During my fourth week of field experience my partner and I arrived as our same usual time 12pm.. This day in field was probably the best one I’ve had so far, we arrived in the classroom at lunch and the students were eating their lunch, many of them came up to us and asked how our week was and many asked what our Halloween costumes were going to be. Then lunch was over and it was time for them to go outside, me and my partner usual go outside at this time. Many students come up to us, asking questions or just wanting to have a conversation with us. There is this one student that always come up to us, she talks to us about how school is and asks A LOT of questions, this student has a disability, and every time she comes up to talk to my partner and I, I am proud that she feels comfortable talking to us about what’s going on at school, what she learnt or even knowing how her week went. It makes me proud because she knows that we will not judge her and it makes me feel honored that she hasn’t known us long but that she feels safe having us around the school. Recess came to an end, we made our way inside. The kids were to get out their books and silent read for a few minutes, I always enjoy this time because the kids are focusing on something physically in their hands, Mr. White’s classroom is really technology based, so it’s nice to see them sitting there reading something that is physically present, not just reading it off a screen. After silent reading the students gathered with the other 7/8 class in their business fair groups to work on their projects. The students have been working on this project for a couple weeks now, and my partner and I have walked around checking in with the groups and making sure they are on task. For those coupe weeks I found that just supervising was so boring so I took what Cyril said into consideration. I took a new approach, every group I went to I asked them “Do you have your poster done?” most of the groups would say “ yes” and I asked them “ Can I see it?’ and with every group I usually remembered what their product was that they were selling. You would not believe how many kids were shocked, many of the students said “You remembered that, how you are only here once a week?” you know what I responded with, I said “I remembered because I care, I care because I want you to succeed”. After saying this to the students I realized that it opened a new perception in those kid’s eyes because every group wanted to talk to me about their project and wanted to ask me questions, they wanted to hear what I had to say. This class came to an end, then it was recess again. My partner and I go out outside for recess again, and this one student come up to me and asks “Miss. S, can u come play some basketball with us?’ I said “Sure, okay” I played maybe five minutes with them, not very long, but in those five minutes you should have seen the way those kid’s faces lit up when I was playing with them, engaging with their interests. After recess was over all I could hear as the kids come into the classroom was “Did you see Miss. S playing with us! She is one cool teacher.” hearing this made me feel very honored because I gained some of their trust, and that they feel comfortable with me and that is an important trait to be able to have that trying to form your toolbox.
After school came to an end my partner and I wanted to ask Mr. White some questions about his classroom. We asked him questions based on inclusiveness, technology and also curriculum in his classroom. During Mr. White's answers to these questions really opened my eyes to his teaching. When I came into the school every student said Mr. White is the best, he’s my favorite. My thoughts were oh he probably doesn’t' give homework, gives out candy, because that what I grew up around knowing what a favorite teacher was. I was wrong because after the questions we had asked I understood the real reason to why he was the students favorite, he taught lessons in a way for them to understand hands on. They did a lesson on the parts of the heart, he could have provided them with terms and handouts then wrote a test but he didn’t. He went and bought cow hearts, and he got them to dissect them, Mr. White wanted them to learn it hands on for better understanding. He said to this day if he asked the parts of the heart almost every student would put up their hand to answer the question. As Mr. White explained to us his teaching methods, he was wiping his eyes, these weren’t tears of sadness, these were the tears of joy because he knew that he as a teacher in the education world that was making a difference in these kid’s lives.
