Week 3- Patience and guided instruction

This week I realized one of my pet peeves as an educator; students talking while I’m talking. I understand that kindergarteners get very excited and can become easily bored when the teacher tries explaining everything to them. I realized I was most annoyed when working with students individually, asking questions and they respond with an answer that is clearly a guess because I do not get the chance to finish my question and/or they just “go with the crowd” and say what everyone else does. In other words, they’re not using their own brains. The reason this bothers me so much is because I am not aware of what the student really knows and I feel that they are not actively engaged in what we are doing because they are simply guessing. I consider myself a very patient person and able to myself in someone else’s shoes, which is why I feel so bad about becoming frustrated with the students. I know that the students can pick up on non-verbal cues and intonation when I become frustrated. Once this happens, the learning (and my teaching) doesn’t seem as fun and positive. I don’t like this at all.

When I experience this with the students, I notice I think to myself that I want the kids to “just listen” to me. However, I am realizing that I need to change my perspective or my way of teaching/ working with children. While reading my section about guided instruction from the Gradual Release of Responsibility Model (GRR), it made me realize that I need to allow the students to do the talking and show/ tell me what they know already as well as what they are learning during the lesson. I need to ask more questions, scaffold appropriately, and encourage student think-alouds. Kindergarteners LOVE to talk so why don’t I build off of this in my own instruction/ interactions with them?

Another idea I had while reading the chapter was keeping a journal at my side (or nearby after the lesson) and recording my interactions with the students or what happened that caused me to become easily frustrated (Fisher and Frey, 59).  If I can analyze the situations, maybe I can prevent them from happening or become more aware of my reactions. The same reactions often happen when students completely ignore me or do the opposite of what I say. I would like to know effective ways to deter this behavior and change the way I handle these scenarios. Usually I try to handle situations like these with humor but this can sometimes be exhausting and time-consuming. How can I allow students (especially kindergarteners) the time they need to think-aloud and justify their answers? I believe it’s worth the time if I can hear possible misconceptions that the students have. Something else that may be an issue is how the students are learning. Maybe I’m asking the wrong questions or asking for output in a way that is not compatible with the student. Fisher and Frey emphasize creating choice for students, especially in the product, or way that they tell us what they have learned (p. 47).

My wondering for this week is how can I alter my reactions when a student does something that “pushes my buttons” to make it a positive learning experience (for everyone)?