Week 2- Restrictions in my teaching beliefs

         This past week, I had the chance to teach a math lesson on shapes....three-dimensional shapes. My initial reaction when I heard that I would be teaching the concepts of spheres, cubes, and cylinders to kindergarteners was shock and disbelief. My own thinking and beliefs about what to teach interfered with what I believed these students were capable of learning. As Fisher and Frey express in their text, the gradual release of responsibility (GRR) is based on the idea of creating students who are responsible of their own learning. 
         I've realized that my fear as an educator is that I am going to teach concepts that may be too challenging for some students (like, in this scenario, the ones who don't know the names and characteristics of two-dimensional shapes). However, the text reminded me that students need appropriate scaffolding in their zones of proximal development (based on Vygotsky's theory). My limited thinking causes the thinking of my students to be limited, too. How can they learn new vocabulary and concepts (even if I believe they are not developmentally ready) if I don't place the concepts in their hands to ponder, learn, and explore for themselves?
        My wondering for this week has transitioned from a particular student to my own "restricted" thinking as an educator. I feel concerned that I won't know what to teach each age group or that they won't be able to understand the concepts (especially if they are not well-versed in the fundamentals). How can I change my own thinking about what and how to teach students based on the standards and their own experiences? I'm not sure where this wondering is going specifically but I do know that I need to change my words and mentality about the types of things that students are learning now.

I guess in my mind, kindergarten is supposed to be focused on social interaction and enjoying being a kid because that was the kind of experience I had in kindergarten. I remember being read to a lot, playing with playdoh and on the playground, putting on plays for my parents, and just playing with toys and manipulatives at my leisure. In this practicum experience, students are engaging in workbooks for whole-group instruction, are only read to when there is extra time in the day (which is rare), and fill out worksheets related to phonics instruction. Rather than seeing the new standards for kindergarten as challenging and developmentally appropriate for these students, I see it as overloading their mental capacities with unnecessary vocabulary. When I found that they learned with the word “vertex” meant, I felt that this was completely unnecessary. However, I do not know enough about child development to know whether this is appropriate or not. I know from my reading course that many students’ success in school is dependent upon their exposure to academic-style vocabulary. I should not be afraid to use this vocabulary in the presence of my students but, rather, act as a model and encourage them to follow my lead (Fisher and Frey, 2).

How can I stop relating content from my learning experiences to the content my students are learning now? How can I find out more about how students’ brains develop at the different grade levels and how to scaffold appropriately? How can I accommodate the students with my lesson, especially between the ones who don’t understand the fundamentals and the ones who don’t feel challenged?

Week 1- My shocking revelation

The past two weeks, I have gotten the chance to get to know the students in the kindergarten classroom, as well as the beliefs and attitudes of my mentor teacher and co-teaching partner. In this time, it has been somewhat easy to identify the students in little categories: quiet, outspoken, easily frustrated, falling behind, not being challenged enough, etc. In thinking of my inquiry, I have been trying to figure out what I really “wonder” in this classroom setting and it hit me just this past week: helping an individual child (passion 1, Dana, 22). This little girl, who we will refer to as “Ty” is the oldest child, with two baby brothers and another one on the way. She cannot write her name, knows most of her letters and sounds, can be very quiet but speaks when spoken to, and seems to be easily distracted. I had the chance to work with her in the classroom setting individually this past week and found that she seemed more focused, engaged, and to make some progress; instead of writing “TBY” for her name, she included more letters which were in her actual name. 

What concerned me about this child is my discussion with my mentor teacher and co-teaching partner. They both seem to share a particular belief about this student and how much effort we should put forth in helping her. Needless to say, my own beliefs conflicted with theirs and I felt a little hurt. I understand working so intensively with a student like Ty can be time-consuming, frustrating, and perhaps seem pointless at times but, in my opinion, I think it is worth the time, effort, and frustration. After all, for this student (in the near and far future), it will be even more frustrating, time-consuming, and difficult for her in the classroom setting if we do not get her meeting expectations in the areas she should be meeting at this point in the school year. The mentor teacher I had last semester was a third grade teacher who shared very similar beliefs to what my current mentor and co-teaching partner feel. Last semester, I remember feeling sad for the child that the teacher was talking about, especially since I had been working with him individually once a week. I knew once he was focused and actually interested in the lesson, he could make improvements, even if they were very small ones. 

Without disrespecting my mentor and co-teaching partner, I can’t help but wonder, is it really a waste of time to work with one student over another if that one student doesn’t make as many gains academically as the other? I can’t help but think of what I’ve been taught all through the ProTeach program, which is that if a student is not progressing or understanding a concept the way the rest of the class is, it should be commonplace to wonder (as a teacher), “What more can I do? What should I do differently with this student to reach them?” (Dana, 10). Both my mentor and co-teaching partner are wonderful educators with great qualities, please don’t misunderstand me. However, I also wonder how many other well-qualified educators share the same beliefs about some of their students as well. My goal for this semester is to work individually with Ty as much as possible and try different techniques to get her more focused, engaged, learning actively, and truly caring about her learning. 

Additionally, I meant to ask my mentor teacher this but I forgot: what do students have to do (or not do) to be tested for special education or intensive resources? Is it related to scores, growth developmentally, grades?