Day 11: New School

Monday February 6, 2012

I began Ed Smith's placement today. Mary Lynn Mahan is my cooperating teacher. My first day was a positive experience. Her classroom management is really wonderful. She doesn't yell but has a calm demeanor and I let her know I like how she handled the class. She replied, "I think my kids know I love them." A boy fell down in one of the classes and she didn't hesitate to give him a huge hug and kissed him on the forehead. He was crying and really upset. At my first placement there was much more reservation in touching any of the kids. The art room itself is inspiring and visually organized. There are quotes all around the room, like "Think it. Be It. Do It," "Be the change you wish to see in the world," "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams," etc. They were spread out all around the room. Instead of having four desks grouped together with four people grouped at Frazer which made 8 tables, this classroom was laid out with only 3 groupings. One was a long rectangular table, and two square tables. Above these tables are circular patterned light covers hanging from the ceiling. One has peace signs another flowers. Mary Lynn refers to the tables in terms of which pattern is hanging above their heads and says flower table line up, peace sign table line up. I thought that was a creative way to do it rather than just a table number or color. On one side of the classroom there is a visual organizer dedicated to visually represent what the students are working on that has key terms and images as a visual reminder, so K, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 have their own columns and you can see a reminder of what each grade is working on. I felt it was helpful for me to know what the focus terms and ideas were as well as the lesson, and think it was helpful for the kids to have as well. The kindergarten class was working on symmetry and they all seemed to understand what it was, and all of them want a chance to participate and are excited to be called on. I noticed that Mary Lynn takes time to hear them out and engage with them and get them invested in the concepts they are learning. When they are finished with projects they get time to free draw which they seem to thoroughly enjoy. The 4th grade class is working on Manga drawings and she had them line up to show her the drawings in pencil before she would give them a sharpie marker to outline their drawings in. If they did the drawing too small she would send them back to revise it and told me this was her way of assessing what they had learning. I liked that they were able to have one on one time with her and get that individual attention. I also liked that she withheld a material they were excited to get until they showed her they earned the right to use it. She always demonstrates her expectations on one wall in the classroom where everyone can see and for the most part everyone pays attention. She took on a group of special needs kids who weren't regularly scheduled to come in because she felt they needed to come. She had a lesson planned for them working with clay and texture, so they were able to touch it and feel it. She had them roll the clay and then roll the texture onto it and used heart cookie cutters to make the clay into heart shapes and then punched a hole into it and was going to put it into the kiln and give it to their teachers to glaze it. There were about 8 kids that came in from all spectrums, one in a wheelchair with some social skills, one blind, one I think paraplegic, another in a wheelchair with no motor skills, another fixated on one thing on the board and noticed I knew what he was referencing and kept giving me eye contact and coming back to it, he didn't seem that able to construct thoughts concretely or rationally, and a few other kids with various issues. There were 1 TA to 2 kids it seemed. The one paraplegic boy was ignored by the TA and they just said that Austin would share with another boy and were doing it for another boy and just letting Austin sit there the entire time. The young girl who was blind, the TA just did it for her and didn't even let her touch or feel anything the entire time. I jumped in to help and worked with Austin after seeing how things were going for a minute or two. He was a very handsome boy and looked off into the distance most of the time and was drooling kind of but every now and then he would laugh. I tried to talk to him and asked him what his name was, and found out by the TA next to me. I put the clay onto his wheelchair stand that he must have to write on or do work on, kind of like what's on a hi-chair. At first I felt it might break but kind of put my leg up under it and didn't pressure it that much. I put his hands on the roller as I did it, and talked him through us doing it together. I also had him feel the texture and do that with me and cut the heart shapes out. It was neat to talk to him and feel his hands and see that we were doing it together. I could feel when I'd ask him to do something when he'd push down or move his hands and try. He didn't reassure me much that he enjoyed it but I did. The TAs didn't seem very proactive with helping the kids who weren't able to wash their hands wash their hands so with Austin I wet paper towels and washed his hands for him and told him it was nice working with him. Mary Lynn told me it really bothers her how the TAs with that group don't let some of them do things or help them in the right way. She told me it was good how I was working with Austin. It was something small but it felt nice for her to tell me I did something that was good. I also felt what she was saying with how they weren't going to do anything with him and noticed while I was working with him that the girl who was blind didn't even get to touch anything. I thought the lesson Mary Lynn had in place for them was perfect and one everyone from their various stages could get something out of. I'm glad to be in a new setting and hope the days to come go well.