An In-depth Experience- Week 2

This week I was able to instruct the 1^st and 2^nd grade lessons with assistance from Mr. Park during the activity. My role for the 3^rd-5^th grade lessons included some instruction as well as I took aside groups of students to educate them on the sit and reach test. Afterwards, I aided the students were needed during their game of “hoola hut knock down”. Perhaps the most impactful part of this week has been learning how to manage the less academic areas that lead to overall success in the classroom. Learning how to speak into specific situations among the students with a servant heart and gage the severity of need while trying to balance other classroom responsibilities is quite the challenge! In the past few days I have had students with nose bleeds, overly competitive boys quarreling over games, young girls crying, bullying, and more. I’ve realized that being a teacher in this environment as so much to do with how you handle yourself in these moments and much less how well I know my content. It’s these type of unscripted moments that make or break the chances for truly meaningful learning and growth in a student.

One instance in particular happened between a new female student and a boy, both the third grade. The young girl came to me complaining that the boy was breaking certain rules. She was clearly upset. Unfortunately, I was dealing with a group of students at the moment and felt torn between helping her and rectifying whatever was making her so distraught and finishing with my group. I gave her some words to say to the student and said I would address him as soon as I was finished. As I finished, she again came over to the stage but this time was in tears. Sobbing she said the boy threatened to throw a ball at her face and was fearful of his taunting her in class. According to her, he was very mean and had a pattern of disrespectful behavior toward her. I tried to help her calm down and ease her fears. Of course I did not exactly know the history of either of these two students and had several questions. Was this girl prone to over reacting? Did the boy have a history of aggression? What can I tell her that would be honest about her safety in the classroom? One of my worst fears was to assure her of protection when it was something I could not reinforce or offer outside the gym. Thankfully Mr. Park came over and his years of experience definitely showed as he used just the right words and tone of voice to appease the situation. I truly do not think I could have done it any better. Afterwards I had a conversation with Mr. Park trying to get a history of the two students and asked about his thought process when he approached such situations. Ensuring a safe learning environment (IPTS 4G) truly is an essential part of being a servant and Christ-like advocate for these students.

The students loved my island themed fitness stations! A part of 1^st and 2^nd grade assessments includes a fitness challenge, recorded in the fall and spring, to show growth. Some of the elements include crab walking, burpees, planks, and push-ups. For my lesson I integrates a lot of upper body fitness stations as that in were many of the students seemed to be lacking based on our experience prepping the 3^rd-5^th grade classes for the push-up portion of the fitness test last week. To make it fun, however, I used a simple and adventuresome theme. I focused on really setting the stage during my engage, connect, launch piece of the lesson. Using lots of inflection and hand motions, I transported the students to a tropical island in which they must travel around to get to a special station at which secret information was awaiting them. The students used the ropes to swing over the gator pond, climbed across the rock wall or “volcano”, collected “coconuts” and tossed them into buckets, road scooter “rafts” up and down the river, and hopped from stone to stone before arriving at station number six. Making my lessons developmentally appropriate in the next coming week will be a bit of a learning process as there is a large discrepancy between the ability levels of kindergarteners and 5^th graders! However, I feel I was successful at creating something to stimulate my students’ creative and imaginative minds while accomplishing the learning objectives. While I was teaching both my lessons and aiding in Mr. Park’s I started to really connect change in student response to the learning environment based on how I presented it as a teacher. Student motivation was influenced far more at this age by my disposition toward what I am teaching than I have given credit in the past. It seems so common sense, but if I want my student to be enthusiastic I have to model that first! Although it takes far more energy, it’s worth it to model the behaviors you wish to see in your students.

Lastly, this week I was able to grow in the collaborative relationships standards. I greatly enjoy socializing with all the teachers at AGS. They are immensely supportive and encouraging towards me. I feel blessed to be in an environment with teachers who build a positive atmosphere even with district changes and immense assessment pressures flogging them. I arrive to school early every Tuesday morning for the weekly PLC meeting and this was my first week participating in the Wednesday morning staff meeting. I learned so much about district initiatives and MTSS planning from this meeting as well as really got a taste for the team environment of the AGS staff! Friday was a half day and there were no specialty classes (i.e. PE, art, and music). All the elementary PE teachers meet at the district administrative building to work through the rest of the 3^rd- 5^th grade curriculum, how fitness assessment data would be taken, and to share information on what’s been working in their classrooms. It learned a wonderful new way to acquire cognitive data through google classroom that I am very excited to use as well! Later in the day I joined my teacher for SLO (student learning objectives) training. This is a piloting program that is being run this year to prepare the teachers for how they will be summatively evaluated based on student growth in the near future. I sat in a board room with the PE teachers, an SLO leader, and another student teacher as they looked through data from previous years and tried to format an attainable growth goal objective. It was fascinating to be in the behind the scenes environment, seeing the thought process and work that goes into what is presented to the students. It really helped me get a broader picture of everything and am excited to dive deeper and deeper into the world of a teacher.

My goals for next week are: 1) use my knowledge of what the district PE teachers are striving for in the future to inform my teaching and practice.

2) Develop a helpful practice to address repeat offences with students who have a history of negative behaviors. Know what they are, what triggers them, and what works/doesn’t when addressing them.