My Reflections

After reading many theories, I never knew there were so many theories about education.

I enjoyed the speaker and awareness she gave of those who are most commonly suffering with hunger. I like the idea of working through the schools to help children and families with hunger.

I felt refreshed while on the vacation.

I never knew you could do so many fun activities with a newspaper. My favorite was the wanted ad for an endangered animal. The activities we did are activities I will definitely use in my own classroom.

Focusing the problem solution project on the cohort will be helpful not only for ourselves but for other cohorts to come. I too think some type of change is needed in the cohort to help deal with issues we are faced with in the cohort in order to deal with and be able to focus on issues outside of the cohort in the schools and with the children.

In our class assignment researching about Thanksgiving although I knew the Thanksgiving story was made up I didn’t know or remember how. I question why does America feel they have to lie and cover up truths about the past? Is it because they are ashamed of what its ancestors had done to others such as the native indians by betraying them and stealing their land, killing them off and sending them to live in reservations or is it to glorify America as something it’s really not.

Thinking about the Problem Solution Project the one thing that is a concern to me are the poor conditions of many schools. In my school, the conditions are pretty bad. For one, there is mold on the ceiling tiles, there has been mold reported on the walls and growing out of the bulletin board, and mold in the a/c unit. In my classroom, almost everytime I look up I mistakenly look at the molded tiles.
Shouldn’t the school system know that mold is unhealthy because it causes allergies and that some people are allergic to mold.

Second, are the huge bugs. There was a time where the students were on the carpet for morning meeting and here comes a big cockroach or water bug running toward the students. I hurriedly told one of my students to go get it, but the cockroach was just too fast for him. We eventually caught it. Another day, I went into the teachers lounge and there was one cockroach just hanging out near the couch and another near the bathroom door. I’m not sure if they were dead, but they weren’t moving when I saw them. I’ve been told that these bugs live in the a/c units too.

Another problem is the broken down printer copy machines. These machines are a necessity in a school, so why are they always broken? Also a problem are the leaks dripping down from a/c units and the ceiling. There is a garbage can with two yellow caution signs next to it that live in the hallway under a tile that is always leaking.

I understand that there are budgets in the school system, but more money needs to go into keeping up these schools. The school system obviously must not care or not care enough because they haven’t done anything about some of these of problems or haven’t done enough. Meanwhile, these conditions can cause problems for students, faculty, and staff for those who have allergies, asthma, or they may develop these things from being in the schools.

I just don’t understand, but something needs to be done.

What was suprising to me entering my second grade was to see how helpful the second grade class was. The students are very helpful to each other and to the ESOL students who cannot understand English. They help the ESOL students getting out their work, putting up their work, showing them where they should sit or what they should go and get to do their work. The class is a pretty good class with the exception of one compared to other second grade classes.

I have a very diverse class with students with all kinds of students at various academic levels including two children with special needs who get pulled out of class to a resource room for a portion of the day. There are three ESOL students who also get pulled out of class each day. I am glad I am having the opportunity to work in a class with so many diverse students and learning how to accomodate each students needs.

I noticed how much second graders still like to tattle tale, want, and give hugs. About three of the boys get attitudes if they are told to do something because of incorrect behavior. One of them just about cries and whines for any reason you tell him no because he wants to get his way. I think this is unusual because they are boys and I would expect attitudes coming more from the girls. But, there are about two or three girls that get emotional or cry when their feelings are hurt or are feeling sad.

Overall, I like second grade. Second graders come with some ability to read and understand how to add. They are still sweet and show affection for their teachers.

It took some time but we have a name. Going through the process of finding a name was good in that we all got to voice our opinions of how we felt about the name unanimously rather than voting. But I realized this technique can be frustrating when others have their mind set to one idea and others feeling they have to compromise. What is good is how in the end we were able to be open and come as a group in agreeing upon a name.