Saturday, January 30, 2010

Week 3 Last Week of January

The time is really going so fast. I cannot believe that my second week is already over. The week went alright. I was not feeling well which I think was a combination of dehydration, a cold, and stress from the atmosphere of the classroom. I bought some medicine for the cold and doubled the amount of water I am drinking so I am feeling better now. As for the stress, I am just trying to accept the conditions of the classroom. The children are a little out of control and it seems there is not one moment that passes where one of the students is not doing something naughty. I tried recommending to the teachers that we change the set up of the desks because they are in groups which I think is making them talk more. They hardly do group work so that configuration is not needed really anyway. I feel like some management practices could be implemented and consistently practiced, but the only thing that is being done is an increased use of the cane. I think this is only a temporary fix of the problem and does not really teach the children how to behave. Even though I am saying these things, I think I am becoming more accustomed to the situation.
Another thing that is slightly disappointing is that I really did not do any teaching this week. I am feeling like the head teacher really does not understand what my purpose is at the school. It is like they are using me to do the dirty work, like draw lines in the notebooks. I understand it is part of the process, but it should not be the only thing I am doing. I tried to start conversations with her about making a weekly plan or what I could be teaching, but she does not seem to understand. Just so that I could get myself teaching I told her about a backward design unit I planned on the five senses and she said I could start teaching it on Monday. At least I will be teaching now, but I am going to talk to the assistant headmistress this week about it.
One thing that I did this week was corrected math and phonics class work and homework. What I did was correct the work and then called the students back to my desk to make corrections. I also created two homework assignments for phonics. Right now they are learning how to read and spell three letter words with short vowel ‘e’. So for the first assignment I wrote about 15 three letter words on the board leaving a blank where the ‘e’ would go in the word. For example, I wrote b_t and the students would have to copy it into their homework book and then fill it in with an ‘e’. For the second assignment I did the same thing as the first, but had the students fill in the missing letter to create a word. For example, I wrote he_ (hem/her) or _eg (beg/peg). The students this week learned about the union of sets in math and I had brought a math story book from home called Seaweed Soup that talked about sets so I read that to the them. Then I drew out the sets that were mentioned in the book and we counted them as a class. In addition, I passed out the hot lunches this week and supervised the lunch time while the two other teachers went to receive their pay and have a brief meeting.

For now, I am beginning to plan for this coming week. I will do an introduction to the five senses on Monday and Tuesday. This will include the reading of a story about the five senses, singing songs, and learning about which body part goes with each sense by completing a matching worksheet. I may do a popcorn activity that will allow the students to make observations through their senses. I will also have them make a five senses book if I can find enough materials that they can glue into the book. For the remaining 3 days I will cover the sense of smell. For this sense the students will watercolor with scented jello mix and water. They will do a matching scents activity where they will have to match the scents of the same items. They will also complete a worksheet on identifying good and bad smelling odors. That is all I have planned for now, but I look forward to really getting involved with the children.

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