My Classroom!

Today was the day before the two week Easter break so the kids were pretty hyper! Overall my classroom experiences have been going great! Ms. Andrea has done a great job of making me feel like one of her colleagues instead of an intern. We have been working together to try to implement new techniques in the class room. One thing I have felt unprepared to handle in the classroom was the level of noise in the classroom. A lot of times, the teachers just yell over the students when teaching the lessons. This has been really hard for me since I am pretty controlling when it comes to the level of noise in the classroom. I have taken tips from Ms. Andrea as to what is and is not acceptable in the classroom as ways to guide my classroom management techniques. I have tried to get the students to raise their hands instead of just shouting out answers so that everyone has time to think through the problems. Another thing that surprised me was the amount of Spanish spoken in the classrooms and the teachers' lounge. It is a little hard at times to feel connected with everything that is going on when I do not always understand everything around me. In an effort to overcome this, I try to start conversations with students and other teachers to show them that I am open to conversation As a result, many of the teachers have been a little more open with us interns and have even started to teach us a little Spanish! I can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring!