Community Involvement Journal

February 2nd, 2017

Today is my first day in the classroom and the first thing I notice is that my host

teacher, Ms. Feller, is constantly having split focus. When I first walked in she was

working with three students in the class that struggle the most on a spelling test. These

three students struggle because they have only been in this country for less than a year.

While she was administering the spelling test she constantly kept telling other students

what they need to be doing or telling them to sit down in their seat. She had me teach

some math problems to a group of about five students. We were working on fractions.

For example if you take 3/4, 1/4 + 1/4 + 1/4 = 3/4. This was rather easy to teach to them

and most of the students seemed to understand it.

February 9th, 2017

Today Ms. Feller sat me next to two students who have difficulties in the class,

Henry and Brian. She wanted me to sit with them to help them stay on task and clarify

things that they might have questions on. It is difficult to try and keep these two on task

because they want to be doing anything other than want they are supposed to be doing.

I feel that they do not respect me the way do their teacher. I try to be firm with them but

they really do not care to listen to what I say. It is frustrating and hard sometimes
because I feel that I am not sure quite what to do with them. I am grateful for the

experience because now I know that some students are going to be a little bit tricky to

work with and that I need to ask for methods that can help keep them on task and doing

what they are supposed to be doing.

February 16th, 2017

Someone from the Utah Museum of Art came into class today and gave a

presentation to the children on the value of art. The students were able to learn different

art styles and actually create projects using different materials. Some were using tape,

others using paint, and colored pencils. I thought it was a nice break for the students to

have in their school day. They were able to use their creativity to make something that

meant something to them. I think that art in schools is an awesome stress reliever and

also a great way to show knowledge of different subject fields. I think it is really

important for all schools to have some form of art or maker space so students can use

their creativity to create things that they are typically not going to be able to in a typical

day in school.

February 24th, 2017

 Ms. Feller had me administer a math test today to three of her students who are

new to the United States. This took so much time and was really difficult because on the

test there were eight word problems. I sat in the back with these students and when they

got to the word problems I had to use my phone to translate the word problem into their

native language. Each of these three children speak a different language so I had to

translate the word problem three times. I would do it for one child and then set my

phone down so they were able to read it and I waited until they had finished their

problem to move onto the next child. Taking the test took almost an hour to complete. If I

was not there I really do not know what Ms. Feller would have done. She is just one

person and I feel she needs three people in there to just get done what she needs to

because of all the things her students need. Her job is very hard but she keeps a

positive attitude about it and I really admire that about her.

March 3rd, 2017

I was able to teach a child in my class today how to subtract by re-grouping. His

name is Tony and he just recently moved into this school and is way behind in math. It

was a good lesson. He listened very well and was participating in the lesson. By the end

of the thirty minutes I had with him, he knew how to subtract with re-grouping by using

blocks but not by using the written way. I had a conversation with my host teacher while
the children were out for recess. She was telling me how it is really hard with the class

she has now to see much improvement. She was telling me that a lot of her students

have missed more than a quarter and some even a third of the entire school year. She

was also explaining to me that the parents are great but many of them had not grow up

in the United States so they do not share the same values as what is typical in the

United States like attending school. She was saying this can be really challenging

because many of her students have fallen behind and if they are not coming to school

they are not going to get better. I can not imagine how difficult it must be to try and keep

a positive attitude when it is so hard to be able to provide students with the help they

need when they do not attend.

March 9th, 2017

Today I had a pretty difficult day with one of my students. I can not write much of

it down for confidentiality reasons but it taught be how much I do love children no matter

who they are and how well I know them. Although this experience shook me to the core

and I will never be able to forget it, it makes me want to become a teacher more than

ever. Children and their futures mean a lot to me and I want to be a great teacher but I
also want to be seen by my students as someone they can confide in when they are

having a hard time. I want all of my students to feel safe and I will try my absolute

hardest to make that happen. After this experience I could not pay much attention for

most of my time there so I do not have much to write down for today. Note for my future

self, learning cultures that students from other countries come from would be an

awesome idea so you know what these students are coming from.

March 23rd, 2017

Today I taught my lesson on how to tell how much time had passed between two

set times. I was so nervous and the nerves did not leave until I was about five minutes

into the lesson. Overall I though it went well. The class can be disruptive at points but

overall participated and created me with a fair amount of respect. I really enjoyed being

in front of the class and feeling like they were learning from me. I obviously have a lot,

and I mean a lot, of practice ahead of me but I am excited to learn new things and be

able to continue my learning and education. The kids did not respond to me the same

way they do their teacher but I was not really surprised by this. Some of the girls in the

class came up to me afterwards and told me that I did a good job and that really made

me feel very happy. I really did enjoy it even though I was really nervous. I am glad that I
know I will learn more as I continue to push myself and communicate with different

educators.

March 30th, 2017

Today in Ms. Fellers class the students were reviewing how to convert

measurements. They were reminded of the acronym KHDBDCM. Which stands for Killer

Hippos Die By Drinking Chocolate Milk. The K is kilo, the H is Hecto, the D is Deca, the

B is base, the second D is Deci, the C is centi, and the M is mili. The students struggled

with telling apart the two Ds. Most of them seemed to know the concept of conversion

put struggled with putting it into practice. They could not quite tell how much the

difference was between C and M in comparison to B and C. Ms. Feller explained to

them that the more spaces away from each other the bigger the number was going to

increase or decrease by. A few students thought that kilo was small and so Ms. Feller

had to explain to them that the acronym starts off big and ends small. She told them to

think about a centimeter, a centimeter is small and where do you find centi on the

acronym. After Ms. Feller told this to her students the majority of them seemed to

understand it better.

April 6, 2017
 End of the year testing is about to begin so the students were going over some

test taking strategies. They were talking about the process of elimination. Where if they

know one or more answers are not correct they can cross it off and make an educated

guess on what they think the answer might be. While the children were out for recess I

asked Ms. Feller how long they tested for and she replied that they test for four weeks.

This seems like such a long time for children to be taking tests. She went on to say that

many schools can do it in two weeks if they take math and science tests at the same

time, but the school does not have enough computers to be able to do this. She says

that these tests stress her out because she knows that some of her students are going

to fail and it is not her fault or the childs. One of the girls in her class, America, has lived

in the United States for eight months and they are making her take the language arts

part of the test. Ms. Feller was saying you can not expect someone who has only been

learning English for eight months to be able to read and write at a fourth grade level.

She does not like this because the test will only show that Americas teacher is failing

her and the school is failing her when in actuality she is doing a great job. She has

made about three years of work up and is continuing to progress but the tests wont say

that.

April 18th, 2017

 Today I worked with a child in my classroom, Brian, on subtracting by re-

grouping. It was a really great lesson. I was able to use blocks to show him how you can

subtract numbers that have a smaller number on the top then on the bottom. By the end

of my lesson today he was able to understand and pick up the material for the most part.

He still struggled a little bit at the end of the lesson still but he was really participating

and I was so happy about that because he can be kind of hard to work with sometimes.

It was a great visual and hands on lesson where he was able to do most of the work

with me guiding him. It really made me so excited to become a teacher. I enjoyed being

able to teach him something new and enjoyed seeing his face light up when he did

something right. I can not wait to take more of my education classes and participate in

the other field requirements that they have. I really enjoyed my experience with my host

teacher and my host classroom.