So... fast forward to today. I'm finally student teaching. I've waited my whole life for this and am so excited for the experiences I'm having.
Today, my mentor teacher had a family emergency and was away, the sub came in - in the hour my mentor was at school and was told "This is the student teacher. You don't need to really do anything, cause she can take over." While I was a little nervous, I was excited for this challenge. Little did I know that these kids had a plan to really make the morning difficult. But I have to say I'm pretty proud of how the day ended.
One of the students came in at the start of the day already crying. She had a rough weekend, and the morning must not have been any better. The poor thing cried literally all day! No matter what was said or done she was not happy. I tried having her be my helper to get her mind on other things, but each time it only lasted for a few mins, then she was back to crying. It's tough being a kid sometimes.
Later another student must've thought "well she's crying and getting a lot of attention from everyone in the room. I might as well cry for attention too." And she did. But I knew it was an attention cry, so I just didn't give her any extra attention. This eventually led to spitting on others, which in turn lead to one of her friends deciding it was ok for her to spit on someone too. Which only lead to more frustration on my part, and a feeling of complete exhaustion as I had no clue which way was the best way to handle it, while all at the same time I was trying to help and give attention to the students who had good behaviors.
I tried talking with the whole class so not to point out specific students but then one of my spitters felt that I was still singling her out (I was seriously trying just to have a relaxed conversation about respecting others) she threw a fit and ran to the back of the room to hide in a corner. We ignored her and let her calm down. Then left for lunch and she just dragged behind. The second I turned around to make sure she was coming she stops and screams at me. Tells me she hates the school and everything else. Again I ignore her and eventually she finds her way to lunch with me watching her from the corner of my eye the whole way.
Lunch was a much needed and enjoyed break.
After lunch I finally got the hang of things. I was able to keep the noise level down. My classroom shouters were finally raising their hands to speak. My first spitter and screamer had calmed down and after much positive praise on my part she was a little angel! And my cryer had finally realized that no matter how bad things were she couldn't go home and she got tired of the attention so she calmed down too.
It was quite the first experience. I've never worked with this age group before, but with more experiences like this and practice, I know even the toughest children I work with will be my favorites! :)
