This week was a shorter week than usual because we had Monday off. We also permanently switched to a new schedule, with math and science in the morning, new specials times and the addition of RTI and computer lab for success maker. Michelle and I also started a guided reading group. Getting the students used to the new routines has been a bit challenging because they are used to the previous schedule, but I know they can do it.
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This week has been an eventful one! My CT had her peer observation, I was with a substitute for three hours running a lesson, and we had to have a class split up between 3 other classes because their teacher wasn’t able to come in and there was no substitute available on such short notice. And my main takeaway from this week, yet again, is classroom management is everything!
Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich, is a retelling of Barbara's transformation from a upper-middle class writer, to a minimum wage worker, trying to experience what life would be like for these people, discovering that they do not make nearly enough to have a decent living, severely below the poverty line. Throughout her experiment she, traveled to three different states, Florida, Maine, and Minnesota working as a waitress, a maid, a Walmart associate, and a dietary aide in a residential facility, only living off her earnings from these jobs. She had to find affordable housing and food, which proved to be quite difficult. Ehrenreich found herself living in motels, trailers, and run down apartments because they were the only affordable options. Her experiment showed readers a glimpse of what minimum wage worker's lives are like, and how much of a problem poverty is in the United States.
The weeks of the school year keep going by faster and faster. It’s Friday before I know it! But this just reminds me that I have to make the most out of each week, taking opportunities to practice my teaching and classroom management skills because this semester will be over before I know it.
The great thing about the residency program is the many opportunities to grow and develop the skills I will be using as a teacher. This week, I got to do a lot of that. On Friday, I did another read aloud and I worked on improving from the last time. Before, the students were too rambunctious when I showed the pictures and the words at the same time. So this time, I waited to show the pictures of the book until I was finished reading the page. The students were well-behaved, and were able to listen to the story. I was actually able to have a book discussion while reading because they were calm and paying attention. Something Sara was talking to us about this week also made me think about my selection of read-aloud books. Sara told us we really have to get to know the books in our library and love them. I realized this as I was reading. I have never read the book before so I wasn't as passionate about it, and this showed. I tried to get into the book, making different voices and having fun while reading, but I noticed it was forced. I wasn't truly into the book. I realized the importance of Sara’s statement, to get students to love reading, you must put forth your best effort to be passionate about your books, get into them while reading, and get your students to love reading as well.
I have to say, each week is getting better and better. I am learning so much from actually being in the classroom. In my psychology class I learned something that applied to the classroom the very next day! We were discussing decoding and comprehension and what happens in the brain during these two processes. Dr. Marshall explained words we know are stores in the lexicon in the brain. When we recognize a word and are able to read it, it is because we have a match for the word in the lexicon. If we don’t have a match, or if we don’t have enough vocabulary to recognize the word, or if we can’t make a connection through the ventral stream in the brain we have to use another part of the brain to recognize the word. This area is called the dorsal stream which is used for decoding words. As you can see, this is a long process the brain must go through to recognize and read a word. Since all the energy is taken up from trying to decode the word, the brain is not able to comprehend what it is reading. If all the time is spent trying to decode words, the student will never be able to fully comprehend what is being read. I had conversation with my CT about this the say after discussing this in class. We were doing a guided reading group with some of the students in class. Some of the students had trouble decoding the words, and my teacher was concerned because they are not able to retell the story. She told me that if they spend all their time deciding words, their comprehension will be hindered. This is why she wants to work on their fluency, so they will be able to read better, recognize more words and be able to comprehend what they read.
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