Reflections/Diversity
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January 22, 2002
Today is my first day of student teaching, and I am very excited. I really don't know what to expect. We (student teachers) were told to go to room 40 and wait. At about 9:30 Dr. Kilcrease came along with the cooperating teachers, and we went to our classrooms. When I arrived to my class, 21 lovely little angels greeted me. My Supervising teacher was Mrs. Katie Young. She introduced me to the students and after that she began class. I basically just sat and watched as she taught. I began taking notes as I observed her methods of teaching. I also observed the children on how they responded to Mrs. Young. Today was a good day for me.
January 23, 2002
Today, Mrs. Young is not here, but the assistant teacher, Mrs. Townsend knew what to do. All after one day I felt as if I knew what to do. I began learning the student’s names. I was surprised at myself at how fast I learned their names. I also attended a Barksdale meeting, teaching child intervention methods, it was really interesting.
January 24, 2002
Mrs. Young is not here again but
Mrs. Townsend said that this does not happen too often. Everything is going
great. I am watching the assistant teacher and she really knows her stuff.
Also, I taught a little on suffixes and prefixes, it was really kind of fun!
January 28, 2002
Today Mrs. Young was here, but the assistant was not. I took the students to art and went back to Mrs. Young's class for a meeting on the discussion of the Black History program. This year the second grade class has to present a Black History program. Also, I took the class to lunch today, I was so proud of myself because; I know the entire routine now!
January 29, 2002
Today we are preparing for the Black History program and I taught the class a rap called "You Hey You".
January 30, 2002
I gave out reading activities, and we also prepared for our black history program. The student’s teachers were asked to prepare an article for the A. W. Watson Elementary News Letter. The letter would introduce the student teachers and inform parents and other readers of the Black History program that would take place on February 22, 2002 at 9:00 a.m.
February 2, 2002
On this day, Mrs. Young was not to here, so Mrs. Townsend and I carried on. We gave tests and later that day we treated the students with a movie, Jurassic Park, part 2.
February 5, 2002
Today Mrs. Young, Mrs. Townsend and myself were all here, and I observed.
February 6, 2002
Today Mrs. Townsend was absent, and I witnessed several students being reprimanded by "spanking". I could not believe this was happening. It made me nervous. There are many school systems that do not allow teacher/administration to spank students. When I was in elementary school I did receive spankings, but not like I saw at A. W. Watson Elementary.
February 14, 2002
This is Valentines Day and all this week I have been teaching pretty much. Today students are anxious to give out their Valentines candy. We did not allow them to do so until after lunch. We had lots of FUN!!!!! I received so much candy, until I was just overwhelmed. Today was a GREAT DAY!
February 15, 2002
Today, Mrs. Young was out as well as the assistant teachers so I had the class all by myself. Later a substitute came at around 9:00. We basically practiced on the play and the program all day. I was dirt tired from all of the practicing. I was very glad that it was Friday.
February 18- 2002
I taught all this week, and I passed out various work sheets to coincide with the lesson. We are currently working on definitions of words, spelling words, as well as math activities. We are now actually rehearsing on the black history program.
February 22, 2002
Today is the day of the play/program we went straight to the gym to get everybody in his or her places. The program lasted about an hour and ten minutes. Afterwards, I helped with the taking down of the decorations as well as props. It was a very nice program. We had students portraying to be famous blacks such as: Muhammad Ali, Wilma Rudolph, Kirk Franklin, George Washington Carver and Madam C. J. Walker to name a few. It was really nice.
February 25, 2002
All this week I' m teaching and I have basically gotten use to it.
February 28, 2002
Today the kindergarten class presented a black history program and I could barely hear what they were saying. Their decorations were very pretty the scenes were African centered. There was one kindergartener that quoted the entire, I have a Dream speech, and he did EXCELLENT!!!!!
March 4, 2002
All this week we are reviewing for the nine weeks test, to be given on Thursday and Friday.
March 6, 2002
Today we are having a spelling bee, which will contain the words that were discussed in the readings from the last nine weeks. Also today is the day of my evaluation. Mrs. Delores Williams was my evaluator. I was very nervous but it went very well and very fast. Needless to say I was glad when it was over.
March 7, 2002
Also this is my last week, and I am so sad, but I must move on. I will miss them all.
March 19, 2002
Today is my first day of student teaching with my second placement teachers. My teacher is Mrs. Trena Warren, of Vicksburg, MS. The students here are totally different from my second grade class. There are nine girls, and nine boys, they seem anxious about learning.
They are very quiet. I really did not expect them to be disciplined like this. However, Mrs. Warren has her class under control. One particular thing I liked was that Mrs. Warren has a small box with all of student’s names. This helps her not to continue to call on the same students all the time. I thought that was a great idea.
Lunch time is different also, the eat lunch at 11:00, when I was in Mrs. Young’s class we ate at 12:15, so at least I got to eat early. Other actions were different from the second grade as well. For example when I the second graders would go to lunch the teachers had to stand along side of them. With the fourth graders I did not have to do that I guess because they are more independent.
March 21, 2002
Today Mrs. Warren is not here; therefore I am in full control of the class. However, they did assign a substitute to the class. I went over a few math activities, corrected sentences, and got to know each other a little better. I asked each student to tell me something briefly about him or herself. I also told them about me, and the substitute decided to join in and she told us about herself. It was really fun!
March 26, 2002
I observed at the early part of the morning and then Mrs. Warren asked me to go over compound subjects with the class. One student was talking while I was going over the information, so I reminded him that his name was on the board. He responded by saying, "SO"! I did not know what to say. The class said, OOH!!! I immediately told him to get up and go to the rear of the room and stretch both arms out and bounce up and down. I know that I had to do something to make an example of him to prove to the rest of the students that I was not a child, and that they will respect me. After that incident he has not been a problem since. But I am glad that, he was not a problem anymore. I am glad that I got to experience, so that I will be ready and know how to handle other situations like that.
March 27, 2002
Today I am working on my bulletin board.
April 2, 2002
We returned to school from Easter break, and today seems like Monday, but it is really Tuesday.
There is a practicum student that comes to our class; her name is Ms. Marcos Lester. She only comes on Tuesdays. Today Mrs. Warren taught the beginning lesson, and then she allowed Mrs. Lester to review the reading lesson with the students. After that lesson it was my turn to I started my language arts lesson. Today was a very good day my students were very interested in learning.
April 3, 2002
Today Mrs. Warren had to leave and attend a workshop that was held in Jackson, MS. She left about 10:30 am they did not send a substitute. Therefore, I had the students all by myself. At first it was ok! But as the day went along I found myself saying huh, sit-down, be quiet, etc. That really got on my nerves. I’m going to have to find a way to get the students to cut the noise out. That’s my only problem.
April 8-12, 2002
This week was a good week to have fun. We had a basketball game today at 1:00. Last Thursday we had a game and it was fun also. Basically, I taught this whole week, even though I was to teach language arts only.
April 15-19, 2002
Today is Friday, THANK-GOD!! This week I did teach, and review over reading, and math. I do believe that I am going to have to be a little more firm with my class, because they talk extremely too much.
Diversity
Most of the students that I encountered at A. W. Watson were majority African Americans. There were a few Caucasians and an Indians as well as biracial children. When I stopped and view the socio-economic status I only noticed that a small amount of students were a little less fortunate than others. Sometimes I did see students with dirty shoes, shirts, pants and some that even smelled. I could not help but wonder, why parents would send their children to school with dirty clothes, as well as with strong smells. I do realize that some parents are just not able and are doing the best that the can.