My Junior Fields Experience

My junior fields experience was very unexpected. I was placed in a 6th and 8th grade math classroom. My major focus was with the 6th graders. There was an accelerated class and a regular class. My first day was very overwhelming for me. As I saw all these students before me, almost all of them my height, I started having my doubts. I became really nervous and had my second thoughts on whether teaching is the right career for me. As the days passed, I became more comfortable with the students, as well as my cooperating teacher. For two straight days, I had a substitute teacher, which at the time I didn’t like too much. However, I soon realized that it was great chance for me to get to know my students better and be more comfortable with them. The three weeks flew by and at the end of my junior fields. I got so attached to all my students. No only did they see me as a teacher, but as a friend. Even for those two lessons that I taught them on tessellations and cross sections, I feel like I made an impact. One of my students became obsessed with tessellations and every time he had free time, he would make one. That really touched me and made me feel good about myself. At the end of my junior fields, I came to the conclusion that teaching was the right choice on my career in life. I’m really looking forward to my internship. Here are some pictures of my 6th graders.

10 year olds learning English

This is a great video clip on how 10 year olds learn English. Their teacher allowed them to make their own “buildings” out of boxes. Then, the buildings were placed in random places and they had to describe of the buildings were in front, behind, next to, etc. This is a great activity for ESL students. It has a lot of hands on work, especially when the kids make their own props. Not only are they learned where the buildings are placed, but they also learn names of important building such as a school, post office, bank, movie theater, etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMIz6ARrg2c

Linda Furiya's Video

Here is a short video of Linda Furiya. She is reading a book that she wrote on her upbringings as a child and her experience of living in a household with a non-American parent who didn’t know how to speak English well. She reads a part of her book about having dinner one night with her family and how her mom got upset at her for making fun of her accent. Linda realized how bad she hurt her mom and related it to when she was teased in school. This is something that probably happens daily in households. As teachers, we have to be sensitive of situations like this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov_gD4q6Or0