This month has been full of new beginnings! Like the students I serve New Beginnings bring excitement, anxiety, and curiosity; and as an educator of preschool students for many years I continue to have these same emotions at the beginning as well. Will I have a full classroom at the start of the year? Will this be the first time for all of them in any type of school environment? Will the parents be overwhelming? Will I have the same co-teacher?
This year I now have an inclusion classroom which comes with an additional educator to help and guide the "Special Needs" students and myself on the new experiences and challenges separate to those I have learned to expect over the years. And yet my biggest new beginning is becoming a graduate student at GSU! These new beginnings had many highs and lows throughout the month that I am learning to t record and reflect upon to become a more involved and professional educator.Taking time out of the day to record moments of importance started out with excitement yet quickly fizzled to become a list of distractions. I had many difficulties finding positive things that happened throughout my day, I had to constantly remind myself of the focus of this task to ensure that I would be able to benefit from the recordings. After my first week of recording, I realized my focus was on the need for my students to have proper discipline rather than ensuring that I was getting to know them and their needs for developmental growth. I have been teaching and recording the behaviors of my students for so long that it was challenging to begin to shift my focus and record what went good or bad in the learning experience of the day. Although I still found myself recording mostly behavior concerns for my lows I am learning to focus on the learning experiences of the students to see what worked or did not and why. I began to question myself on how can I ensure that the objective of the lesson is successful, should this lesson be repeated, modified, or taken out of the lesson; yet I still was not sure that I was recording things of substance for my highs and lows.
Learning to reflect on these things began to shift my focus from behavior, although not completely. I am learning to connect the many years of experience to theories and research based analysis that help to better understand why and how 4, and 5 year old children behave and respond to classroom experiences. When my graduate coach visited my classroom she brought new ideas to help me shift my perspective of teaching and be flexible with each child's way of learning. The concerns I had of students not engaging and participating in activities as I felt they should have was acceptable and did not indicate the student was not learning. This reminded me of readings from YardSticks; "Children at four demand school programs which are flexible, exciting and creative because they are flexible, exciting and creative creatures" (p.31).
I am still excited, curious, and anxious to see what will unfold this school year. My New Beginnings are overwhelming to me now and I do know that this will change. I will continue to seek understanding of the students as my perspective shifts to ensure that I am meeting both their academic and developmental goals on an individual bases. I am aware that all these lives matter and it is my hope that I offer them the best learning experience possible!
Embracing New Beginnings....
Kimela,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post! It seems as if this month gave you the opportunity to be very reflective about your practices as a teacher versus focusing on the behavioral aspects of your students. I think it's really great that the readings and your coach are helping you to become open to new ideas and activities in your classroom. As far as being overwhelmed with everything, you are not alone! I think this is a new transition for all of us! However, as we continue to learn from our professors and one another and even our students, I think it'll all come together and ultimately help us to become better in our craft. Look forward to hearing more about your experiences with your students!
Tilifayea
Kimela,
ReplyDeleteA lot of your initial thoughts resonated with me as well as we often enter into the school year with a lot of curiosity. It seems so helpful as you begin grad school to have the experience in the classroom and such a strong foundation. It is so exciting for you to have the opportunity to gain a new perspective of teaching and learn how to become a stronger teacher as we continue in our classes at GSU. I know that you are such a gift to all your students and co-workers. It seems like the approach to dealing with student's behavior may change as you are taking on a new group of students.
Christian