My Experience In The Classroom

During my instructor led field experience, I was placed in a first grade classroom. The teacher in this classroom really had a great grasp on management in her classroom. She used the Classdojo app. The teacher had the option to award student points or take them away throughout the day. This was also an app that kept parents informed on their devices of how their child was doing throughout the day. I really enjoyed seeing this in real life. Hearing about this app in management or technology didn't do it justice. The students really were aware of the points and managed their behavior.

As we pulled up to the massive elementary school building, I begged my mom to let me stay home from school, just once. As usual, she said no. Realizing my attempt to get out of school was futile, I shouldered my backpack, swung open the door, and trudged over to the front door. I would rather be anywhere else than here. For the majority of my life, I attended public schools. It wasn’t rare for me to fail a test or even a whole class. It was because of these failures that I would get even more demotivated and threw away the idea of working hard or completing quality work altogether.

Despite the breakdowns I would experience from not understanding what was being taught in class, I was able to improve my situation. Instead of suffering in silence with my confusion, I began asking my teacher more questions during class lectures. I would even come in at seven in the morning to discuss my problem about understanding the logic behind the math with my teacher. Not only did I speak with my teacher more, I also bought a study book for the class and began watching Chemistry videos from Bozeman and Khan Academy to teach myself any topics that were not clear to me during class.

Today, December 9, 2017, the date of my first ever final exam in a, full semester, college class. This marks a very exciting but stressful time for me.

My eyes had barely opened all the way before excitement set in. Today was the day. With one great leap I was out of bed, and in my clothes ready for school. I also got my clothing and other accessories ready for our long drive up Mt. Hood after school. My older sister, Christine, always went up the mountain to hot springs but I never got to experience anything like it, so the previous night, all the siblings that were going stood together against my mom's tyranny and managed to convince her to let us go to the hot springs. She never really gave a reason besides how late it was. I theorize that she didn't have any other excuses. She was unreasonable in that manner.

I’ve been anxious about college admittance since I first learned what college was. When the first trimester of fifth grade ended, and I learned that my good name had been sullied with a B+ grade in my reading class, I was unreservedly hysterical until my mother finally cornered me into my bedroom. I imagine she was getting snot-and-tear stains out of her woolen sweater for days.

“School time! School time!” exclaimed my Dad as he burst into my room at seven in the morning. Groggy and tired, my siblings and I woke up and dragged ourselves to the kitchen for breakfast. All five of us kids, ran from room to room, grabbing clothes, toothbrushes, and backpacks to get ready for school. The sixth would watch in astonishment, sitting comfortably on the couch, without a worry in the world. Along with some warm milk to her liking, she watched as the rest of the house filled with the daily before-school chaos. Once everyone was ready, we loaded up in our rather cramped Chevy Tahoe, making our way to three different schools all over the city of Irving. On the way, listening to Norteñas, my parent’s favorite type of classical Mexican music. Soon we’d all be dropped off, ready for a day full of learning. Next came the afternoon craze, but that’s a whole other environment.

It was a good day, woke up early so i could go to the gym and warm my body up and just to get some practice in. Went home to my mother making breakfast as usual, started to get my things together for school like usual made sure I had all my books, computer and pencils. When I got to school it felt just like a regular day went to class like always i didn't have any test so that was a big load off. As it got closer to the end of the day the more nervous I started to feel I started to feel worried, nervous and scared but I did not know why I knew I was gonna be fine. It was an unusual feeling it was like my heart was feeling those emotions but in my head it was totally different i wasn't scared or nervous not even worried. It was my last class of the day the whole class i wasn't even focused on what was going on more on what was about to happen later. The bell rang school was over, it was time for tryouts.

Going into English 111 in August, I had no idea what to expect. This was my first experience of college classes, and walking into the classroom on the first Tuesday of the semester, all I knew was it was going to be different. As the class period went on, however, we were introduced to Moodle and then the seven student learning outcomes. These made the goals of the class clearer to me.

After self-evaluation, I feel that my most valuable assets as a potential teacher leader are handling conflict, listening, seeing the big picture, work ethic, and responsibility. I have always been a leader, therefore exhibiting these characteristics. In situations outside of school, I also find myself in leadership positions. For me to become a better potential teacher leader, I need to work on creativity and sensitivity. I have creativity but I’m always afraid to use it when it comes to lessons. I feel as although I can be more creative this coming school year, when I more towards middle school. Experience is something that I will get through teaching different subjects, grade-levels, and the years I teach.

In school, I have always been a relatively successful student, and I was always considered one of the smarter kids by my parents and a lot of the other students. In about sixth grade when they started to split the grade up into certain classes for the “advanced” kids and the kids that weren’t considered advanced. I was in the classes with all the kids that weren’t considered advanced. At the time though, I didn’t realize what they were doing or that I wasn’t actually considered a smart kid by the school, I just knew all my friends were in classes I wasn’t in, and it really upset me. I got put in the classes with a bunch of kids I didn’t like, or just people I didn’t know, and had never seen before. I still had the bus where I got to see a few of my friends, but other than that, they just weren’t around.

This year started atrociously and I was asceticism to the fact that my job was keeping me from doing my finest in school. I look back at it not with disappointment but with the recognition that I can’t multi-task two major time-consuming activities. I was working 5-9pm, 6 days a week was physically and mentally exhausting I would always come to school tired. I would be tardy and or late every day in my 1st hour. At one point I was failing four classes. I would come home from work and be up until like 3 am. I was trying my best to keep up on like the essays but my ADHD made everything so hard. But it was so much I would end up stressing out. Semester one was just rough in general. I went to parent-teacher conferences and it opened my eyes but not enough for change. But by the end of conferences, my mom was crying because she wanted to know what was wrong. I wanted to tell her but I couldn’t. I’d rather self-destruct myself than have everyone worried about me. Then I was to a point when I just didn’t care what anyone else thought I just wanted to make money and blow it on materialistic things like clothes and shoes and things of those sorts. I was at a point where I literally let money control who I was and how I acted as a person. Finally came the day of the essay I really did try like my problem was I had all the information but didn’t know how to put it on paper and I also struggled with focusing on writing the paper because the number of pages overwhelmed me and then

Six years old, with my hair carefully braided into two bunches on both sides of my head, looking around at a school I’ve never been to before. It was my first day of school and I had no idea where my classroom was or who my teacher would be. Eventually I ended up where I was supposed to be and the first thing I noticed was a funky peanut shaped table located by a huge window towards the back of the classroom. My teacher's name was Mrs. Jones, a very tall woman with a love for flamingos. Her classroom was full of brightly colored posters with educational information displayed and several flamingoes hidden in plain sight. There were about twenty other children in the classroom, but I was too scared to go up to anyone. I stayed in the corner closest to the door, unable to make the first move, waiting for someone to notice me. Everything started out easy and one by one each student was taken to the peanut table. When it was my turn, I realized that we were being tested. Mrs. Jones kept on saying that my score didn’t matter and all she wanted was for me to do my best. The test contained several reading passages and after I was done I was asked to answer multiple choice questions about what I read. I answered the question the best I could and once I was done it was the next person's turn. At that time, I didn’t realize why we were being tested or what was the point of it. How was I supposed to know that this test would be used to separate our class into different groups of reading

“Welcome Class to Composition one.” Those words were voiced by my professor, Mrs. Robinson, on the first day of school. Initially, I thought to myself, do I even belong in this college course class. Before school had even begun, the stress over the summer about my English skills was eating me alive. Why? Well, in my past English classes I received A’s on all of my essays, but this college class did not seem so easy. Also, I was always fascinated by all the arts and sciences, but English never struck interest in me. I never thought that I could write any decent essays. The reason I insecure about my writing skills was because of the ACT. Since the ACT is the talk about how smart an individual is, my ACT score was not very high. As the course continued, the first essay approached quickly. I remember being stressed about this essay because of my writing insecurities. Although I managed to acquire a decent grade, I promised myself to strive to make myself a better writer. I started to read Norton Field Guide to Writing handbook also known as the yellow book, and slowly but surely started to develop knowledge of good writing skills and tips to improve my essays. This allowed me to grow as a writer and slowly my insecurities started to dwindle, and I began to gain confidence in myself. I never would've thought that the next time I took the ACT that my English score would be my highest. When getting my score back and realizing that I had improved so much, I began to wonder how I

Over the past month in my classroom, I feel as if I have learned and observed an almost overwhelming amount of interactions, situations, etc. It seems that it should not have been possible to learn so much in such a short amount of time. However, I firmly believe that these observations have allowed me to add to my experiences and knowledge regarding my future in this career field. Coming into this internship program, my main goal was to learn how to teach lessons. My focus was geared towards learning methods and strategies that would help aid students towards the best path of success. While I still feel adamant about the importance of those methods and strategies, my time in this classroom over the past month has opened my eyes to