Week 15

Last blog post reflection.Wow, time has really flown by! I cannot believe that I have only one more week left of student teaching. At the start of this placement, I did not expect to be so upset when it was done, but I am. I have really grown to love my teacher, paraprofessionals, and students. I will miss this.

This past week was a wonderful week. I learned a lot about what some of the challenges are that special education teachers face. My teacher has moved classrooms a lot since she has been hired in as a special education teacher. She also has had her fair share of paraprofessionals as well. I have learned how stressful it can be not knowing where you will be the upcoming year and who you will be working with. I also have had some good conversations with my teacher about what it is like to be a new teacher working with staff. I was able to hear about some of her challenges her first few years and get advice as to how to prepare for new school years and working with new staff.

Another thing I learned this week was how important it is for students to have community outings. We have many field trips and community outings for these students and it is sad to learn how little most of these families take their children out. This week I planned a trip to Walmart to look or needs and wants. I provided a list of items for a scavenger hunt in Walmart looking for things the students would need or want in a certain scenario. Each student was paired with a staff member and ran around the store looking for items. It was a good experience for my students to learn how to navigate the store, ask workers where items are located, and learn about different items in the store. They had a blast! We also had a chance to go to the zoo. At the zoo they learned how to take turns, wait in line, and learn the names of animals. We also talked about the needs and wants of various zoo animals. It was awesome to see them grown and enjoy their time!

What I hope to learn next week is what it is like for my students when they are pushed into the general education classes. I would like to follow them to some classes and see how they handle them. 

This week was great. My staff threw me a surprise wedding shower! How lucky am I? I feel so loved and blessed by them all! I hate that this is my last blog post and my last week ahead of me. I have so many mixed feelings, but I know that the people and the things I have learned will carry over into my new job in Florida. I cannot wait to see how God uses my experiences for his glory!

Week 14- Foundations Learning Outcome

Trinity encourages culture in the classroom. 

"Because our Mission in Christian higher education is not limited by ethnic or cultural differences, we consciously seek to develop a multiracial, multinational, and multi-denominational community." (Trinity Christian College mission statement)

This mission to have culture in the classroom is something that is well known at Trinity. I think in every education class that I have taken at Trinity, they have encouraged us to love diversity and encourage all cultures in the classroom.  "Here at Trinity, we promote diversity..." has been said numerous amounts of times over the course of my four years here. This concept is very important and I often find myself in classes thinking, "I love different cultures and I will of course promote diversity in the classroom." Although my heart has always been there, I  have found myself  wondering how I can use this concept of cultures in the classroom. I am a white, middle-class, monolingual-English speaker, who has been raised in a Dutch CRC community my whole life. Sure, I can buy the diverse books for my classroom library, suggested in my Children's Literature class and have a diversity day, but how can I know exactly how to use this concept in real life, in a real community without living it first?

To answer this question bluntly, you can't.

Field experiences opened my eyes to what it really meant to encourage cultures in the classroom. Many of the schools in this area have Polish-speaking students and Arabic-speaking students. This was a huge eye opener for a Dutch CRC girl. 

I found myself realizing that buying the diverse children's books and have a diversity day was just not going to cut it. 

The truth is: culture matters, but people are people.

What I mean by that, is that students want to you to show interest in them. They want to be loved and feel special. Getting to know my students interests was huge in my teaching and field experiences. 

This past semester Trinity opened up an opportunity for me to student teach at Rehoboth Christian School in Rehoboth, New Mexico. This was a huge culture shock for me. Majority of this schools population is made up native students from the Navajo and Zuni tribes. The exact percentage of natives in this school population is 70%. I taught 6th graders and I encountered many cultural differences and learned so much from the students. I had a few students who were not as understanding and were frustrated that this white girl from Chicago was going to be teaching them, but by the end of my time there I can honestly say that these same students were the ones who accepted me into their family and were bringing me native tea, foods, and sharing stories. Why? I showed interest in my students and their cultures. I asked questions and told them I wanted to learn more. Getting to know my students as people was the biggest and best way to encourage culture in the classroom.

The truth is: culture matters, but people are people.

I honestly do not think I would have been able to understand exactly how to encourage culture in the classroom, like Trinity suggests unless I had been able to live it out in my field experiences. I learned the absolute most from Trinity through the experiences they were able to provide me outside of lectures and classes,. I learned the most in real classrooms and in real schools. For that I am grateful.

The concept of encouraging cultures and diversity was such a different experience for me, when I actually was given the chance to practice it in real life experiences. 

Week 13

This week was my first week of full time teaching at this placement. It wen very well! Full time at this placement entails me teaching group, all 7 reading centers, and being in charge of the classroom in terms of where the paraprofessionals are going and what they are doing and the schedule for the day.

This week I taught two group lessons about "needs and wants". I used two different reading materials in order to help teach the students what a need is and what a want is. The book took us through different scenarios such as, "Jack has holes in his socks. He wants to buy a video game, but what do you think he needs? SOCKS!" This booklet was quite helpful for the students to have practice identifying needs and wants. I also did a SmartBoard activity where they had to circle the pictures that were needs and cross off the pictures that are wants. In addition to this, this week I taught reading centers to all seven students and came up with new ways of reaching their goals.

This week I learned that being the teacher role can be uncomfortable at times. I felt uncomfortable telling my paraprofessionals what to do during the day. The only thing that made it work okay was that my paraprofessionals like me and we have good rapport. They would tease me about my new role and call me "teacher". We laughed together about this new role and they encouraged me through it. I learned how important it really is to build that rapport as a teacher with your paraprofessionals. Another thing I learned was to never underestimate your student's abilities. The Speech Pathologist brought in the game headbands for the students to play. How this game works is the students strap a picture of an item to their forehead and the other students use describing words to help the student to guess what picture is strapped to his/her head. We brought in "peer buddies", who are 5th grade general education students from the school to come and play the game with them to model the game and behaviors. It went AWESOME! The students picked up on the game quickly and were using amazing describing words. The next day I was working with a student who always has difficulties with generalization in my reading center. This students goal is to be able to describe items. He loved the game headbands, so I bent the picture cards and put it on my forehead and had him play the game with me. It was basically the same thing we had been doing, but I had the picture on my head and we called it a game. The student did AMAZING! This was an awesome teaching moment for me!

Next week I hope to learn more about the various roles of my PT, OT, and Speech Pathologist. They come in teach week to our classroom and spend time with students. I want to watch them work with the students to learn more about how to best teach my students at the reading center. This week, I noticed that one of my students says the "s" sound whenever she needs to say the "sh" sound. I talked with the Speech Pathologist and I hope to learn what she is working on and transfer the same instruction to this student in my reading center.

Next week I will be full time again and I am planning my own field trip (community outing) with the students to practice "needs vs wants" in the community. I am excited to have the opportunity to plan my own field trip!

Week 12

This week was a short week because of job interviews in Florida and spring break beginning. I am really starting to feel comfortable in my placement and enjoy the students a lot. I taught all 7 centers this week and video taped a few. I had to get a giggle out of the students reaction with the video camera. All of them were in awe of it and had lots of questions, so it was difficult getting them on track for the lessons. I have found different motivators for students and it has been very helpful. One student likes to work for drawing a picture. another student will work for gum, and another will work for iPad time. It has been good learning all the various motivators and how to best meet my students needs.

Like I said, I made a quick trip to Florida to have an interview with a school down there. All my students were excited to have me back and ask me questions about the school in Florida. What a fun bunch of students I get to work with.

My last day of the short week ended on being observed for two lessons. I was amazed with the stuff my teacher had said about me. I never really knew if she thought I was doing a good job or if she enjoyed having me be a part of the team. Apparently she is very happy with my work and what I have been doing in the classroom. This was very encouraging.

Something I have felt challenged with this past week is not necessarily related to the students, but more so the staff. My teacher is very open about her lack of religion and she often speaks of her bad experiences with Christians. I have felt my faith challenged here. My teacher is not disrespectful, but she is very bold about her lack of religion and it puts me in difficult situations at times.  In my opinion, the work place is not a place to talk about politics or religion, but I have been put in situations where I have had to say something. It has been a challenge to know how much or little to say or do. I just keep praying for staff and showing my love for God through my actions and words. I pray that this will reflect my heart and that it will be something positive for them all.

Next week is spring break, so school will not start back up until April 4. When I arrive back, I will be teaching all 7 centers and beginning to add group sessions in my teaching load. I am very excited!

Week 11

Monday-

This Monday I was able to teach 6 out of the 7 reading centers. I added on a few more students to teach. I am having a blast doing the centers and it is good to seen the growth each day and week with these kids. I am thankful that the students have been so willing and comfortable having me take over the center as well. I have only had a few issues with generalization. The student that I really struggled with generalization last week did amazing when I had my cooperating teacher observe me. GO FIGURE!

Tuesday-

The students did not have school today, but we had a PBIS professional development training. It was good to learn more about PBIS and how to implement it in the classroom. My classroom I am in is one of the only STAR classrooms implementing it right now, It was interesting to learn the pros and cons about it and be able to see it in my classroom.

Wednesday-

This was another community outing day. We went to Reavis High School for their abilities fair. The abilities fair is a group of students from the High School who have disabilties presenting things that they are successful and interested in. This was so awesome to see and have the students go and ask them questions. A few of the tables had information on resumes, books, Disney, and nutrition. My students favorite was the performance done by three students. They sang songs from Byonce, One Direction, and Kiss. They put on a huge performance and gave their histories. Such a cool experience! After this, we went to Burger King to practice requesting by order food. This was a fun end to a day and the students got to play in the play place there.

Thursday- 

Today our social work station paraprofessional was sick, along with many students. The flu is going around in my classroom. I had the opportunity to teach all 7 social work centers for the day. This was a fun experience because I learned about a different center and what the students do there. I also was able to see more of their accomplishments and I had a lot of fun teaching!

Friday- 

Friday was a pretty normal day. I taught all 7 reading centers so that my teacher could have time testing a few students. I loved this! I finally got to teach all of the centers. We also found out today that we will be having a new student come to our classroom at the beginning of April to join us. This new student has Down Syndrome. I am very excited to meet him and see how we will incorporate him into our day.

Next week is going to be a CRAZY week. I am being flown down to Florida for an interview for a teaching position for next year. My teacher is flexible and has been very supportive through this all. I am getting prepared to take over all the centers next week and be observed on Thursday. We will not be having school on Friday because it is the start of our Spring Break. 

I am really started to feel useful and a part of the classroom. I am happy and excited to continue to get to know these students and teachers. I am thankful for how God works through our situations and lives and is constantly their for us. God is so good!

Week 10

These are 6 of my 7 students and they are adorable. This week Friday we went on a community outing to the Planetarium downtown. We do a lot of community outings with this class, so this is one of the many I am sure that I will have the chance to be a part of. The reason we chose to go to the planetarium was because this month they are learning about he sun. Exploring the planetarium, they had the chance to watch a show about our planets and our sun. We played in the various rooms that were all planet, star, and sun related. The kids loved it and actually learned a lot from being able to see and experience it. On these community outings, the students are paired up with an adult partner. I got to hang out one-on-one with one of the students (the one in the green shirt) all day long. I had a blast getting to know him a little better and building that rapport because I had some difficulties with generalizing with him this past week.

I have always heard of generalizing, but I had never experienced it until this week. I had observed my teacher work on IEP goals with one of my students and he worked great and had almost all of the items mastered. I took over this past week working on IEP goals with this same student. He appeared to know nothing when he worked with me. After some frustration, I asked my teacher about it. She explained that some students have issues with generalizing, so they may not be able to do a certain task with a certain person because it is not who they learned it with. Some can do the mastered skill at their center, but not at their desk because it is not where they learned it. She told me not to be upset because she even has difficulties with this when she takes over other centers that she normally does not teach. This was so frustrating and sad, but it helped me get into the minds of my students just a little bit more. Structure and repetition is huge!

There were a few points during this week that I felt frustrated. I know that in this placement, things are going to be different for me. I understand that when I take over full-time, it will look much different than when I took over full-time at Rehoboth. I have to keep reminding myself  of this because I often get antsy in my placement. I am not the type of person who likes to sit around, play with toys, and observe. I am a "do-er". I like to be busy and constantly be working. I often find myself sitting around waiting for students, the students take a lot of breaks in the day (which are VERY necessary), and there is not as much for me to do because there are so many helping hands in the classroom. This is hard for me. I also will constantly be asking my teacher if I can help in more ways or do more for the classroom and she usually does not have anything for me and says that it is all taken care of. I want so badly to feel useful and feel like I am needed, but I do not.

Next week, I plan to take over teaching  two more centers, so that I am teaching 5/7 centers. I look forward to working one-on-one with more of the students.

Week 9

This is my second week in this classroom with these students and paraprofessionals. It has been a very different experience for me and I am struggling at learning my place in the classroom, how to support the staff and students, and how to be a special education teacher. With saying that, I am learning a lot about special education and I know that God has placed me in this classroom for a reasons. I can already see ways that this placement is going to make me a better general education teacher.

Monday was a very different day. One of our students who had severe behaviors was transferred to another classroom due to the safety of the students in my class and the general education students in the building. The classroom atmosphere was strange because we moved this students stuff out and had to move some of the stations around to spread out the classroom. Needless to say, the change was hard for the students. All week they would go to the wrong stations and were asking where the other student went to. I could see how change was very hard for these students. At the same time, I got to see many more of the students open up and relax because they finally felt safe in the classroom, which was awesome to see!

This week I did a lot of "pairing". I did a lot of playing with the students and building rapport. I have learned that pairing and building rapport with students who have autism is really hard to do, especially when they have a hard time communication socially. I have been learning what students like and what they do not like, which I think will help me a ton when teaching. My philosophy has always been the better you know your students, the better you can teach them. The problem is, it is so hard to get to know these students! 

I had the opportunity to start working with two of the students at the reading center. I have begun working on their IEP goals and the teacher has helped me begin working on this with them. It has been a lot of fun working one-on-one with the students and learning more about what they know and what they are working on. For the other students, I have sat in and observed my teacher working with them one-on-one, learning about what their IEPs are and how the teacher teaches them.

I also had the opportunity to sit down with the Social Worker this week and go over the behavior plans for two of the students in the class. I had to sign off on some papers and I now feel a little more comfortable knowing what some of the behaviors are in the classroom and how to handle it. Even though, I am not aloud to restrain students or get hands-on with behaviors. 

This week was a much more positive week for me. I feel like God did prepare this placement for me, even though it is not exactly what I want to be doing. I know that I am here for a reason and I am growing and learning about things that will help me in the future. I am surrounded by an awesome staff who really care about the students and are very knowledgeable. I am thankful for the opportunity to learn, grow, and be stretched. 

Week 8

This was my first week at my new placement. I am in an A.E.R.O classroom at Byrd Elementary School. It has been a huge transition for me to go from New Mexico one week to just a few days later back at Trinity and in a new classroom that is so very different from one another. I felt like I have not had time to adjust to being back and it has been a tiring and tough week.

My classroom is a classroom of eight students, four paraprofessionals, my cooperating teacher, and an occasional PT and OT. Needless to say, it is tight quarters.

The room is set up in a way that there are stations. The students function off a specific schedule and the schedule never changes. This is helpful for the students who have autism. Each of the paraprofessionals teach a station that the teacher has prepared for them at the beginning of the year. Each day the students go through eight centers and have group time. A few students go to some of the general education classes like gym and music.

This week I really worked on building rapport with my students. I did a lot of playing and observing. My teacher recommended that I play with the students a lot because they need to associate "fun" with me before they can feel comfortable working with me. She said that at the beginning of the year they take two full weeks to play with them before they start a normal schedule. This was amazing to me!

They go on a lot of field trips throughout the year. I was able to go on one with them this week to Jump Zone. They had a wonderful time and it was fun to play with them and get to know the students and even the paraprofessionals a little better.

My goal for this week was to learn the schedule, get to know teachers and paras and students as best as I could. It is very important for me to get along with them and immerse myself in the classroom. I want to be able to learn from them all and I made that very clear at the beginning of the week.

Each student is uniquely and wonderfully different. I am a bit nervous as to how I will do in this classroom however. I am finding that this type of placement is not what I expected and I feel quite uncomfortable majority of the time. I feel that I have a lot of learning to do in order to fit into this type of environment. I hope to feel more and more comfortable as I continue my time there.

Next week I am hoping to start teaching my teacher's center with at least one of the students one-on-one and continue to observe and play with students in order to build rapport.

Week 7

Last week.

I am beyond sad to say goodbye to my students, Rehoboth, and this community. I have had such a positive experience teaching and living here in New Mexico. God knew what He was doing and he prepared an amazing place and placement for me. I am extremely thankful for God's faithfulness in my life and through this chapter of it.

This week Monday was President's day, so we had no school. This meant I had a nice long weekend for one last trip! I headed to Moab, Utah to visit Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park. I saw the most beautiful scenery... "arch" you jealous?

As far as teaching goes, I taught majority of the subjects still, but slowly had my cooperating teacher come back into the classroom and help me teach in order to transition him back into teaching. We have done a little bit of co-teaching together as we have done this switch. 

This week in reading class, we are watching the movie Holes because we finished up the book last week. The girls are giggling along with the movie as they remember certain parts of the book and how specific things are "ironic". We really focused on how the book is ironic, so this is fun to see them making the connections for a second time. 

In math, I am wrapping up some of the partner projects I had them do and begin studying for the test we will be having on Friday of this week. I had the students do an exit slip about how they liked the project or disliked the project. Majority of the students enjoyed it and thought that it helped them understand math from a real world perspective, but a few were not a fan of doing projects in math class. I found this very interesting.

I have been helping out with Track and Field after school each day in the high school, but on Tuesday I ran into Kelly who was frantically looking for someone to coach 4th and 5th grade basketball at their game that day. I jumped in and took over and coached basketball. Boy was it crazy, but a lot of fun! I was able to experience a whole new world of coaching, especially because this was my first time with these kids before and I did not know them. 

This week I was also able to do a mock interview with Principal Chris Huizinga. This was such a positive experience! I was very excited to be able to have the opportunity to practice being in an interview. I think that it went very well. He asked me a lot of questions that related to Rehoboth, which was helpful because I had a lot to say about Rehoboth seeing as I have been teaching here for the last 7 weeks. I am realizing that I will not have this advantage in most interviews.

Last day.

On my last day we had a party! I gave my teacher a thank-you candy card and my students cookies. We ate tons of food and so much more. The students gave me gifts they had prepared for me. One student put together a whole book about the Navajo culture, another bought me my favorite candy, another made me a necklace and earrings that are often sold at the flea market, and another brought me in mutton and made me try it. Here is my reaction...

Today was a bittersweet day. I got so many hugs from students and many pleaded for me to stay. My cooperating teacher, Nick, wrote me a really nice letter and got me some of my favorite burritos. Boy does he know me well. I am beyond thankful that I had the opportunity for such a hard goodbye. God is so good! 

Tears in my eyes and a piece of my heart will always be with this school and these kiddos. I guess I will return back to Trinity, but only with hopes of returning!

Week 6

What an adventure it has been to be a part of the 6th grade and Rehoboth! I get tears in my eyes when I think about the fact that next week is my last week. God has been so faithful and good to me while I have been here. I am thankful for the students, teachers, friends, and community I have been able to get to know and be a part of. This week was a short week, which was quite unfortunate because it meant less time with my students. Although it was short, it was amazing. I feel so confident with my teaching after this week. All of my lessons ran smoothly and we had a ton of fun learning together. I was full time teaching again this week.

In math this week, we started a partner project on unit rates and grocery shopping. I wanted my students to be able to cut out various foods from grocery adds and find the unit rate and identify the best deal. It is important for them to know how to find the best deal and it relates to real world problems. They have been working on these and have honestly struggled a little bit with it. They did a great job and had no problems finding the unit rate when it was a problem out of the math book, but as soon as they had to identify the problems and solve it themselves, they were confused. We will have to spend an extra day next week looking these projects over again. This was good for me to see that they can do math out of the book, but they have difficulties when it is in real life.

In reading this week we wrapped up the book Holes and started discussing irony. The book has so many examples of irony, so we spent a day looking at what it is and I found a ton of goofy examples of irony. They laughed and laughed at all of the silly examples of irony that I found. We made a list of irony that is found in the book Holes and then started designing t-shirts with ironic slogans on them. They had a blast and they really understood what irony was by the end of the lessons. They also took an assessment test on Holes this week and I asked for feedback on my teaching in reading. I got a lot of positive feedback and I was very happy to see that they liked how I had taught reading and worked through the book with them.

In social studies this week we played review games and studied for their chapter 4 test. We played "trash ball", which is basically basketball with a trashcan and ball. The LOVED this review game and it really did help them study for the test. On Wednesday they took the test an they all seemed to do very well on it.

In Bible we did a lot of hands on activities and games. We played follow the leader and I took them outside and they had to do whatever I said and follow my every move. We came back to class and discussed how hot, tried, hungry that they got and talked about how they are a lot like the Israelite's who wandered around in the dessert, It is easy for us to get grumpy and grumble. The picture to the right is one of them before they started to grumble...


This week I also led Monday morning kick-off. This is an all middle school chapel at the beginning of the week. I was super nervous about leading this in front of the whole middle school and teachers, but it went very well. We talked about what kinds of things stop us from living out our faith and I shared the example of Moses. Moses had a stutter and he did not feel that he could lead the Israelite's out of Egypt because he was not a good speaker, but God still used him and surrounded him with community and help from Aaron.

Last, I helped out with Track and Field practice in the high school after school. I am stepping in as their distance coach during my remaining time here. I wish I could be here longer and help out. I am having a blast already getting to know the high school students a little bit and run and train with them.

Next week is my last week, so I am planning to still teach full time, but have my cooperating teacher in the room to possibly co-teach with them. I really do not want to leave!

As for adventures this week, I hiked Pyramid with some of the Rehoboth teachers and we had a blast. What a beautiful hike and fun time with new friends.

Week 5

This week began with a snow day, which was much needed after our weekend trip to Arizona. We visited Flagstaff and Sedona for the weekend and saw the most amazing red rocks! On Sunday, we took a trip to Zuni for church and Chu Chu's restaurant. Needless to say, we were exhausted after all of the hiking and traveling, so our extra day of rest was well spent.

                    

This week was spirit week. Tuesday was character day and I dressed up like Miss Frizzle! Wednesday was crazy hair day, Thursday was mismatch day, and Friday was Rehoboth spirit wear day. I had a ton of fun dressing up and supporting Rehoboth with the students. I was really bummed that Monday was a snow day because I had a rocking nerd outfit planned....maybe someday I will be able to use it...

This week was a blast of fun outfits and silliness. In addition to this, I started completely full time teaching. I added math finally into my schedule and it has been wonderful. I was extremely nervous at first to add math and teach math, since I have never taught math before, but I have loved every minute of it. Math was always a subject I struggled with, so I feel very passionate about working with my students and having my students work with each other to support each other. I decided to start something called "Math Partners". I paired up my students and made sure their was a high student with a low student. Every time I give the class a problem to work on, they have to work with their math partner and make sure they can do it by themselves. They are held responsible for each other and they end up teaching each other. If I call on a student and they cannot do the problem and their partner signed their paper saying they could, then their partner is responsible for it and the whole class uses a math point. Math points are collected when students are working well with their math partners and are getting answers correct. Enough math points will earn them a food day. I have seen a lot more confidence and excitement with math since I started this. I also am planning to do a math project with them next week. I mentioned this to a student and he could not believe it that we would do a project in math class, so this will be fun!

Another thing that I tried that was new this week was Kahoot. I did a social studies review day using Kahoot. I was a bit nervous when the internet went out the hour before I had to use Kahoot for class, but I thought on my feet and came up with alternative ways of scoring and answering questions using whiteboards and their iPads. It worked out great! I was observed for this lesson and the Principal was excited about my positive reinforcement and my classroom management. This was very reassuring to hear after this week with the students. 

The students were a bit crazier than usual this week. Do not get me wrong, I love a little crazy in my life, but some of my difficult students were more difficult that usual. I had to sit down and talk with some students after I was observed by Dr. Meyer. They were talking over each other, myself, and were acting in a disrespectful way during my Bible lesson. I think for me this was a reminder that no matter how hard I try, sometimes teaching can be frustrating. In the end, I want to reach my students and see them succeed, and what some students need, unfortunately is tough love. This is something I am still working on and will continue to work on.

My cooperating teacher, Nick is super great. This week I really realized how much I appreciate him and am thankful that God placed me in his classroom this semester. He has been an awesome role model for teaching, I have had an absolute blast teaching with him and working with him, and I am thankful for all of his encouragement through the good and the bad days. He constantly reminds me how well he thinks I am doing, gives me advice and great feedback, and supports me and teases me. It has been so great getting to know him.

This week I have learned that sometimes there are good days and bad days and just because you have a bad day, doesn't mean your a bad teacher. I also have learned that sometimes the internet crashes and you have to be able to think on your feet. I've learned that full time teaching makes you very sleepy and all you want to do is sleep and lesson plan. I have also learned that students, especially at Rehoboth really just need and want love. I am in awe of the relationships I have built with my students over these past five weeks and I have found that the best way to teach is to really truly know your students. 

Next week is a three day week because of winter break, but I will be continuing to teach full time. 

I am constantly in awe of how much I love Rehoboth, I love Gallup, and I love my students and new friends. God has blessed me so very much here. I dread the moment of having to say goodbye to it all.

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Schmidt:

The chapters are not on moodle.

Week 4

This week I  finally felt 100% comfortable in my classroom. I finally feel like this classroom is mine and these students are mine. I had the opportunity to take over for the day and my cooperating teacher was not in the classroom at all, and I found that this helped give me ownership and complete responsibility, which in turn forced me to be THE TEACHER. My classroom management skills improved a ton and I was able to feel in control.

I love middle school students. They are so much fun to teach because they can be silly one minute and then go back to working the next. I learned this week that being a middle school teacher means that you need to be able to be an entertainer. These kids respond well to goofy comments, funny images and examples, and really an overall performance when teaching. I've begun focusing my lessons and teaching style around this approach and I have seen awesome results!

In Social Studies this week I chose to start something new and different than Jeopardy. I created a Kahoot quiz where my students will work in groups to play against each other to prove their understanding of the material. I will be trying this next week on the Panama Canal. I am very excited! In order to prepare my students for Kahoot, I used it in a Bible lesson this week. They loved it. They created poster projects on the different furnishings located in the Tabernacle. After a group presented on it, they took a small Kahoot quiz on the material. This was effective for many reasons. First, they paid way better attention during the presentation because they wanted their group to win and second because they could learn how to play Kahoot and I could work out any kinks before we play it big time in Social Studies.

I am having so much fun trying new things in the classroom. My supervisor said, "Keep trying new things, if they fail, so what? At least you are trying!"

I took over devotions in the morning before we start the day and one of the girls in my classroom said to me, "I feel like you are our real teacher Ms. Disselkoen." This made my heart really warm because I know that these students respect me and feel comfortable with me. I am very thankful for my cooperating teacher and how much he has pushed me and helped me become a part of this awesome class. I am going to be so sad when I have to leave.

I have learned a lot this week, in addition to needed to be a performer sometimes and trying new things. I have learned more about the Navajo culture. First, I learned that I have been saying the word "Navajo" slightly wrong. I also learned that in the Navajo culture, snakes make them feel uncomfortable because it is similar to the devil. I learned this because in one of my math lessons we played a game called "snakes" and a few students had a huge problem with it. After this happened, a student came up to me and explained the Navajo Creation Story to me. This was beyond interesting and she said she would bring in an old book sometime for me to take a look at about this legend.

Next week I will be completing and 100% full time everyday. I am beyond excited to add math into my course load. I am not and have not been the best at math ever, but I think that this could be an advantage for my students. We will work through problems together step by step and hopefully it will help understand the material better. My cooperating teacher thinks so too and we are both excited!

God has blessed with me so much in this place and I feel overwhelmed with joy and thankfulness. I really hope that my time at Rehoboth is not done after student teaching. It has become home to me.

As far as adventures outside of teaching goes, I was able to hike the crevice this past weekend with a bunch of teachers. We had a blast inching our way through rocks and hiking in God's creation. I continue to be in awe of this beautiful place.

Week 3

This week has been a whirl wind! I'm happy, overwhelmed, excited, but stressed, and so many more emotions after this week.

Monday was MLK day and the students had no school, but the staff had an in-service day. This was fun to be apart of because I was able to experience what the life of a teacher is like on the "days off". We began the day with staff devotions, prayer, and worship. What a privilege we have to do this together! Another thing we did was a "tuning" exercise. We were split up into groups and had to tell our group an issue or problem we are having in the classroom or with our students. After this, the other staff members brainstormed ways to help you solve this issue or implement whatever you were having troubles with. I loved this experience, it showed true collaboration and the ideas and suggestions were fabulous!

My course load this week was basically full time. I taught everything but one mathematics class. This was a good experience, but it made for a stressful week. Early mornings and late nights were to be had by Ms. Disselkoen this week!

The students are becoming very used to me... why do I say that? They are comfortable enough now to test me. I had some challenging moments that exhausted me and sometimes discouraged me, but overall pushed me and helped me grow as an educator and overall person. One particular moment I would like to never forget was when one student decided to throw a paper airplane in class. I caught it in midair, crinkled it, and threw it in the crash. The old Ms. Disselkoen would think this would over the top and terribly mean, but one thing I learned this week is some of these students come from some tough homes and they need and really only respond to tough love. I had some good talks about how to best handle situations where students are getting up in class, being disrespectful, and not caring about work with my cooperating teacher and I have found that the most important thing for me to do is stop, address the issue, be firm, and show my students tough love. They have responded positively to this, and I feel as though throughout the week I have gained their respect and bad behaviors have begun to clear up.

"Good days, bad days, you cannot let them affect the way you view yourself as a teacher." -Cooperating teacher

As far as my actually teaching went....I am happy and so excited. I have so much fun teaching 6th graders. I can play games, come up with silly scenarios, ask goofy questions, and make funny voices for characters in a book and they love it! Teaching is a blast and I love getting up each morning knowing I get to hang out with these students and teach.

I tried something new this week. My cooperating teacher is VERY loud and he can yell and get their attention, but this strategy does NOT work for me. I had to come up with a way to get students attention when I wanted to talk and have the room be quite. I began using a call and response. I say, "Class, class" the students say "Yes, yes". It works WONDERS for me! I have used this in some of my younger grades I have taught, so I was hesitant at first to try it, but it has worked all week and they picked up on it quickly. It has made noise level and transitions much smoother for me.

I will be continuing to teach both Bible classes, both Social Studies classes, and Reading next week. We are going to wait to add Math class to my load for one more week since they fell behind in their math lessons due to no school on Monday and other events throughout the week. As I go forward into next week I hope to try a few more things.

1. Take over morning devotions and prayer.
2. Practice getting my students moving more during lessons.
3. Doing a better job at transitions from beginning of classes to the end of classes. 

Week 2

I have learned so much about Rehoboth this week. For instance, I was out on a run and was climbing some rocks to get to higher ground so that I could see the sunset over the mountain tops. I found myself overlooking a Reservation, and as I did I heard some barking coming from the distance. Some "Res dogs" were coming toward me. Apparently "Res dogs" are a thing and are not very friendly. Thankfully I was too high and the dog ran off. At this moment the sun was setting and I became overwhelmed with thankfulness to be in such a beautiful place.
 In addition to this finding, I learned a lot about myself this week. I have been asked so many times why I have chosen to come here. I honestly have no idea, but I am being constantly reminded that I am where I need to be. God is so good. I have learned that I am a scared person, I worry too much, and I am too hard on myself. My cooperating teacher pointed out this week that I am too hard on myself. He asked me how I thought I was doing. I responded with, "Fine, but I think I could do better." He told me to stop being to hard on myself and that he is very impressed with how I am doing. I never thought that I was too hard on myself, but after a lot of thought, perhaps I am. I am choosing to be kinder to myself and to be thankful for the small victories each day.

What has happened this week in the life of Ms. Disselkoen and her 6th graders?

This week I took over teaching Bible in addition to Reading, which I took over last week. I have found I loved teaching Bible. It is a great time to get into discussions, debates, and really dig deeper into our faith as a class. The students love sharing opinions, but not out loud...at least not right away. I found quickly that if I want them to share and participate I need to have them write down their thoughts first. For example, I taught a Bible lesson where I had them discuss how people should prepare for worship. I had them write down three absolute "musts" for preparing for church (take a shower, dress-up, prayer,etc.). This led into a heated debate about whether or not God cares if you dress up or not for church. Playing devils advocate has been an interesting role and has gotten my students into some awesome discussions. It is fun to see youth discussing their faith.

In reading, we are doing a unit on the book Holes. The girls drew character charts based on what they read about the characters in the book. They will be adding post-it notes describing the characters after each time that we read. By the end of the book, we will be able to see how the characters have changed and grown.

I was able to observe math class this week. They use Singapore math, which involves bar models. This is the first time I have see this done in a school. I think it is a great system. They are using it for all grades, so each year it builds on each other. It is visual and uses bar models as a way to solve everything in math, which makes math easier I think. I am still learning how to use the bar models accurately, but I have enjoyed it thus far. I take over math in two weeks and I hope to incorporate a partner system. They do all of their math individually, but I think that it would be beneficial to see them partner together and hold each other accountable or what they are learning. I am excited to begin preparing for what that might look like.

This week, the whole school has been a part of the January Series held on Calvin College's Campus. They have been projecting it live in the Church and classes have had the opportunity to go to a few of these. My class went to one on "Children of War" and "Autism". I felt that both of these were appropriate for my students to learn more about. We had some hard discussions after about them. Many students did not know what is going on in other countries and how children are being forced to kill and be a part of war. It was a huge eye opener and now we are trying to come up with something that we can do as class and school to help others.

In the 6th grade we had "the talk". This week Hands of Hope came in three days to talk to the students about puberty and their bodies. The girls and boys were separated and were taught about his and were given the chance to ask questions. Surprisingly, I learned more about the Navajo culture through this. When women in the Navajo culture become a women, they celebrate with a  Kinaalda.  Through this talk, I also learned of a lot of hurt in this community. Many girls were sharing stories (anonymous) about things they deal with at home or have dealt with. My heart hurts for these girls and boys that I teach. Something surprising that I learned was when in an emergency, they advice to you call a loved one before 911, because often times 911 will not answer or are very slow to answer. This is amazing to me, especially coming from Grand Rapids and Chicago.

Next week I will be adding social studies to my workload. I cannot wait!

I hope to learn and discover more about my teaching in the week ahead. I want to see how I can make learning fun by incorporating fun activities that get students excited. Sometimes in the 6th grade, it is easy to have boring teaching and learning through lecture. I want my classes to be more than lectures.

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Week 1

 This week was my first week in New Mexico! Before we go any further, you need to know that  I was very nervous for this new adventure. On Christmas break, I often found myself asking why I even decided to go away for student teaching in the first place. I found myself feeling that it would be easier to go back to Trinity, back to the familiar. As the date approached, the more nervous I became. The day before I left, I prayed. I prayed that God would go ahead of me and prepare a place. I prayed for peace and confidence. When I arrived on Saturday, I found myself in a new, beautiful home. The scenery here is absolutely God breathed and displays His beauty each day. 

This week, as I reflect on the people I met, the experiences I have had, the hikes I have went on, the students I have worked with, and the lessons I have taught I realized that God went ahead of me and prepared a place more perfect than I could ever imagine for me. I was reminded of this on a hike when I found my name actually engraved in the rock; serving as a reminder that God has chosen me and made a place for me here. I was meant to come to Rehoboth Christian School and serve. I cannot wait to see how else I am used and streched as I continue to student teach the next few weeks. 

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Since this is my new home, I thought I should show you my new house! Caitlin and I are living in the upstairs of the Mission House with another girl named Sam. Sam was a student teacher from Calvin ​​College last semester, but is not working full time at one of the nearby Gallup public schools.

  We are blessed with our own rooms, bathrooms, and kitchen. Although, we have not had to use our kitchen very much since we have been here because the people are so friendly and are constantly inviting us to dinner at their houses and taking us out to eat to try new foods. Until this week, I never knew what "red or green?" meant...so much I am learning about the culture here! Mr. Ipple invited us to a dinner in the fellowship hall on Tuesday evening where we learned about the Navajo culture. We tried some Navajo tacos and blue corn mush. They were both actually quite delicious. We also got to ask questions, watch a dance, and hear old stories that have been passed down. It was a great learning experience and I believe will help me as I continue to go into the classroom and teach. Being able to know and understand more about some of the different cultures that are a part of Rehoboth Christian School and this area will help me prepare and teach in a more appropriate way. 

Okay, okay...what about my classroom??? What about student teaching??? My classroom is amazing and so is my cooperating teacher. I am in the 6th grade with Nick Donkersloot. The first day, I was welcomed into the classroom, introduced, and immersed in Rehoboth, and given a tour. I have never felt so welcomed and a part of a classroom before on a first day. My cooperating teacher is hilarious. He is goofy in the classroom and you can tell that the students absolutely love him and respect him has a teacher. It is fun to watch him interact with the kids. I find myself laughing at all of his jokes along with the students. My cooperating teacher teaches Bible, math, social studies to both classes of 6th graders. He also teaches reading to the 6th grade girls, and the other 6th grade teacher teaches reading to the 6th grade boys. This week, on the second day, I already began teaching reading. I am doing a reading unit on the book Holes by Louis Sachar. He gave me some materials, but really this is my own unit that I get design and it is going to be my "baby" for the next seven weeks. Each week, our plan is to add another subject to my teaching load. Next week will be Bible. I am so excited! As far as classroom management, the students manage themselves. What I mean by this is the day I arrived, Nick and I started a new management plan. The students sit in groups. Each group works together and tries to earn points. The way they earn points is being the first group sitting and ready to go for the lesson, they brought all their materials to class, they brought their assignment books to class, their assignment books are signed by a parent each day, and so on. The group with the most points at the end of the week get to pick a food day for the following week, (Nick and I both agree that food is the bets motivator). The kids love it! They run into the classroom, they call each other at home to remind each other what to do and bring to school, they hold each other accountable. It is fun to see!

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Weirdly enough, this week Rehoboth Christian School had two snow days and a two hour delay. On Wednesday we had a two hour delay, so I had to adjust my lesson plan for reading and on Thursday and Friday, we had snow days. I was quite bummed about this because one, I never expected the weather to be this bad and two, I have been having such a fun time in school that I want to be there and I want to be teaching. Hopefully next week the weather clears up and I can be in the classroom more. I begin taking over Bible class on Monday already. I am so excited!

What have I learned thus far? 

I have learned that teaching 6th graders is actually fun. I thought I was not going to enjoy it and it was going to be hard. It may be too early to speak, but I think 6th grade has been my favorite already even after just (barely) one week. I learned that it is very important to let students have independence, especially at this age. I learned it is important to find what motivates students, in our classes case it is food and the ability to participate on sports teams. I have also learned that some of my students eat lamb heads and I will probably be forced to eat something that involves lamb before I leave... All in all, I have learned that being a teacher you must be flexible because you never know how many snow days you will have, it is important to get involved in your community, and you must always remember that God has hand picked everyone in your classroom, including you.

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Classroom Confidential - Schmidt

1. In Classroom Confidential Schmidt refers to multiples intelligence's. What intelligence's do you hope to use in your teaching and why?

In the classroom, I would hope that I would try and use all of the multiple intelligence's. Some specifically that I hope to use in my teaching is "self-smart-interapersonal intelligence" and "people-smart-interpersonal intelligence". I hope to use both of these because in the 6th grade I find that these would be very valuable for all. I want my students to be self motivated and understand their own feelings and values. I think that this is important at this stage of life. They are beginning to understand who they are in the world and in the classroom. Other the other hand, I want them to be able to develop their social skills. I think it is vauable for students to be able to understand their peers and what motivates them. I want my students to be self and peer motivators. I can do all I can to try and push and help these students, but if they do not want to do it themselves, nothing will get done. Teaching them to value their educaiton and find what motivates them to do better will strengthen the classes. I beleive they can do this through understanding themselves better and their peers.

2. Schmidt asserts that “activity without cognition is just a way to keep kids from smacking each other…Idle hands may be the devil’s workshop, but clueless hands aren’t much better… before you switch on the hands, you must ease the brain into gear and keep it running” (p. 15). Are there ways you will use Schmidt’s “full brain learning”? Explain.

There are many ways that I will use Schmidt's "full brain learning" approach. I think it is easier in the 6th grade to tap into their minds and find what it meaningful to them about the world. I also have seen it modeled for me on how to give studenst many different ways to go about a project or task. I have seen promotion of social and communication skills by talking about ideas and have already begun using this in my own lessons. I think that it will be easier in the 6th grade to use the "full brain learning". I am very excited to see how my students use these tasks and learn throughout the time I am here.