I was so impressed with the workshop that was lead in Zalika’s class yesterday. I thought that it was really how the workshop was organized. I liked how we were assigned to apply Dewey’s and Montessori’s theories to practical classroom activities. It was nice to combine what we have been learning about the developmental theories and what we know about children’s learning into an activity. I was really impressed with all of the group’s ideas and thought how innovative we all where with our short amount of time and very limited resources. I remember reading the book about Monet’s garden when I was little and thought that the Montessori group did a nice job incorporating a famous painter into a classroom of kindergarteners. Nice job workshop group!
Yesterday seemed really overwhelming for me. Although I love the Tuesday/Thursday classes, I always leave school feeling really drained and stressed over what I need to do for the following class. I was glad that we could all come together and get the help from Zalika to figure out what is actually do, when and where, as Tara said, we definitely let our emotions get in the way when trying to figure out the work and that blocked our cognitive side from comprehending our assignments. But that was also a great tie into the importance of emotional intelligence for our students and the effect emotions have on our ability to learn. I think as teachers we need to learn to be in tune with our student’s emotions but also our own. How do we learn to control our emotions so that they do not affect our students? Not just getting mad but also when you are sad or having a bad day. As teachers you want to be honest and authentic with you students, but how do you do that with out affecting them when it is not necessary?
* I wrote this on Wednesday, but couldn't figure out how to post a blog on my own until now!
As I finally let myself sit back, relax, and reflect, I realize that there is a lot on my mind. One thing that I can’t stop thinking about was the video we watched in art on Monday. As I’m sure we all were, I was extremely moved by the film. It just made me think about how my life could be completely different if I were born in a different place. The most amazing thing is that these kids still go to school everyday with a smile on their faces. That says a lot about children. It shows that children are so incredibly resilient that they can overcome such hardships and live their lives the best way they know how. This resiliency does however prove to us as future educators that we need to remember that children are able to easily overcome these hardships and it is our purpose to not ignore them. I am so glad that we watched that video. It was an amazing film and it really opened my eyes.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing that is on my mind is the amount of stress that we are all feeling this week. We all have a lot going on and juggling that with life is definitely a hard task. I can’t stop thinking about what I need to do next, trying to stay on top of things, and still maintaining some sort of sanity. This is however, such an important lesson to learn as a future teacher. There will be a lot of times that I will feel the stress and feel like I have a million things going on. I am thankful that I am experiencing it now so that it is not a huge shock come my first year of teaching!