My Second So Called Blog

Last week, I had the opportunity to lead two small reading groups in the classroom where I am student teaching. At first, I was terrified! I had to remind the students over and over and over again not to speak over one another and to raise their hands if they wanted to share something with the group. Despite being incredibly frustrating, I definitely gained insight into the students’ attention spans. The second day I led the groups I started out by reviewing the small group rules. The interruptions were far less frequent! Lesson learned!

I am a little nervous to enter the classroom this week. I heard rumors last week that the elementary school where I student teach would restructure beginning this week. From what I understand, the two fourth grade classrooms will combine into one, as will the fifth grade classrooms, and a second grade classroom will emerge (as of now, the second graders are split between the first and third grades). I had to wonder why the school district would implement restructuring a month after school begins. It sounds ridiculously disruptive to move the students once they have settled into their routines (not to mention the stress on the teachers). After a little investigation, seems that before school begins, the school distributes the classrooms based on the lists of expected students. Once school is in session, it’s apparent that some students who were expected to attend school have either moved; transferred to a charter, private, or parochial school; or for any other number of reasons, will not be attending school. When teachers have the actual number of students, the administration is able to redistribute the classrooms.

So, we will see what’s become of the classroom where I student teach. There might be a couple of new students or a whole new class! Personally, it would be nice to work with the same reading groups! We were just starting to get the hang of it!