I’m starting to get the feeling that all of my weeks will have that special mixture of good and bad. I’m not sure why that is surprising for me but it is. If I think about this week and some of the tremendous gains the students, and myself, made—it seems great. But if I think about all of the behavior issues (that started on Monday and continued while I was there) it’s kind of disheartening.
Some of this week’s accomplishments were feeling like I really know my students, gaining more teaching time, staying for after-school tutor and furthering my connection with students other than my own, and seeing Y do so well in some of the reading lessons. I feel like I have an individualized, and personal, rapport with each of my 46 students now, which is a major accomplishment. I feel like I have a good grasp on each of their personalities and abilities and how to be a motivating model for each student on a more personal level. Stepping into even more teaching time was really beneficial because I feel like I am making a visible contribution to my students’ lives (and it was wonderful to get feedback from my observation so I can be more, and more impactful every time I teach). Because I’ve been staying at the school later I get to see some of the after-school programs provided. I ended up staying and helping with the kindergartener tutoring, which was a blast; I’d forgotten how funny five-year-olds are. Working with the kindergarteners made me feel like I see even more kids I know when I’m walking around the school, which I love. Something else really cool that happened in my week was seeing Y actively participate in multiple reading lessons. He just learned how to read and is really struggling, but when he was able to apply the comprehension skills from the lesson to a book he had listened to, he rocked! I was so proud of him.
Behavior-wise this week was just a rough one. I’m not sure why but all of the kids were really off each day. Lots of students got referrals, owed recess, needed a phone call home, got electronics confiscated, or had to meet with the counselor. Hopefully this weekend will give them all time to get back into sorts.
Having fun on a class field trip.
Ms. R-T 
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