The Fostered Gamer (Genre Reflection #1)

It was my first time in my new practicum for the semester. After getting thoroughly lost in the winding halls of the high school, I walked into the classroom only to find that we would shortly be turning around and leaving for the computer lab. Mrs. Ellis informed me that the students were working on résumés, cover letters, and follow-up letters to help them when they began to search for jobs. She also introduced me to her para-educator, Mrs. Paxton, who is there to aid the students in the class that are part of the special education program.

Once we were in the computer lab, I noticed one student in particular, we'll call him Kyle, who was not working on anything pertaining to the class. Instead, he was focusing on playing one of the games from The Legend of Zelda series on what I believe was a Game Boy Advance emulator. Mrs. Paxton and I approached Kyle and asked him to work on the assignment, but he ignored us even after I told him, "Link will still be there when you're done with your work." Needless to say, he did not work on any of the assignments for the remainder of the class period.

Fast-forward to the next class period, where Kyle is once again playing The Legend of Zelda. I notice Mrs. Paxton having a chat with him and overhearing bits and pieces of it, I realize that it is a conversation I should probably stay out of. I heard Kyle say things like "I give up" and it broke my heart a little. Once Mrs. Paxton finished talking to him, I asked her if he was just having a rough time. She explained to me that he's been in foster care his entire life and that the number of homes he has been in is crazy. Every time he gets into any kind of trouble, he is moved to a new home.

This information hit me like a ton of bricks. I have come to realize that I honestly have no idea how to handle this. He's practically given up on school, but he tells me things like, "I'm smart, I just procrastinate a lot." What am I supposed to do? I have no experience with students that have such a rough home life history. I hate watching him waste his time in class by sleeping, playing video games, or distracting other students, but I don't want to push him too hard. Ever since that day when I found out about him being a foster child his entire life, I have left him for Mrs. Ellis and Mrs. Paxton to deal with. I just hope I'm doing the right thing.

Showing Videos in Class

Today, Mrs. Ellis showed her class a couple of videos on Mount Everest to introduce the book the class will be reading very soon titled Into Thin Air. Before showing the first video, she passed out a circle map for the class to fill out. On the outside of the circle, students were to write the knowledge of Mount Everest that they already had prior to watching the video. Then, while watching the video, they were to write what they learned on the inside of the circle. Once they were finished, it was to be turned in.

Now, while this is a great idea to keep the students working while the video is playing, it didn't seem to work all that well with this particular class. Several of the students fell asleep, while others had that blank stare on their face that I'm sure all of us know all too well. That stare that indicates that the student is paying attention, but all of the information is going in one ear and out the other.

I'm not sure if it would help or not, but one thing that I noticed was that Mrs. Ellis stayed seated at her desk watching the video with the class and Mrs. Paxton sat at the back of the classroom working on something of her own. Neither of them checked on the students to make sure they were working the entire class period. At one point, I saw about a third of the class appeared to be asleep, but neither of them made any effort to wake them. Maybe I'm just over-thinking all of this, but if it were my class, I think I would have gently tapped or shook the students that appeared to be asleep. Or is that going too far? They are seniors in high school, so should they be independent enough to take care of themselves?

While the videos were very informative, I'm not sure it was the best way to introduce the book to the class. Perhaps shorter clips would have worked better? Any thoughts or ideas on this? I feel like I'm rambling at this point.

Online Reflection #2: First Day!

Today, I finally went to my placement! However, even after the orientation I had a couple of weeks ago, I got lost on the way to my classroom. Well, partially anyway. I just turned too soon, but still, it was embarrassing having to ask another teacher where my cooperating teacher's classroom was located.

Once I finally got to the classroom, I came in and said hello to the teacher, Mrs. Ellis. She introduced me to her para-educator, Mrs. Paxton, who helps some of the students in the class which are in the special education program. Later, I found out nearly half of the class is made up of special education students, which was somewhat surprising to me because they all seemed to be working fairly well!

Well, most of them anyway. I'll get back to that later. First, let me explain to you what the class is currently working on. Seeing how this is a class of seniors, many of the students are beginning to search for jobs, but have no experience making resumes, writing formal letters, etc. So, to help them out, Mrs. Ellis is having them create a resume as well as write a cover and follow-up letter. Once they finished these activities, they moved on to marking up a poorly written e-mail and re-typing it to make the e-mail more clear, concise, and conventionally correct.

Now, back to those off-task students. One in particular was supposed to be working on one of the two letters, I can't recall which, but instead was constantly playing one of the games from the Legend of Zelda series. I kept telling him that Link would still be there when he finished his work, but he would not listen. Another student believed she "didn't need to do any of this because she was going to start her own business." And yet another couple of young men in the class were playing games like Duck Hunt when they should have been finishing their résumés. Thankfully, the latter two I mentioned got back on task when Mrs. Ellis asked them kindly to work. Also, I noticed just before the class period ended that even the girl that "didn't need to do any of this" had started to work. I'm really not sure if Mrs. Ellis spoke with her and I just missed it, or if she realized hey, maybe I will need this knowledge at some point in my life. Either way, I'm glad she decided to start working on her assignments. So, fellow pre-student teachers, how would you have handled these students, specifically the one that wouldn't stop playing his video game no matter how many times I asked? There were a couple of times where I nearly hit Alt + F4 on his keyboard, but I was afraid that was a bit too bold of a move on my first day in the classroom, especially considering I'm not actually their teacher.

When Mrs. Ellis had a moment during the class period, I mentioned my unit I had to teach in her class this semester. She asked me if I had ever heard of the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey. I chuckled because just yesterday I read this blog post on Ms. Black's Point of View, which mentioned this book. Until I read said blog post, I had never even heard of this book. Now I've heard it two days in a row and Mrs. Ellis even had Mrs. Paxton check out a copy for me to use, so I have a copy in my possession.

Overall, my first day with the class went very well. The organization system Mrs. Ellis had for the assignments being worked on today was easy to navigate, so I could easily give students the sheet(s) explaining the next task they needed to do. Also, the students accepted my help if both Mrs. Ellis and Mrs. Paxton were busy at the time they needed it. I'm not sure I've ever been accepted so quickly in a classroom! One of the students even complained when I was using the technique of proximity to make sure they were staying on task by saying, "Man, now there are three teachers in here!"