4th lesson

Our fourth lesson was completed today. Our lesson was on Jobs in the community. I really liked this lesson because I got to read one of my favorite stories when I was kid, Curious George takes a Job. I read the story to my students pointing out the jobs that George had or encountered such as the painter and the movie director. The kids really seemed to enjoy the story and they were able to draw connections between the story and the lesson on jobs. We talked about jobs that George had in the story and then we came up with more jobs, jobs that helped our community such as a teacher or a construction worker. In the preassesment the students had a hard time differentiating a job from a job/task. For example, in the preassesment when asked to draw a picture of a job they knew of some students drew themselves doing a job or performing a task such as "cleaning my room." So today's lesson I really had to emphasize job as a career or an occupation that people have and get paid to buy goods. Afterwards, my partner worked with the students and showed them two objects that was representative of the job they were to guess. The students really had fun with this activity because they all participated and were thoroughly engaged. I think this was one of the few times that we've shared that our students were really excited but also very nice to each other in respecting each other's space and turns. Usually, whenever we have the kids in the circle they tend to disrupt each other. I think one of the hardest things we have had to face is classroom management. I have often found myself telling the kids to keep their hands to themselves or we have asked certain students to sit by other students. Our teacher Mrs. M also suggested that we should be firm with these students and I was very surprised to hear that because I usually do want to always remain calm and offer a soothing voice. However throughout these lessons I have found myself letting these students know when they are being disrespectul. Of course ideally you do want a class with students that do not have pronounced behavioral problems however that is not always the case or reality. So I think in terms of that alone, this classroom experience has been wonderful and very enlightening.