Carly Welch

3 November 2016
Professor Sjoerdsma
IJ 6
This week, I started my unit plan. Teaching is difficult! This
experience has opened my eyes to some of the struggles that teachers
face on a day-to-day basis. I was placed in a particularly difficult
classroomstudents with behavioral issues, cognitive delays, and
emotional issuesand because of it, I have seen first hand how hard
teaching is to such a diverse group of learners.
I began the unit with an introductory lesson about social studies
and some of the key concepts that we will be going over throughout
the lesson. The first lesson in the unit was I am a Person. The purpose
of this unit was to help students explore what makes them special and
unique. On Tuesday, we began learning about roles and I had the
students do an activity called How Many of You? In this activity, I read
questions to the students like: How many of you are a sister? How
many of you are a brother? How many of you are a student?
This activity did not go as well as I had hoped. I had students
stand in a boy-girl pattern in a circle on the carpet. Students didnt
know what to identify with. There were boys who would stand up when
I asked which students was a sister, and girls who stood up when I
asked who was a brother. It took time to help the students identify

what they were. Because the word role is a abstract idea, it was hard
for students to conceptualize what a role they had.
An issue that I had was classroom management. Many students
tried talking over me, were being disruptive, and were not doing what
they were supposed to be doing. Both Julia and Abel threw themselves
on the ground and starting kicking and screaming because they did not
want to be in school. According to Woolfolk, Most students comply
quickly when the teacher gives a desist (a stop doing that) or
redirects behavior. But some students are the targets of more than
their share of desists. One study found that these disruptive students
seldom complied with the first teachers request to stop. Often the
disruptive students responded negatively, leading to an average of 4
to 5 cycles of teacher desists and student responses before the student
responded (2013, p. 488). Unfortunately, the class that I was placed in
has a lot of emotional needs that need to be met. Occurrences like this
happen on a day to day basis.
After spending about fifteen minutes on the activity, I sent the
students an assignment to do at home with their parents about the
specific roles they have. The students were assigned to draw a picture
of them and write what role the picture illustrates. The outcome was
great! I thought that it was important for students to work with their
parents on their homeworksomething that I did every day when I was
in elementary school. Although only eighteen out of twenty-four

students turned in their homework, I think that the students who did
the assignment really started identifying with certain roles.
On Wednesday we went over the roles that the students wrote on
their homework and discussed some of the roles that I had. On
Wednesday, Professor Sjoerdsma came in and did my final observation.
I read a story to the kids called ABC I Like Me! This story was
supposed to help student differentiate between roles they have and
the things that they like about themselves. In all honesty, I did not do
that good of a job teaching this portion of the unit. I didnt connect the
book to the activity that we were doing after the bookeven though
the two went hand in hand. I spent too little time on connecting the
book to the activity, and spent too much time trying to get the
students to be quiet and to listen.
After the book, I introduced an activity called I Like Me. I asked
students to draw a picture of what they like about themselves and right
a word or phrase indicating what the picture was. The issue with this is
that a lot of the students didnt understand that roles are different
than things they like about themselves. The students drew a picture
and tried their best to write. But I think that the lesson didnt go that
well because I asked too much of the students.
When designing these lessons and activities I closely followed
the common core standards and aligned my activities to the goals and
objectives of the common core kindergarten test #1. However, in my

opinion, I thought that these standards were too high for five year olds
especially those who have behavioral and emotional issues. I really
think that the test designers were asking too much of the students and
the amount that they had to know was ridiculous, but I also think that
my group of learners have their own set of issues that make learning
difficult.
I hope that my next lessons go better and that I can rework some
of my activities and be flexible when things dont go as planned. All in
all, despite the difficulties, I am still enjoying my time in the classroom
and I think that I am learning more than I ever could in any textbook.
Being fully immersed in the profession of teaching and taking on the
roles and responsibilities of a teacher, is allowing myself to see what
my future will look like and is preparing me for my life as a teacher.

Woolfolk, A. (2013). Educational psychology (12th ed., pp. 428-469).

N.p.: Pearson.