The end of chapter ten in the
personal reflections left me with a very moving idea. “Start now! Start with
one student or a small group, and you will find that their energy to explore
their world is spectacular!” (pg 148). I’ve said before how I find myself scared
of how I will do in front of a full classroom of students. But this gives me a
foothold into that world. Start experimenting with a small group of kids and
when I finally become a teacher I will be ready. I have young nieces and
nephews that I can experiment with, most of them will be elementary level, but
one is middle school and the other in high school. I should be teaching the
young members of my family the things I learn so that I will be ready when the
time comes to be a teacher.
Chapter
seven made me question some thoughts I had on Bilingual languages in classrooms.
I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to have both Spanish and English, or
English and another primary language, being used at the same time. I figured
that students who could switch between languages wouldn’t want to, and maybe
some won’t want to, but I see now that it is a great boon to them if they can.
Not only will they be learning conventions in one language, they will learn how
to simultaneously use them in another language. Except when explicitly teaching
English, I also see now that giving instructions in the child’s primary
language would be a boon to them because they’d understand more. I’m not fluent
in Spanish, but one day I will finish my learning.
Chapter
8 was about showcasing the students work and it’s no surprise that they love to
showcase their stuff. When I do something amazing I like to be acknowledged for
it. I imagine all adults are the same way. Students who have their work
showcased are filled with pride and accomplishment. That accomplishment brings
such feelings of joy that they want to continue working, which is what we want
as teachers. Showcasing student work is important for their self esteem and my
students work will be all along the walls of my classroom.
“Meaningful
print.” That is a fun concept. When I
was in school memorizing vocabulary words, I often made stories with one of the
vocab words needing to be in every sentence. That helped make the words
meaningful to me and I learned more that way. That’s just one way to do it, but
there are multiple ways to make print meaningful. The book outlines a few ideas
for meaningful print by having content word walls, news walls, magazines, and others
kids work. Content word walls can have pictures attached to them so they can
have an image to associate with it. I’m interested in what a news wall is. I
don’t remember if the book already covered it. Is it news with the vocab words
in it so there is a real world connection? I’d be interested to know if that is
what it really is.
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