Today I created a presentation letter for the parents, using the template of a fellow student teacher from the School of San Juan. It is a fun presentation letter, full of color and with my most basic information. I included the web address of this blog, in case anyone of the parents want to know what I am doing with their kids, they can know right away. If you are a parent of any of my students, welcome to my teaching blog!

Here is the pic of my presentation letter:

I still have not started giving my assigned third grade class. I am in the preparations to start giving the class: I am observing the class and trying to learn the names of everyone while observing them (today I discovered that I have already learned three names), I am planning an interest inventory to know how my students are, I am talking with my cooperator teacher to know where the students are and what I must teach, I am coordinating a meeting with the differentiated education teacher (also known as special education teacher, but I prefer to use the term “differentiated education” or “exceptional education”) to know which reasonable accommodations I must take in count when planning my classes…

There are few things to do prior beginning to give an ESL class. I am on those kinds of things during these days. One of those things is recording my cooperator teacher’s beginning routine so I can make his same routine when giving my class, because I think that it creates continuity in the learning environment and that is easier to the students to learn when there is some continuity between the different teachers in the classroom. Today I am going to do those recordings, so I can practice the welcome song and the today’s song, among other practices of my cooperator teacher’s beginning routine, during the weekend.

This week I had been doing a lot of desk job, and I am not used to be on a desk so much time, so in my lunch break I go to the hallway just to walk. Students are prohibited from running in the hallways, they have the Physical Education class for that, and they do run a lot in that class (my third grade class has ESL class just after Physical Education, and they enter to the classroom with very red cheeks). Although the students know they are forbidden of running in the hallways, three of them begin to run there. A teacher catches two of them and punishes them: they must remain seated the rest of the lunch break. The third student hides behind a door, so the teacher does not see him, but I do see him. The poor student jumps, freaked out, when I walk besides him: he did not saw me coming. I adopt a serious face: “you know the rule, and you know the consequence…” The student defends himself: “the teacher did not saw me”. I erase the seriousness of my face, put myself at his height and try to be more understanding with him: “Let’s see, we are going to make things wrong because others can’t see us or we are going to make them right because we want to grow as persons? Relax, I will not tell the other teacher that you are here, but please answer my question…” The student relaxes when I say to him that I will not tell the teacher he is there and answers my question: “I am going to make things for growing.” Then I say to the student: If you know that the norm is not running in the hallways, that your classmates were punished for running in the hallway and that you were running in the hallway too, what is the best thing you can do?” The student answers me quickly: “not running in the hallway again, although I am not seen…” I tell him: “Besides that, what else you can do?” This time the student does not answers me so quickly, so I just smile to him and tell him: “Let’s think…” The student concludes by himself: “I can go a sit down with my punished classmates and accompany them, although the teacher did not catch me…” I smile widely: “Exactly, very good. Go and seat with them, and do not run in the hallway again…”

My lunch break was over pretty soon after that, so I came back to my desk to keep working in the preparations to start giving ESL classes. I completed my philosophy of education.

In the third grade ESL class my cooperator teacher reviewed adjectives. The teacher asked for an example of an adjective. A student told him: “Your t-shirt is black.” The teacher said that it was an excellent example and asked the student to explain her example. The student answered him: “black is describing your t-shirt.” The teacher asked her: “What word is describing my t-shirt?” The student said: “Black.” The teacher asked her: “And what king of word is t-shirt?” The student answered him: “A noun.” The teacher asked her: “Why it is a noun?” The student said: “Because adjectives describe nouns.” The teacher helps the students to understand the material by themselves. He keeps students connected and asks “why” a lot. I am observing and learning everything.

Today was a great growing day. Let’s keep growing!