Reflect & Connect 1/27

Dear Teachers who Teach for a Cause,

This past week I learned a lot about myself as a teacher. My internship consists in an urban school district. I have learned through my experience I want to teach in an urban setting when I graduate. I would like to do this for many reasons,  but I learned my true passions during class. For my level II intern class we are learning about teacher inquiry and how to start our own inquiry. We looked at this by reading examples of passions teachers inquire. The passion I connected to the most was social justice. My passion for social justice is to understand how to meet every students needs when it comes to their culture. In my Teaching Exceptional Students class, we watched videos concerning African Americans versus Caucasians when it came to education in America. I learned our education system needs some changes when it comes to teaching minorities. Teachers need to learn how to teach different cultures with their learning styles. As a teacher, I want to be apart of my students community and show them everyday how much I care. I will support my students and set high expectations.

In my second grade classroom, I was struggling with the fact that I knew about how rough life is at home for most of my students and that there is not much I can do to change that. As a teacher I want to teach in urban schools to have my classroom be their safe, second home. I cannot wait to create a safe, fun, learning community environment in my class.

Growing as a Teacher,

Miss Hester

Reflect & Connect 1/12

Dear Explorers,

Last Friday I went on my first field trip as a student intern. My second grade class traveled to a Riverfront Park. It was a lot of fun! We got to go on a nature hike, learn about trees, and learn how to plant a tree. It was interesting how 123 Elementary had no buses, so individually we had to drive our students there. The majority of the class was not well-behaved during the field trip, which I was very surprised about because compared to the other second grade class their everyday behavior is amazing.   I learned a lot from watching how my CT reacted to certain behavior situations. For example, there was a child who kept running away, wanting to do something else. My CT talked to the child about their behavior and said they can still be sent to the office because our school was right down the road. As a new teacher learning about how to become a teacher I wish there was another way to handle misbehavior without rewards/punishments. That is something I am inquiring on my own. I have learned from my Level II Intern class that we should research and reflect everything we do as teacher's. I am taking my time to learn from a book by Dr. Marshall called, Discipline Without Stress, Punishments, or Rewards, to teach myself how to take away rewards and punishments from the classroom. This connects to my Level II Intern class because we are currently reading, 

The Reflective Educator's Guide to Classroom Research: Learning to Teach and Teaching to Learn Through Practitioner Inquiry.

Have fun researching,

Miss Intern