Joy Prior
Review of Volunteering with TOPS
I have worked in Preschools before, but there was a remarkable difference between how I worked with children before and now. Not only did my confidence blossom, but I was able to practice several things I learned in class. It was almost insane to see how much teaching happens when I was simply talking with the students. When I was in the classroom it became clear how varied kindergarteners are in their abilities. The final lesson I learned was that the lesson plan should cater to my and the student’s attention spans, and abilities.
When I was talking to the students on topics they were interested in they could remember what was being taught more clearly. I really did try to put DAP ideals into practice, particularly by drawing “on children’s own interests and introduce children to thing likely to interest them,” (p. 21). For example I will always remember when we were talking about infinity. As we talked about infinity I mentioned how the sign for infinity is a sideways number 8. Then we talked about how the number one is represented by a 1 image, and we went through a list of numbers. Although the children were interested in the idea of infinity I did not think that they were paying attention to what I was explaining. The next week when I was at the writing center I overheard one of the boys I had explained infinity to last week draw a picture of a sideways 8 and tell his friend that it was the sign for infinity.
As I began to talk with the students I was able to see how varied they were in their abilities. Before, during, and after every writing activity all I could think was how “children’s skills vary and they will need different levels of support,” (p. 19). It took a lot of concentration to notice all of the varied levels of ability, but it also took a lot of thought to know how to support the entire student’s in the various levels of ability. It took me a few weeks to notice that one of the little boys never actually talked. Sometimes he would respond when I asked him a direct question, but the majority of the time he worked quietly. Although he finished his work I realized that I was responsible for helping him to develop social abilities as well. I made a point to ask him questions about his sentences, and next time I think that I will try and have him ask and answer questions with a student next to him. I was only able to learn this as I began to spend more time talking and working with the students.
Some days were easier than other days to get a topic of conversation going. One day the assignment was to write two sentences about a dinosaur. Most of my time was spent breaking down the names of the dinosaurs into one or two letter sections. The length of the names intimidated most of the students and instead of wanting to write the name they would just put their pencil down. This day I was so thankful that the group sections were only 15 minutes long. I know that kindergarteners can often only work at a station for 15 to 20 minutes, but in all honesty I do not think that I could have worked another 15 to 20 minutes on dinosaur names (p. 204). I had no idea how to pronounce most of the names and wished that I could have looked some of the pronunciation up. It was a really short section, but I was unprepared for it. The few minutes that I was working in each group was stressful to me, because I did not know what I was doing. The curriculum I design does not only have to capture the attention of the students, but I have to take the responsibility to know and recognize the material.
Overall it was a great learning experience and it helped me to apply learning how to talk with students, recognize different levels of development, and how to organize a lesson plan.
Monday, April 11, 2011
SFL journal
Joy Prior
Week 1 January 25, 2011
I went to the Kindergarten for the first time this week. It was so much fun. I forgot how much I enjoy working with children. For the hour I was responsible for the activity about the letter H, and the H sound. We were supposed to sing a song that was about Hot Cakes, but I could not really figure out the tune, and the kids really did not care too much about the song. Instead we really tried to list of lots of words with the H sound while we played Hot potato. Some of the children were thinking of words that I would not have even imagined that they would know, and other groups needed a little help to think of more than just the word hot or hotcake or hot potato. They were all really well behaved, and were really interested in the game. I got better at getting the students to think of H words and to interact in the game, but I struggled with developing a pattern to the short activity that went well with the timing of the session. Supposable each of the sessions was fifteen minutes but in my own opinion I think that the timings were all different and that they really did not stick strictly to a fifteen minute season, but then again I could be wrong.
Week 2 February 1, 2011
Writing sentences was like pulling teeth. Two sentences, that was all, and we sat there a looked at those papers for the longest time. No I take that back, most of the kids were not even looking at their paper; most of them were trying to look at what everyone else in the classroom was doing. The amount of attention each group gave varied from group to group, but it was generally the same low level of interest. In theory they could color a picture after they wrote two sentences, but most of them sat down and colored first. I felt completely lost. All of the confidence that I felt from the first week was completely gone, and I was at ground zero. I could have possibly been feeling in the negatives.
I tried to think of ways to make writing two sentences interesting. We began by listing off words that the kids knew, we talked about some of the words on the word wall, and I wrote out a few model sentences. I like that by the end most all of the children had written two sentences, and a few had written only one. That really should not have been my goal though. I think that if I had spent less time worrying about trying to get everyone to write two sentences and more time trying to encourage and help the children learn I would have been more successful.
Week 3 February 8, 2011
It was one of those days when I wonder exactly what I am doing with my life. Overwhelmed by the idea that what I was doing means nothing and that I really made the wrong care choice I went to the Kindergarten today. When I got there Dan looked up at me and said, “Oh! There you are. I was worried that you would not be here and I not help me spell Dinosaur.” It made me laugh a little inside, but I was happy. If no one else me being there today mattered to Dan simply because he was afraid of spelling the word Dinosaur.
Week 4 February 15, 2011
Today we wrote one sentence and then we could draw a picture about that sentence. MY minor is visual arts, and I spend a lot of time drawing and painting and working with various artistic mediums. I never realized what great minor this would be with Early Childhood Education. After writing a sentence we all started to draw pictures about what we had written our sentence on. My picture was of me jumping on the tramp.
One of the students brought up the grim reaper; I know, a little out there. Most of the children did not know what a grim reaper is, and so I drew a picture of one. I felt a little satanic, but as soon as the children saw a picture of a grim reaper they could recognize it and started to talk about Halloween. I was really glad that I did not excuse the conversation. I was also glad that I could and did draw a grim reaper, because it helped them to connect the word with a mental image.
Last week one of the children asked about the number infinity. We talked a little about it, and then I drew an infinity sign. I told them how it is the number 8 on its side. Today when I was in the classroom Hugh brought up the word infinity, and then he drew a number 8 on its side. I was a little shocked and pretty impressed that he remembered the sing for infinity.
Week 5 February 22, 2011
In one of the groups none of the students wanted to write a sentence, but we were at the writing center. I asked Dan if he could write a sentence, and tried to help him think of things that he could write about. He threw his pencil, and the teacher came over and told him that if he did not write his sentences he could not move onto the next station. I tried to think of a creative way to encourage him to start writing. We started with one word at a time. We started to play a kind of game. I would close my eyes and count to five and when I opened my eyes I wanted to see the word like on his paper. We played this game for an entire sentence. I think that it worked ok, because it broke the difficult task of writing two sentences into small steps. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by having to write two sentences Dan concentrated on one word at a time. After a while I could stop counting and say, “I am going to look at Olivia’s sentences and when I look back I want to see another word on your paper,” Dan then started to write by himself, and once he finished I was so relieved.
I am so much more confident when I work with the students now, and I am not as afraid to stop and think. I know that sounds a little weird, but I really did struggle when I first started to stop and think. I felt pressured to just keep on going and to just do, do, do. Now though I think that my hour goes better when I pause, think about what is going on, and then try again.
Week 1 January 25, 2011
I went to the Kindergarten for the first time this week. It was so much fun. I forgot how much I enjoy working with children. For the hour I was responsible for the activity about the letter H, and the H sound. We were supposed to sing a song that was about Hot Cakes, but I could not really figure out the tune, and the kids really did not care too much about the song. Instead we really tried to list of lots of words with the H sound while we played Hot potato. Some of the children were thinking of words that I would not have even imagined that they would know, and other groups needed a little help to think of more than just the word hot or hotcake or hot potato. They were all really well behaved, and were really interested in the game. I got better at getting the students to think of H words and to interact in the game, but I struggled with developing a pattern to the short activity that went well with the timing of the session. Supposable each of the sessions was fifteen minutes but in my own opinion I think that the timings were all different and that they really did not stick strictly to a fifteen minute season, but then again I could be wrong.
Week 2 February 1, 2011
Writing sentences was like pulling teeth. Two sentences, that was all, and we sat there a looked at those papers for the longest time. No I take that back, most of the kids were not even looking at their paper; most of them were trying to look at what everyone else in the classroom was doing. The amount of attention each group gave varied from group to group, but it was generally the same low level of interest. In theory they could color a picture after they wrote two sentences, but most of them sat down and colored first. I felt completely lost. All of the confidence that I felt from the first week was completely gone, and I was at ground zero. I could have possibly been feeling in the negatives.
I tried to think of ways to make writing two sentences interesting. We began by listing off words that the kids knew, we talked about some of the words on the word wall, and I wrote out a few model sentences. I like that by the end most all of the children had written two sentences, and a few had written only one. That really should not have been my goal though. I think that if I had spent less time worrying about trying to get everyone to write two sentences and more time trying to encourage and help the children learn I would have been more successful.
Week 3 February 8, 2011
It was one of those days when I wonder exactly what I am doing with my life. Overwhelmed by the idea that what I was doing means nothing and that I really made the wrong care choice I went to the Kindergarten today. When I got there Dan looked up at me and said, “Oh! There you are. I was worried that you would not be here and I not help me spell Dinosaur.” It made me laugh a little inside, but I was happy. If no one else me being there today mattered to Dan simply because he was afraid of spelling the word Dinosaur.
Week 4 February 15, 2011
Today we wrote one sentence and then we could draw a picture about that sentence. MY minor is visual arts, and I spend a lot of time drawing and painting and working with various artistic mediums. I never realized what great minor this would be with Early Childhood Education. After writing a sentence we all started to draw pictures about what we had written our sentence on. My picture was of me jumping on the tramp.
One of the students brought up the grim reaper; I know, a little out there. Most of the children did not know what a grim reaper is, and so I drew a picture of one. I felt a little satanic, but as soon as the children saw a picture of a grim reaper they could recognize it and started to talk about Halloween. I was really glad that I did not excuse the conversation. I was also glad that I could and did draw a grim reaper, because it helped them to connect the word with a mental image.
Last week one of the children asked about the number infinity. We talked a little about it, and then I drew an infinity sign. I told them how it is the number 8 on its side. Today when I was in the classroom Hugh brought up the word infinity, and then he drew a number 8 on its side. I was a little shocked and pretty impressed that he remembered the sing for infinity.
Week 5 February 22, 2011
In one of the groups none of the students wanted to write a sentence, but we were at the writing center. I asked Dan if he could write a sentence, and tried to help him think of things that he could write about. He threw his pencil, and the teacher came over and told him that if he did not write his sentences he could not move onto the next station. I tried to think of a creative way to encourage him to start writing. We started with one word at a time. We started to play a kind of game. I would close my eyes and count to five and when I opened my eyes I wanted to see the word like on his paper. We played this game for an entire sentence. I think that it worked ok, because it broke the difficult task of writing two sentences into small steps. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by having to write two sentences Dan concentrated on one word at a time. After a while I could stop counting and say, “I am going to look at Olivia’s sentences and when I look back I want to see another word on your paper,” Dan then started to write by himself, and once he finished I was so relieved.
I am so much more confident when I work with the students now, and I am not as afraid to stop and think. I know that sounds a little weird, but I really did struggle when I first started to stop and think. I felt pressured to just keep on going and to just do, do, do. Now though I think that my hour goes better when I pause, think about what is going on, and then try again.
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