Working w/ the students

today was an unusaul day for me.  I worked in a small group with about three of the kids to try and get an assignment completed.  One of the it was hard to get him to focus and do the assignment but he did do it after I promised him a piece of gum.  He was very successful at getting quit a bit of work completed.  The rewards strategy we learned in class came in handy today.  The more time I spend in the classroom with the students the more I appriciate this profession.  One student was sent to the nurses office which the students later informed me was going to most likely be tested for drugs, which I thought was odd.  He did return to class and actually did some work.  The teacher was also good at following through with his classroom procedures. and also did a good job at getting the students engaged in the lesson.  Today was  good experience.

All About My Cooperating Teacher’s

Both of my cooperating teachers are really cool so far.  They are both males and is very knowledgable in their subject matter.  They relate well with their students.  They are always on top of their game and have very good control of the tone of their classes.  The students are well informed of the procedures that are expected from them in the class and overall do a very good job in following the classroom directions.  Today in my second period class the kids worked on a study guide for Fridays test.  I thought that the teacher gave them to much independent time to work on the assignment and instead it just gave them time to talk and play around making it to where the kids were just waiting on him to give the answers.  What was suprising about the whole thing is in the end after he gave them the answers he did a quiz game over the material and suprisingly most of the students knew the answers to the question.   Overall I think I would have made this a take home study guide that they turned in to me and then next class period I would have given it back and let them grade and correct it, leaving it for them to complete the assignment on their own.   This would have given more time for studing and quizzing the kids and clearing up any misunderstanding about the material an also time to introduce the next topic.  this was to much down time for my taste.  But overall it showed great success. 

My First Encounter w/ My ELL Student

My first encounter with my Ell student was a rewarding experience,  I learned a lot about what she likes and dislikes, what her future goals are, why she came to the United States and she also told me about her family life including how many brothers and sisters she has who speaks fluent english already and even their ages.  She also told me a great deal about her parents and their reasons for bring the family to the states.  I found her to be very mature for her age even though she is only a 9th grader she was able to carry on a conversation with me in english very well.  she is a really sweet girl.  My meeting well exceptional well I gained so much from this.  I also understand more about working these types of students and also what types of things matter to these kids including how they feel about attending Akins.  This encounter will help to become more considerate of my ELL students and understand that they are just as interested in learning as another child who speaks english.  As a result, I as a teacher will do everything I can to enrich all of my students learning capablities. 

First Day with my Cooperating Teacher

Before my first day  in my ELL I was very unsure about working with ELL students.  I thought it would be extremely chanllenging for me but after seeing a vetern ELL teacher today I have come to the conclusion that it is still going to be challenging but more rewarding than I had orginally thought.  The ELL teacher I worked with today had a very good rapport with his students which I thought made it even easier to communicate with his students and he also spoke spanish.  The teacher I observed today has put in a lot of personal monies and time in order to ensure the success of his ELL students.  He geared a lot of the lesson towards the TAKS test and at the same time giving the definintion and meaning to the lesson speaking in both english and spanish, he didn’t discourage either he let them speak in which ever language they wanted, he was more concerned about understanding the material which I thought was also the most important thing.  I truely enjoyed this experience.