Can you see?

The kindergarten teachers in my school are the best. They teach their students with books, manipulative, technology, educational tools, and all of their hearts. I teach the first grade and each fall I receive students that our kindergarten teachers have lovingly prepared for first grade curriculum.

So I listened when a kindergarten teacher pulled me aside during an assembly to ask why I had moved a student away from the other students in my class. She said, “I know that this student can get out of hand but he should not be moved away from the whole class when the whole school can see him being isolated.”

Before I responded I pointed to the student who I had moved to the very front of the stage and said,  “I put the child first by moving him because I understood the student could not see the speaker when he was restless and disengaged sitting in be back of the room with his classmates.” Then I gestured to draw her eyes to the student sitting attentively in the front of the room with his hand up to answer a question that the speaker had asked because when he can see the assembly (speaker) he is an engaged learner.

The teacher gave me a hug and said, “Thank you for taking care of my boy.”

Positive Verbal Reinforcement

     Positive verbal reinforcement is an important component of basic instruction for teaching. Teachers often over look this important component because they hear the pleasant tone that they address their students with and overlook the content within that pleasant tone.

     I have recently heard teachers using sweet voices to say, “This is too hard for you. This is going to be hard. This is going to be tricky. This is not how we learned it. This is tough.”

     One negative statement leaves a long lasting impression on a student. But, positive statements are forgot easily therefore needs to be received 10 time more often then a negative statement to make a positive memorable impression on a student. 

    

  

“Snake Vowel” Lesson Missed

      This week I was able to observe a group of 1^st grade teachers as they implemented the Pathway Read/Writing Program with a small group of students. These teachers had carefully: completed all of their paper work (plans), gathered the materials that they needed to follow the program’s instructional steps, and evaluated the reading lessons of the students that were in their group. They incorporated the words kitchen and studying within the lesson.

      But, they had not researched the reasons/rules, why we spell kitchen with a “k” and not a “c” and/or why studying is spelled with the “y”. So the students who can learn through quick memorization learned how to spell the words and the students who do not learn through quick memorization continued to misspell the words.

      Neither group of students received a lesson that was designed afford them knowledge to reach beyond these given words and learn that words with the soft “c” sound have a “snake vowel” (e, i, y) that follows the letter “c” so, kitchen must be spelled with a “k” and not a soft “c”.

      The teachers who I observed are good teachers but you can only impart the knowledge that you know to your students.

      Every teacher should be a life long learner who is willing to, “Live what you learn and learn what you live.”.

      After the lesson I asked the teachers if they would be open to me explaining the “snake vowel” spelling rules that relate to their lesson and they walked away explaining that, “This is the way they have always taught spelling.” 

Basic Instructions:

Instructions are important to heed when you are a teacher interring a classroom to teach and/or a passenger on a plane and the attendant is explaining that in the event of an emergency the oxygen mask will fall from the overhead compartment, and if you are traveling with a child, please place the mask on yourself first and then place a mask on the child. But in the event of an emergency if you decide to disregard these instructions and attempt to place the mask on the child first you may put yourself in a position wherein you cannot be of any assistance to the child and/or yourself.

When teachers disregard the basic instruction before interring a classroom and fell to put the children first by planning, researching, and designing, every lesson before teaching a child; they put themselves in a position wherein they cannot be of any assistance to the children and/or themselves.