Week 3 Full Time Reflection

This week was a week of adjustments and a week of firsts.

It began by having an ISE day. This was the first time I have been included in a ISE day. My assumptions was always it was a day for teachers to work in their rooms and attend small professional development activities and/or meetings. Boy, was I wrong.

At least for this particular ISE day, we had NO time to work in our classrooms. We spent the first half of the day, recognizing our partners in education and cleaning out the stage in the school - as required of every teacher. The second half was filled with a Choosy Kids follow-up seminar to our grant responsibilities. By the end of the day, I was exhausted and hadn't completed the items that I had hoped or planned to do. My expectations sure did receive a reality check!

Second up that week, was a field trip. While I had attended field trips in the past, I had never been the "responsible/acting" teacher at the time. I was truly amazed at all the precautions that most be completed before attending. Such as, meeting with the nurse to gather all medications, epi pens, inhalers, etc. that needs to be available in case of an emergency. And, with little ones, the importance of getting everyone to the bathroom before boarding the bus - which takes TIME.

I feel I was successful in getting the students prepared for the field trip, even if I did wait a little too long to begin bathroom trips. We went over expectations - both of their behavior and in what they should expect while on the field trip. To help with behavioral issues I strategically paired up the students with a student that would be "best" for them in keeping behavior in check. For one of the more "rowdy" boys, I deliberatly paired myself with him. Held his hand while boardin the bus, sat by him on the bus, and near him during the play. I truly feel that the field trip was a great time for the students, and a nice change of pace to help reinforce fire safety.

Even though, I had to go home sick on Wednesday, I feel I had a wonderful and successful circle time. In the morning, I had students make a guess as to how many marbles were in the jar. There were 14. I had guesses from 5-100. At circle, we counted them all together and found there were 14. I then had them count 14 other balls with me, and we compared what those 14 balls looked like in relation to the marbles. They all agreed that it looked like there were more other balls than marbles becuase they were bigger. Some of the students still had the misconception that there were more balls than marbles because of their size. To help bridge this gap, I then passed out the marbles to 14 students and then handed them each a ball from the other bin to physicall prove there were the same amount.  During choice time, I also found a great opportunity to extend a student's play. This student was "baking a cake" in the sand area. I turned this into a shared writing experience by having this student dictate what they were adding into their cake mix and writing it down.

On Thursday, I felt I made another successful adjustment during circle time. I saw students were become antsy towards the end, and we still had a couple more minutes until we could get ready for gym. I had planned to read the story, Bounce. I continued with my plan of reading the story, but I had them stand up and act out the story as I read (bouncing along like the characters). Integrating movement kept the students engaged and helped control their antsy behavior.
I was also quick thinking and began using the term, Inside Muscles. Students have a clear grasp on inside voices and respond well with those reminders when playing inside. We have a few students who struggle to play nicely and not as rough while inside, so we had a discussion on inside muslces. The secret sender included the term in the morning letter and then the students had to explain what they thought it meant and how they could use it.

On Thursday, during choice time, I was observed by my coordinator. The feedback was all positive and noted my abilities to redirect and provide ideas for behavior at the dramatic play area. She noted my strength in modeling behavior, asking questions, revisiting children and their work, providing praise, and integrating interests (puppets) into the transitions and behavioral reminders.

Overall, there were many adjustments that needed to be made this week. The schedule was different because of the ISE day on Monday, Field Trip on Tuesday, and then I went home sick on Wednesday and then on Thursday, had to enter in check points with my teacher in the afternoon. From all of these adjustments, I found that I am flexible and I found the benefit in having detailed lesson plans. As my teacher was able to resume responsibilty from my lesson plans on Wednesday and Thursday the substitute was able to use my plans as well.

Looking ahead into next week, I have a few questions.
I am unsure how to balance imaginative play with teacher directed play. Some students when left to their imagination it turns into a behavioral problem, too rough, using weapons, etc.

How do you moderate and extend play for those at a lower level? This goes in with the question above, some of those students struggle with taking teacher input for extending purposes.