My Life in the Woods

I am surprised that I'm still uncertain whether or not to be a professional teacher. I just don't know! I think I could be really good at it, but it might exhaust me (I'm not young). I think teaching an older group would be best for me such as High School or even College students.

But this class has helped a lot to steer me. I see that this path is not a bad one for me. I would be happy to always have the option to be a teacher. The service learning (observing) I did was very helpful, especially since I was placed with a first-year teacher. I saw her being patient, creative, kind, firm, silly, serious, and everything in-between all in each day of class. I appreciated her versatility and her gentleness. I am not sure I could be as good as she is in a classroom.

Another thing is that I am studying to teach only English. With this, I will have already chosen to teach 6th grade and older, and a topic I am passionate about. I wish I had been able to observe an English teacher, specifically. It seems to me they may have less planning, less classroom management worries, and better success among their students who have already all succeeded at all previous education requirements.

I have seen the teacher, in the classroom I am observing, teach the Utah Standard curriculum, but not all of it. I have seen lots of math and english language arts, but really nothing else. Of course, I only observe 20 hours. I know if I was a teacher, I would likely move through curriculum in chunks, starting with whatever may be considered building blocks for future things. I watched the teacher once do math all day because the students were not grasping the information. She was really good at keeping the students engaged with numerous fun activities and I was very impressed with her dedication to having then reach the standards that have been set.

While observing in a first grade classroom, I noticed a student who was seated away from the others. He wasn't allowed to sit next to anyone because he had some different things to work on. Most of the classes that I have either substituted in or have observed have had a student or two that require some different teachings or seating arrangement.

Some need different utensils, others need a few different rules or have a different set of curriculum. No two students are the same and according to this week's video, it is the teacher's job to be aware of and to accept each student best they can. Each classroom should have a variety of books that cater to different abilities and cultures and even languages.

Though the schools I have seen near me lack racial diversity, there is plenty diversity in other things and I have seen teachers struggle to be responsive and I have seen others do it with ease. I believe the ability of the teacher to be responsive depends on several factors and cannot be measured accurately by me after only a few hours of observation.

Today while observing a classroom of 3rd graders. I saw many instances where the teacher provided engaged learning. Here are three of those instances:

At math time-

1. The students first watched a comical video about why their specific math topic is important.

2. Next, the students were allowed to try to solve some math equations by writing directly on their desks with dry-erase markers.

3. Last, students got into groups to try to find other ways to solve the equations.

So, while the students worked on math for an entire 30 minutes, they felt more like they were watching a show, doing some art, and then hanging out with classmates. Here are the pics of the day which include the class moto, their schedule, a tin the teacher carries around to always be prepared, and some morning meeting ideas.