11/18-11/22

Being placed at North Elementary has opened my eyes to how diversity affects the classroom. Because some of my students are not originally from the US, many of them do not celebrate Thanksgiving. I found it a little bit difficult to help these students connect to this important US holiday. My mentor teacher showed me the lessons she had planned for after Thanksgiving, which is a unit based around multiple winter holidays. The students would learn about Christmas, Chanukah, Three Kings Day, The Korean New Year, and Kwanza. I also noticed just from walking about in the hallways that many of the other teachers do something similar. North is truly a unique school and I am so lucky to have has the experience to teach there.

11/11-11/15

This semester I started a teacher mailbox where students could write notes, draw me pictures,or tell me about their day. I absolutely loved having this opportunity to further connect with my students. In my cases, I was able to help solve a students problem who might have been too shy to tell me them self. Also, this mailbox got the students writing whenever they had the chance. I've learned that it is important to utilize every opportunity as a teaching experience. With this mailbox, students don't realize the writing practice they are gaining. I plan on having this system in my future classroom.

11/4-11/8

For the past 3 months, I have been tutoring one student after school in reading. I work with him for 45 minutes every wednesday. I am very happy to report that this student has shown great improvement in his reading ability. He seems to have learned how to sound out words and look for patterns. I am so proud of all the work he has accomplished throughout the past semester. I hope that I can continue working with this student even after my internship ends. Also from this experience, I myself have learned the reasoning behind why words sound the way they do. It is quite funny what we as adults forget from grade school.