Reflecting on Tutor Activities

Prompt: Reflect on your Tutor Activity Forms and/or other activities you've engaged in with the students at your PDS. What have you learned from the relationship you've built with some of the students in your classroom (learning styles, student engagement, teaching strategies that were successful, relating to students' experiences such as previous success in school, parental support?)

When I look back at my Tutor Activity Forms from this semester, I have really come to realize that teaching is not an easy thing. I did an activity with several students who were struggle with the concept of a number grid. I just couldn't understand how they didn't see that it started with 1 and went to 100. It was frustrating at times, but then I would just sit back and remember that when I was in the first grade I also struggled with math, and maybe if someone at my school would have give me extra help and had stated patient with me, I might not have had such a hard time. Remembering this, I have started to be more patient with the students and I just remind myself that if I can be the one person during their day that shows them I care, then maybe they will have a better attitude towards math and other subjects in school.
There is one student at my PDS who is very conscious about school work, and this student is in the second grade. One day he came to school very upset because he forgot to do a homework assignment. He was absolutely terrified that he was going to to get expelled, and was so upset his mother came into school to sort out the problem. His mother had me tell him that his teacher is very nice and he was not going to get expelled. When I told him this, he gave me a hug. After that day, he asks me for help all the time and I can tell that he really trusts me.
With other students at my PDS, I have learned that some students are very independent and can handle themselves in the classroom with very little instruction and help to complete activities. With others, this is not the case. There are students in my PDS classroom that need told how to do an assignment 3 or 4 times and then they understand. I have learned that giving directions once will not satisfy every student. The thing I have learned the most is that I need to make sure every student is given attention during the school day.

Question: Where there any students in your classroom that you built a relationship with?

Blogging Possibilties

Think about blogs you've participated in or like to read regularly.  What is it about these blogs that you find interesting/engaging/informative?  Then, think about how you might use a blog as a teacher and as a preservice teacher in the Benedum Collaborative Five-Year Teacher Education Program.   In your first posting, describe how you envision a blog supporting your experiences.  What kinds of things can you imagine writing about?  Please include as many possibilities as you can.

The have used two blog type programs. One is Facebook and the other is a blog that my cross country and track coach have set up for us. I like using Facebook for keeping in touch in my friends that have gone to college out of state. Using Facebook allows us to talk to each other. The blog for our cross country team is mostly used for our schedule and keeping us up to date on our workouts and trips. I like using these blogs for keep up with my schedule.

I could use a blog as a teacher and as a preservice techer in the Bendedum Collarboratie Five-Year Teacher Education Program by posting what I have done in my classes and what issues I might have come across. Hopefully people reading my blog would have advice on what I should do. I can also use it to read other people's blogs and see what they have been doing in their schools.

Things I can imagine writing about would be my experinence in the classroom, activites I did with my class, my wonderings, and to ask questions to people who are reading my blog. If I write about the activites I did with my class this could give other teachers ideas for teaching their lessons. Also, if I keep track of my wonderings and the other questions I have just in general  about teaching, then other teachers can comment on them and give me advice. I can also give others advice as well.