‘A good teacher is like a candle – it consumes itself to light the way for others.’ –Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Teaching these little kiddos is my self care everyday. They challenge me and push me to be better. After week one of working with this bunch I already know my students are going to do more for me than I will for them.
I have been blessed with an opportunity to teach a group of five 1st graders. They are all virtually learning from their usual schools. My job is not only to help them through their online classes but also to enrich their learning. I am creating lessons for reading, writing, math, and science. I am evaluating their levels in all subjects and pushing them to be better students and people.
The first week of school was filled with smiles, laughs, and messy hands. We started the first day by reading the book Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes. This book is about a little mouse whose name is Chrysanthemum. Chrysanthemum thinks her name is just perfect until she goes to school. The other mice at school make fun of how long her name is, how she is named after a flower, and that she is 'picked' from the ground. She goes home every day feeling worse and worse about herself. Eventually, the mice feel bad and say sorry. However, as a class, we talked about if the word 'sorry' can change what you already said. As an activity, I cut out a paper heart that was smooth. After reading the book once, we went back and wrinkled the heart every time something hurtful was said to Chrysanthemum. We ended with the heart completed wrinkled into a ball. At the very end of the book, the mice who were mean apologized so we tried to flatten out the heart. The sad thing is, you can never make the heart as smooth as it was at the very beginning. This represents that your words matter so we need to be kind to one another. I learned this activity from my cooperating teacher during my student teaching.
Later that week I also read the book The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. Once again my students and I had a great conversation. We talked about how using other people and hurting them is not nice. As first graders, they brought up what is happening in our community today with racism. We talked farther about this and I gave all the words they mentioned definitions. Children, no matter what age, are more aware of the world around them then what adults give them credit for. After reading this book, we painted our own giving trees. I told the students that these trees we painted need to be protected and treated nicely because these trees represent themselves. We can give to others as long as we do not hurt ourselves in the process.
The last big project we accomplished this week was the lesson on the word YET. This idea was created by the theorist Carol Dweck who talks about the growth mindset of children. Students may not know something so they say, “I can not do this.” The concept of the word YET pushes students to say, “I can not do this, yet.” Students may not know something at the moment but with a growth mindset, they will learn. If children knew everything many teachers wouldn’t have a job. Teachers teach children for a reason and they may not know something YET.
Throughout the week we did some reading and math rotations. I evaluated my students reading and math levels. After I knew where they were I created individual plans for each student. I also evaluated their writing. I plan on assessing the students periodically to measure their growth and to make sure I am doing my job. Some assessments will be formal and others will be informal. Due to this environment of teaching, I do not have anyone assessing me. Through assessing the students I will do self-reflecting to evaluate my own teaching style. If I need to make changes I will. I have to push myself to be better. I can not wait for week two!