After spending an entire semester immersed in my low-income school district, I have learned what it is like to be challenged – really, truly challenged – as a teacher. I have students (these are 5th graders) whose life experiences at 10 years old surpass most 50-year-olds I know, let alone my own, consisting of only 21 years. In some cases, students have seen death in a brutal way and have experienced hardship after hardship in their short lives; it’s no wonder that they can hardly find the motivation to perform in academics.
As far as personal goals for the semester go in teaching literacy, I would love to instill a sense of hope in these children, accompanying a passion for knowledge that can only be quenched through reading and searching. It’s intimidating working in a classroom where you have thirty-three kids at vast ends of the reading and comprehension spectrum – I would therefore set a goal for myself this semester to learn how to connect to each student’s needs in this area since I realize that these differences in levels of competency are the norm rather than the exception. I want to learn more ways to make reading exciting, easy, and relevant to each individual – and I can’t wait to do it!
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Daily lives of students do impact students’ behaviors and learning attitudes in school. Understanding what the students have gone through in that specific morning, the teacher realizes the unfamiliar behaviors in them. Hence, I believe your semester goal of connecting with individual students and motivating them to learn is fabulous. Hope everything works out well for you this semester! :)
ReplyDeleteYoon-