What a week. It has been a great week, but I have worked hard. Between night shifts with the baby and subbing during the day, I've been tired. How do new moms manage to have a new baby and work at the same time? If any of you reading this have been in that place, I applaud you. I never realized how much babies sap your energy until I've had this unique opportunity of being a part-time new mom, watching baby Non at night, six nights a week.
That being said, it was an interesting week! Overall I really enjoyed helping out in the kindergarten class. As the week has gone on, I've realized that 90% of the behaviors that arise (at least in the time I was there) were a result of unstructured time or boredom. Either there was nothing planned so the boys (two in particular who have a hard time) were coming up with their own ideas, or their attention spans were simply not sustainable for the amount of time that they were sitting in their desks. I'll be doing some more thinking and praying about a plan of attack for this teacher to support her in her efforts with these kids, but at this point I think it will be focused more on classroom management and ways to keep students engaged and actively participating in the classroom activities.
One thing I found really interesting is that I was told to stay on top of this one boy, we'll call him Stevie, because he has the most behavior problems. However, for the entire week that I was in the classroom his behaviors were relatively mild and were redirected very quickly with some firm guidance. His classroom rival, we'll call him Joey, sapped far more energy from me than Stevie did! This really makes me curious about the classroom dynamics the rest of the time, aside from this week I was here. From what I noticed the classroom teacher had much more empathy for Joey and I noticed her taking time to give him a hug or speak kindly to him, but she told me that she has a hard time with the other one because of personality conflicts. I'm still processing how I could support this teacher with some effective methods and ideas, while not condemning her for struggles in the classroom. Any ideas are welcome!
2 comments:
That is interesting that the boys seemed to have flopped. I wonder if it is because you are there or the regular classroom teachers perspective? It sounds like you have a good plan just trying to have there be more structured time for the classroom so that attention spans dont wander too much. Hang in there with taking care of baby Non! That sounds exhausting!
Yes, thank goodness for Saturdays and Sundays.
Post a Comment