After a few weeks of teaching, I’m excited to share that I thoroughly enjoy what I do. My favorite part of the job, thus far, is the look on a student’s face because they’re excited about the content.
My school is located in the northern Bronx and a majority of my students are of color (~68% Black, ~26% Hispanic & ~3% Asian). After administering a baseline assessment to assess student’s science skill, and content knowledge I’m starting to gain a better understanding of my students. One thing that I notice is most of my students have trouble deciphering both science and English vocabulary words, although they clearly understand concepts. In addition, many of them are not reading on grade level. With this information I understand the importance of incorporating many literacy strategies in my instruction.
In addition to getting to know my students academically, I am also learning more about them socially. Whenever I share with a friend that I am a 6th grade teacher, the usual response is, “how do you deal with children.” Every time my response is, “Edmund loves the kids,” which I do. But, I’ve realized that my students are still very young and haven’t fully developed socially. Many of them are impulsive and say whatever comes to mind at any moment, which can be disruptive. I’ve also noticed that many of my students do not actively listen to instructions, so I’m implementing different strategies and routines in my classroom that students are becoming more familiar with.
All in all, I know most of my student’s names by now and their academic habits. My goal is to push each of my students out of their comfort zone and to challenge them both academically and socially.
Below you will find images of my classroom and student work. The task for the student work was for students to illustrate themselves as scientist and write a about what characteristics make them a good scientist.
