Week 5 Reflection

     During my fifth week of my internship, I have tried to take on many responsibilities and observe the students and teacher with an open mind. I am trying to forget past assumptions and discoveries that may cloud my reflections and observations with this fresh start. Now that I am teaching more subjects and creating the lessons, I am finding it difficult to group my students and decide which students will work well together and which will clash. I also am unsure who the leaders of the classroom are and those that need to develop their leadership skills by taking on that role more often and being given more responsibilities. In the past, I was able to group my students effectively and quickly. I tried to think about why this class was so much more difficult to analyze for me than my past students. I quickly realized that one difference between this year and my past years was that I started later into the year after my mentor teacher in those past years. In those situations, my mentor teacher had already made conclusions and generalizations about the students. My past mentor teachers had already experimented with grouping and seen the characteristics of students put in those grouping situations. This time, I was using trial and error to better understand my students alongside my mentor teacher. Also, I was making conclusions and generalizations about the students on my own without my mentor teacher's influences.
     I also noted that my mentor teacher had discussed her future students with their past educators prior to starting the school year. Before she organized the seating in the classroom, my mentor teacher took note of the students with ADD, ADHD, Autism, and other learning disabilities. She also had heard stories about bullying problems and behavioral problems from the second grade teachers. This is how she started to understand her students. Although I believe it is necessary to communicate with your students' past teachers, it is also important to make your own opinions about your students without bias influences. I do not believe my teacher was pushed towards skewed views of her students because of this communication. I believe she keeps this information in the back of her mind to help her recognize any patterns or difficulties that are repeating throughout the grades and may need some special attention.
     Throughout the weeks of my internship, my views of my students have constantly changed. I feel myself getting closer to the students and accepting their differences and behaviors. I also feel myself being stricter on the students, because I know what they can achieve and I've seen good things from each of them. I am still trying different grouping and pairings and reflecting on the results. I have changed classroom seating a few times to fit my grouping based instruction and to test relationships between students. I think it's important to always start fresh with few expectations as a teacher each year, because each group of students will change and those early assumptions can limit or stress students. A classroom should be a place for various ways of unexpected growth, not fitting in already designated areas.