Lessons Learned

Throughout my time at the PDS, I have learned a lot of different things... some of them things I did not expect to learn. Because I am specializing in Special Education, I paid close attention to the students who had special needs. I learned different ways to adapt the curriculum in order to benefit these students. For example, one student struggled with spelling so instead of doing the full 20 words, she only did 10 per week. This gave her a better chance at being successful on the tests. Another student had a hearing impairment. The teacher wore a microphone in class and the student also had an aid that used sign language with her to ensure that she would be able to understand everything the teacher was saying. Some of the students had a lot of energy that could have possibly been used to disrupt the class. Halfway through the lesson, if she could see students getting restless, she had everyone stand up and do stretches. This not only helped the students who were physically restless, but also the students who were frustrated with the work because it gave them a break. Although this is something simple, it really helped a lot of the students to refocus.

The second lesson I learned was the importance of incorporating real-world scenarios/ issues into the classroom. When the students first enter the classroom they all use hand sanitizer. They have been warned about the dangers of the H1N1 (Swine Flu) virus. Before the Buckwheat Festival, which most students were attending, they discussed how important it was to apply hand sanitizer and wash your hands thoroughly in order to prevent germs from spreading. Although this did not have to do with the curriculum, it was important for the students to know. She also talked with them about making sure they did not walk alone at the Festival. For middle schoolers, this is very important and probably was not addressed elsewhere. Some days, the students are given the opportunity to read newspapers if they finish early. It was interesting to hear the students discussing the articles in the paper and for me to realize how impressionable they are. For example, one day the students were reading about WVU's football player Scooter Berry getting arrested for fighting with police. They at first thought it was funny. When the teacher began discussing it with them, they saw how it was a problem and that it was not something to be proud of. Things like this build character and life skills which I realize are important, as well as the content of the class.

The third thing I learned was about motivation. We talk about motivation a lot in EDUC 311 and 301. It is always the question of "How?" How can we motivate students in class and keep them attentive? I saw different methods of motivation in the PDS. The schoolwide incentive program used tickets. When a student got a ticket, it would go in the drawing for the prize at the end of the week. The ticket system was not used in the middle school classroom that much. I think this was a good idea because they would eventually become bored with it, unlike the younger students who would keep striving for the tickets. Grades were mostly used as incentive and this seemed to work pretty well for the students. They took Accelerated Reader tests and when a student got a 100% they were extremely proud of themselves. They wanted to tell everyone. Something as simple as the teacher telling them they were doing a good job on an assignment was enough to make them keep trying. One student earned a certificate and could not stop smiling about it. I learned that incentive does not have to be anything big and elaborate. In fact, most of the time it isn't and this works well.

If I can learn to incorporate these three things into my own classroom one day, I will have a good start to classroom management and being a successful teacher.