Jan's Blog

Special Recognition

How do you give your students recognition? Do you think a student can have too much recognition?   

Students can never have too much recognition.  Students are recognized by having their work hung on the wall throughout the school, special awards at the end of the year, given special privileges, and are talked highly of by the teacher in front of the class.  At a young age, I believe this has a positive effect on most students.  They see their friends do well, so they are encouraged to do better as well.  At a higher grade level, however, many students become jealous of their peers and many good friendships are ended because of all the recognition one student receives.  It is important to explain to the class why the students are being recognized so that the others do not just see it as favoritism.  I know it is hard for teachers to encourage those that do not try as hard, so maybe by encouraging the hard working students to rub off on the others might help as well. 

My Age Group

I have been working with third graders at the elementary school.  I really like this age group a lot.  They are still respectful, but they are also developing their unique personalities and are very funny.  They can read the emotions of the teacher, so they are able to recognize when not to act up or joke around.  They are capable of bonding with anyone in the room and are so friendly.  At older ages, you do not get the same respect, and at younger ages, some are too afraid to make you laugh, in my opinion. I would love to work with this age group after college.  They are such a blessing and know how to cheer anyone up.

My Second Week

This is my second week of helping in Ms. Walker's third grade class.  I go there from 8:10 to 9:15 every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday morning.  At about 8:30 they change classes and they began their reading program SFA (Success For All).  This program allows children to be sorted into groups based on their reading levels, and not their grades.  The teacher can then work on one level with all of the children at one time.  This helps her to focus on what needs to be done to improve their reading skills.  I sit and listen while she reads to them for 20 minutes and help with the worksheets and vocabulary that follows.  It is a lot of fun, but just being there for an hour can get a little hectic.  I have heard so many times that you have to be flexible as a teacher, but I never really understood how flexible till now.

I have recently learned that even if you have a really bad week, you can't let your personal problems affect the way you work or teach.  It was hard for me not to get down on myself, but the kids in the class sometimes helped me to not feel as bad. 

My teacher

Every teacher that I have ever had has made a positive impact on my life.  It is very hard to say who was my favorite teacher.  If I had to choose, I would say my fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Bacik.  She was an amazing teacher, but also an amazing person as well.  She was able to challenge all of her students on completely different levels, without letting any student slack off.  She pushed me to do the best I could in everything, and really pushed me up to higher levels of learning.  She successfully prepared me for middle school, which led to high school and soon I'll find out in college.  She was always positive and never raised her voice, but could always keep the class under control.  no matter what the situation was. But to all my teachers - I have been blessed to have met you and learned from you - Thank you!

Thanks to everybody who commented!

I really appreciate all of your responses and advice.  It's so great ot know that you can take the time out and give a little encouragement and advice when you find someone who needs it. I enjoy hearing from anybody and everybody and all tips are welcome!

-Jan-

Teachers work extremely hard at their job.  They have a low salary, tough students, and few breaks.  A way everybody can make a teacher's job easier is to go back and thank them for the time and love they put into you.  Everybody has had a teacher or teachers who have impacted their lives. So what are you waiting for?  Take a few minutes to thank your teachers whether you have them now or fifty years ago. 

The article I found is in a link at the bottom and really states why teachers deserved to be thanked and thought of every minute of the day!  Thank A Teacher - Please!

A Great Tip

This morning I read a great post by Alejandro.  He has an amazing vocabulary as a fifthe grader.  He posted some tips for writing, and my favorite one was not exaggerating anything. He said:

•Don’t exaggerate the truth. If you are writing a report don’t include things that you don’t know are true. However, if you look it up and get information you can add it to your post. Then the facts will be authentic.  - Alejandro

This is important because exaggerating is the same as lying to me, and unless it is fiction, lying is extremely wrong.

A very educational week

This was a very educational week in my Introduction to Education class.  We are now studying barriers to learning and problems faced in early childhood development.  We have split the information up and I am studying the benefits and reasons behind "labeling exceptional children" and so far I have found out a lot.  I have also discovered I must be very open minded about everything, which is fun anyways because you get more out of life. 

Teaching Conference

On Tuesday the 18, my introduction to education class attended a conference for teachers.  One of the speakers was Dr. Brenda Shuman-Riley, the teacher of the year for Georgia.  She had a very uplifting and encouraging speech, but it was very hard to hear everything she had to say.  I was siiting in the back and I was afraid it would be rude to ask her to speak up.  My favorite piece of advice that she gave was that you have to be "colorblind" and unbiased with the children in your class.  I believe that is the most important to remember because you never know the children's background or life outside of school.

Introduction to Education

Hey everybody, my name is Jan, and this is the first post for my introduction to education class!  I am a junior at a high school and I can't wait to graduate! I love playing tennis and I used to play softball.  I am interested in teaching, and this class will prepare me for the classes I will need in college.  Next semester, I will actually be going into elementary classes and learning firsthand about what it takes to be a teacher.  Next year, this class will be a paid apprentice ship where we help in one class for the whole year.  I'm looking forward to it!

I am a little nervous about being in the classes with the students, but I know the other teachers will help me out.  This first semester, we have been discussing ways of learning, barriors to learning, hemisphericity, and test taking stategies. This will prepare us as much as possible for the different kids and their personalities.  I would like to work with third or fourth grade if I can, but second would be good, too.  Let me know if you have any tips on that age group. Thanks!