Floating Down Stream

Hi All! To answer a question from a previous post, my class does have many first generation students, and some that were born in other countries. My classroom is mainly a combination of Asian and Hispanic children, which makes sense because it is situated at the border of Chinatown which has a large Asian population and the Lower East Side, which is a neighborhood traditionally dominated by Jewish immigrants but has, in the last couple of decades become largely populated by newer immigrants. As far as problems in reading, my student that is having difficulty seems like he is having more of an internal processing problem, than an overall difficulty with the English language. Part of the way I know this is because he understands when I read out loud.

So today was a very interesting day. My cooperating teacher was on a field trip, and I therefore was able to give the classroom my own feel. Megan (my CT) hates noise in the classroom, whereas I think it’s great as long as it’s productive. This leads her to discipline my class when I don’t find it necessary. But today, without her around monitoring us, we could all take a deep breath and we got a lot of really great work done. My learning goals for the day were accomplished plus more. My class was interactive and fabulous. They were on task and coming up with creative ideas. Some days it just clicks, and today it really did for us. Part of my success today, believe it or not, was due to not over planning. When I invest too much time in planning out every detail I want to keep that plan. Today, I had an idea of what I wanted to do, and was able to take cues from my students and plan the day around what they specifically needed. When I felt we needed some extra talk time, I threw in some unanticipated group work. When they seemed ready to write, we did independent workshop time. I was so happy when I was done I forgot about what was ahead: the eighth grade class. Even though I don’t teach them, I do help out in their classroom. Because I am not ever in front of the class, I have a more relaxed relationship with these kids. I have slowly become friendly with some of them that actively seek out my extra help a lot. Today, I realized that I had not been acting like enough of an authority figure. I had become lax in asserting myself, and when I tried to quiet some students down I got either explosive attitudes or was ignored all together. My own class definitely knows better than to disrespect me in such a way. But, because these kids have never heard me speak sternly or take a student out in the hall to talk to them, they felt I had no recourse. And in a way, they were right. It was not my classroom and I didn’t want to undermine the authority of the teacher up front by disciplining her students. So I gritted my teeth and let it slide.

For a moment, when I was trying to model silent reading by reading my own book at a table with the kids, I really remembered what it felt like to be on the other side of the desk. It’s the day after Halloween, and you expect us to sit here and read silently instead of exchanging stories? Yea, right. As if responding to my thoughts the covering teacher yelled, “NO CANDY IN ELA!” I almost rolled my own eyes. She proceeded to do a read allowed of an Edgar Allen Poe story. This class is generally unresponsive when she reads allowed and hated “The Tell Tale Heart.” Needless to say, this is not the lesson I would have planned. I repeat this mantra over and over in my own head: “know your students.” I worked with my students today, and she worked against them. It’s like trying to swim up rapids instead of floating down them. Working against your students is hard work, frustrating, tiring, and you don’t get very far.