During this much needed break, I took much time to sit and reflect upon all of the many things I am thankful for. This holiday season, I am most thankful for family, friends, health, and amazing opportunities. Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Holidays to all!
The Great American Teach-in is an opportunity, once a year, to invite professionals to come into your classroom and talk to the students about their work and what it entails. I had the privilege of presenting this year for my CT's 3rd grade class and the entire pod. First, I talked all about my job as a pharmacy technician, and all of the trainings I had to complete to become one. Then, for the most exciting part, I got to tell them all about my second job, as a balloon artist. That's right, a balloon artist! I told them all about how I travel to fall festivals and birthday parties to make balloon art for children. I taught them how to do the 3 most important twists needed to make any balloon object, and at the end I let the teachers choose 1 student from each class to come up and learn to make a balloon sword. When reflecting upon my performance, the thing that most stood out, was the look of sheer happiness on all of their faces. From several pieces of literature that I have had the privilege of reading this semester, I know that some of these kids come from questionable homes, with little or no money, and they have probably never experienced even something as simple as someone making balloon animals. And after my "performance", for lack of a better word, I was reminded by the smiles on their faces how much joy I can bring to these kids, and how much joy they bring to my life. I'm so glad to have ben able to experience this special day with them, and to give them an opportunity to see
We are coming to that point in the semester that we were warned about. That point in time where we wake up in the morning and wonder if we will ever emerge from this huge pile of work we call critical tasks. When I think about all of the work and commitment I put forth in this program, I continue to remind myself "you signed up for this"! I did . I wanted this challenge. I wanted to do something that made a difference in the world, no matter how small. So I ask myself, how does doing all this work help me become a great teacher? One of the constants throughout classroom management, and education in general is that there is never enough time in the day. You have to plan and re-plan and make time where there is none. You have to organize, and do things in advance and try to hold on for dear life knowing that it will all be worth it. So, that's exactly what I did. I sat down, I planned it out, I organized it and I attacked it. I took charge of what I thought was an overload and I made it manageable. Now, if I can just remember all this when I'm pulling my hair out my first year of teaching, I may actually survive. The other important aspect to remember about stress and overloads, is that the feeling of being completely overwhelmed is something that our students also experience. This is why it is important to make sure that we give our students the some of the same strategies that we use to keep ourselves organized.
I can speak for most of my classmates when I say that we are here for the children. I genuinely love each and every one of these students and would do anything to make sure that they receive the full benefits of a public education. However, I was faced with a situation this week in which a parent crossed over the imaginary boundaries in which the student was not the primary focus. For confidentiality purposes I will not be going to deep into detail about this encounter, but I will share enough so that you can get the jist of why this encounter required me to look back and reflect on my actions. One of our students is in a home situation that is not ideal, and her parent feels that my CT should act as a therapist. She brings way too much confidential information bout herself into the classroom and not any concerns for the actual student. When my CT took this information to administration and they tried to set boundaries, the parent became angry with my CT and decided that instead of coming into the classroom with this information, that she would work around my CT by trying to go through me. She would come in every morning and call me out of the classroom to complain about my CT to me and also to once again make her private business a public affair. Even after my CT explained to her that I am only an intern and have no real pull in this classroom, she still sought me out and cornered me in other areas of the school. So I finally got brave and decided to speak up for myself. I told this parent that their actions made me uncomfortable and that I was a guest in this classroom and felt that it was inappropriate for me to get involved. I told her that my ultimate goal in this class is to learn and observe and do what I could to enrich the educational experience of the students, but that I would prefer if she took up any discrepancies she had with my CT, that again I am only a guest in this classroom. The reason this conversation warranted so much reflection was because I was worried that I would severe this relationship that this parent had with our class, where she obviously felt comfortable, and I certainly didn't want her to be less involved. I just wanted to make sure that our focus remained on the student and that my CT remain involved in this situation as much as possible. I thought about it for a week as I watched her come in and out of the classroom, and I truly believe I did the right thing. This parent is now respecting the appropriate boundaries and I believe that I've gained respect rom my CT for setting that boundary. It is so hard to sit back as an intern and think about how you would do this in your own classroom because you really don't know until the situation arises, however I do believe that in your classroom you should set certain boundaries for the students as well as the parents. Students and parents should feel comfortable enough to come to you when in need, but they should also know that our primary concern is that of our students. Our students well being should always be top priority and any other issues should be redirected to the appropriate resources.
In class today, we did an activity that was supposed to get us thinking about what we thought classroom management was. We had to first, write out on an index what classroom management should be and then we had to create a picture representation of this concept with play-doh. After everyone made their play-doh management art, we had to go around the class and write down the first word that came to mind when viewing each others artwork(regarding classroom management concepts).
First of all, this was much harder than I had imagined it would be. I find it difficult to explain classroom management in one word and even more difficult to represent a concept that has multiple components into one picture. I made 2 hands, a large one for the teacher and a small one for the student, and I layered them one on top of the other. I intended for this to represent the concept of classroom management as a collaborative effort. I believe that the teacher and student should work together to create an environment that safe, functional, and successful. What I learned after reading the comments from my classmates and seeing their artwork was that I really didn't have the clearest view of what good management was. I realized that I had a main idea, but that I wanted to borrow some components from my classmates as well. From this experience I learned that it is ok to add to, take away, or even change your point of view. As you learn and grow you should also be able to adapt your views and accept the fact that personal views always have the opportunity to change. When I think of classroom management now, I still think of it as a collaborative effort, but I also see good management as the building blocks of a successful classroom. I see that in order to have a successful classroom, you must lay a good foundation to be built upon. The classroom as a whole should build onto this foundation, and the teacher should be a guiding resource and a helping hand, but not a dictator. I believe that students should have the opportunity to take on responsibilities and make the classroom their own. And most of all, it is so important for your classroom to feel safe, secure, and "homey", because you never know what kind of environment your kids go home to, and your classroom may be the only real, safe, loving family they have.
And yes, I got all of this out of playing with play-doh. Imagine that!