as just reciting things. 

Only the same student keeps raising his hand to answer. Mrs. Smith keeps calling on him asking, “how come no one else is awake today?” - I think this also speaks to the set up of the packet and the student’s interest. I talked with the student who was really excited to answer later in the class and he said that he wanted to impress Mrs. Smith. He didn’t talk about his love or enjoyment of the class material.