Seeing the Gain through the Pain..Weekly Blog Post #1

    This week in my school I spent all of my time with the Health & Fitness cooperating teacher. The students in the Health class were working on their presentations for the next unit of Alcohol use. They spent a day working in the library preparing their presentations and then presented them for two days. I also observed in the Fitness class where they are doing a Badmitton unit.
    I am not sure if I am more stern than my cooperating teacher or if I simply do not look at certain situations with the right eye. There are many times when students are disrespectful and take up a lot of class time between transitions. For one example, students were doing their presentations this week and in-between each presentation, there wer three students who would do a clap war where one student would clap and then another and they wouldn't stop until the next presentation started. I didn't want to step on my teacher's toes so I did not say anything until it became necessary. I finally spoke up and told them not to be disruptive anymore. Often times my teacher will talk over the students while they are talking. I work with Elementary school kids and I demand respect from them to where when I am talking they are not. I try to implement this at the school as well but I worry that I am either being too stern or just looking at it from a different perspective.
    I was really proud of myself this week and the things I was able to accomplish. I led the warm-up exercises in two fitness classes and was able to meet the Principle and have interactions with both him and the Vice-principle. I met with the Vice-Principle in order to try and secure an English placement. During one of these visits, she was meeting with the Principle and I took the liberty of introducing myself to him. We talked about my education experience and both of our backgrounds and it was a great chance get to know him and associate myself with the administrators.
    I will adopt the generosity and kindness that my Cooperating Teacher uses. She is very understanding and listens to her students with respect and kindness even when they could be telling a lie or simply being unprepared. Especially during P.E. there are always students who fake injuries or illnesses in order to not participate. I have very little patience with students who fake injuries. I also have a hard time telling whether students are truly injured or just faking it. I have had both experiences and it never gets easier. The best thing I have observed from my teacher is to take everything with a grain of salt. She lets them rest if they need to or gives them ice or whatever they need but makes sure that she questions them about the experience and why and how they injured themselves. She also makes sure that she checks back with them on their recovery and progress.
    This week was a good learning experience for me to learn about myself and what type of teacher I am and what type of teacher I need to become to better understand my students.