The 1st Conflict

So today the art room functioned as a detention center during the lunch hour. Apparently because the disciplinary office is attached to the cafeteria and Mrs. Smith (who is the person the kids go to when they get kicked out of their classroom) is busy monitoring the lunchroom, some of the surplus students are dispersed among classrooms like the art room. Today we had a student named Vanessa brought to the art room after she ate (her recess time) doe 3o minutes. As soon as Mrs. Carey left the room, Vanessa started pulling things from her pocket like lip gloss and a bouncy ball. Obviously, she wasn't suppose to be having any sort of fun and not playing with anything. I told her she needed to put that stuff back in her pocket. I had used her name too, which is kind of easy to remember when you are told you are having a specific student brought to the room to be punished. Teachers do this thing called talking to one another and student names are shared. I'm saying all this because Vanessa right away began saying that that wasn't her name. Whatever.

At 12:30, the next class came in and at 12:40 she was to go back to her classroom. I was asked to escort her. Right away this was showing complications as she was wanting to walk the speed of a turtle. When we finally passed the music room (one two doors down) one of the other girls that had gotten in trouble with Vanessa (it was a total of three girls that were bullying other kids on the playground) came out and thought she should go back with us too. This caused additional complications, as Vanessa attempted to follow this second girl into the music room to collect her things. But she was cutting off an oncoming group of 1st graders, so I reached out an tugged on her hoodie, causing her to freak out on me. I was not going to deal with this attitude to the opposite side of the school building, and the office was oh so close. So I instead said we were going to the office. This worked. I ran right away into Mrs. Smith, who said Vanessa needed to just return to the art room until she learned how to walk down the hall. She also earned herself 5 more lunch detentions in the art room and that she needed to see me (if only a little) as a figure of authority.

Not exactly the best moment in my teaching, but it is far better to learn it student teaching than afterwards.

Reading Recovery Banner

I had one of the teachers come to me asking me to make a banner for the new reading recovery program. She said she had something started in Word and that I am welcomed to sit down with her and help her fix it there. I opted to just spend a little time at home doing this. The dimensions will be 5' long by 18" tall. She wants the words "Read it up" and some balloons.

Building relationships

One of the ongoing themes I see emerging from the student teacher experience is the requirement of building relationships with students. The "problem children" require a lot of attention and normally will not recognize authoritative rolls if they do not know who you are. These children depend on consistency and do not react well to change. As a student teacher, my roll is temporary within the school but it is very important to develop bonds with the students within the school - most especially the students that then to cause problems within the class. As part of my first several weeks I will be learning my students' names (~280 total).

One such case includes a student named Vanessa. During the first several days of class Mrs. Carey and I would sit in the front of the class. I would introduce myself to the class, take attendance, and then Mrs. Carey would go on with her lesson. During the first lesson that Vanessa had been in class with me, she began asking me (during Mrs. Carey's presentation mind you) if I wanted to buy girl scout cookies. I'm all for entrepreneurship, but there is a right time and place for everything - during class time is definitely not the right time nor the right place.

My 1st day of Student Teaching

I began my first day of student teaching at B.T.Washington Elementary with the students returning from a 5 day weekend, which meant that the students would be additionally rambunctious. I had been nervous because I didn't know what to expect, but excited because it would be a "real" teaching experience with all sorts of real problems known of a public school. All I have experienced prior to this new experience has been idealized experiences under the control of the University, teaching at day camps to students interested in art, and Art a la Cart to classrooms with the primary teacher still in it. B.T.Washington Elementary is a bilingual Spanish school with a high percentage of free/reduced meal plans (~85%), meaning there are a lot of students from poor families. I had selected this school primarily because of the teacher. Mrs. Carey had received national recognition for her services within the school; plus, I had had a course with her when I first began graduate school. I respected how she thought about her students, and believe that working under her guidance would be a benefit to my future as an art teacher.
Through the course of this first day I learned of the routine we would be having. We get 1/3 of each grade level each day, so once you've taught one lesson the next two day's is Groundhog Day. This week will primarily be observation, plus some team teaching.