I made it to Friday :)

Hey Folks,

So, yes, indeed, I made it to Friday. And as I type this, Boris is walking in and out of my legs, trying to find a comfortable place to lay down at my feet. Silly pug.

I got all the names down by Wednesday, which made teaching a bunch easier. I am also currently reading through "You know the Fair Rule: strategies for making the hard job of discipline and behaviour management in school easier" by Australian author and teacher Bill Rogers. It has been helpful. I think that anyone working with children should do some research on behavior management. Even learning simple things like correcting children in a positive way makes working with kids much more effective.

I am now in charge of the spelling lessons, which happen 4 times a week. The school uses this program called THRASS where the students match each of the 44 phonemes with a word and picture. These words are predetermined and stay constant. So, if a student wanted to spell close they could say "c as in cat, l as in leg, o as in nose, and s as in sun." If they wanted to spell spell "s as in sun, p as in panda, e as in bed, and ll as in bell." See, it gets complicated when there are only 26 letters in the alphabet and 44 sounds or phonemes. I personally think we should do away with the American alphabet and just teach children the international phonetic alphabet where there are 44 symbols for 44 phonemes. I believe spelling would be much easier to teach and learn. But...that's just me.

Next week I am planning on checking out some different classrooms so I have a broader basis for doing a comparative study of education in two different countries/cultures. I will also have the opportunity to take with the special ed teacher. I was talking with Keith, the headmaster, and my home stay dad, today about the fact that I have never been in a classroom with so many students that had disabilities. For example, just in my year 6 class, there is a kid with a severe visual impairment, another with dyslexia and ADHD, another with a learning disability, another with Aspergers or some form of austism, and a few that are really low in their reading and maths. The other year 6 class has a handful of challenging students as well.  I want to learn more how each of these students is provided for and equipped with the essential things to promote their learning. I'll let you know when I find out.

I also am starting to realize that I have a big soft spot for kids with learning disabilities. I was working with a kid who clearly needs more time to do his work than is given. I re-explained what the order of operations meant and went through a couple examples with him. Later in that lesson he came up to me and said that he got the right answer (and was really proud about it), but not in the allotted time (the teacher gives a certain number of seconds per problem). I just am not sure if that's the best approach to teaching kids with learning disabilities. And I'm finding that I really see it as an injustice and want to do something about it. At the same time, though, I feel like there is no way I would make a good special education teacher. There are so many forms of special needs and I know I cannot cater to each kind. But, I'm praying about it and asking the Lord why this is on my heart, you know? He'll let me know when I need to know.

Well, I am enjoying my time with my host family. We had many laughs about a one-man yo-yo show that came to the school this week. Remind me to tell you about it when I see you next.

I'm off to bed, folks. And you're waking up. Have a great day :)