February 23

The teacher is very community oriented. As I walked into the school today, she was visiting with students in the hallway. The students act as if she is a friend, but in a respectful manor. It is great that she is so approachable, and I hope to be an approachable educator. I think I am off on the right foot, considering the students do approach me and talk to me already. One student showed me the current book she is reading and told be a little bit about it. They also do not hesitate to ask me questions, which is good because I can use the practice!

When the teacher began passing out supplies to tables, it was as if the students just knew they should take their seats. There were some students who were not paying attention, but the majority of the students quickly found their seats and were attentive. When the students are not attentive, the teacher makes a "chatter box" on the board and scribbles in it. If the chatter box fills, the students are required to stay after class. Only a small portion of the chatter box was filled today since they were pretty well behaved.

The students continued to work on origami today. They made a dragon, flower, and horse (pictured). Each student was given a packet of origami animals, such as the class period on the 16th. They were still working their way through the packet to make all of the animals for practice, before the large project. It is taking much longer than the teacher had expected, as they still did not finish the packet today. The teacher assumed they would finish and still have time for a game that she had planned. It was a bit of a challenge just getting through three of the origami projects. Many of the students are experienced paper folders, and many of the students are very unfamiliar with it and seem to be slower in their development of fine motor skills. This made the step-by-step instruction that the teacher was conducting difficult. The teacher moved on to the next steps before everyone in the classroom had finished. I made it my job to walk around and catch up the students who had fallen behind. This was difficult for me, since I am also inexperienced in origami. I did the best I could to follow the directions, but I did have to ask the teacher some questions to further my own understanding. The students did not understand that the teacher had practiced these animals before, and I was simply tossed into the mix with no planning or preparation. They fired many questions, and I did the best that I could by responding, "Let's figure this out together." It was definitely a learning experience. It can be quite overwhelming to have multiple students demanding individual attention all at the same time. At the end of the day, it is rewarding to know that I have helped these students, even if it was a challenge. The final products and the smiles from students when they realized that they had just created a horse made the process worth it.

Assessing the students for the day meant that the teacher had to see the origami students made during class. She individually inspected them to make sure they were done correctly, and then the students were dismissed.

Since today was so busy, I did not get a chance to ask the teacher about her career choice. Hopefully there will be some down time during the next class period so I can ask her the specific blog questions.