Question 2: Conversations...ALL the time

I must say that starting this practicum I was a little skeptical about how it would turn out. This practicum was unlike any of the other school that I had ever been introduced to. Here’s a brief background of what I though most elementary school were like: boring, boring, boring and boring. The students were supposed to be robots and were only supposed to ask the teacher smart questions. The teachers and the students were never supposed to interact outside of the classroom and the children who did not speak the common language of the class were just out of luck. Now that you know what I thought about elementary school (aka: BORING) let’s talk about what Rosa Parks Elementary was.

For one every teacher in the school knows every student by name and you can really tell that each teacher loves what they do. I absolutely love my third grade classroom and my teacher (even though they are not for me to have and I have to return them at the end of this practicum); the way the teacher and the students interacted was pretty cool. First off, my teacher and another third grade teacher tag team teacher, which I think is every teachers dream and one of the teacher speaks fluent Spanish. There are a about seven students in just my classroom who don’t speak English too well so it helps to have the other teacher tell those students what they are suppose to do but my cooperating teacher says that when the students come into the class not knowing any English learn the language pretty fast. The interaction between the teacher and the students is unbelievable. The teacher has created such a safe environment that there are constantly meaningful conversations going on. The students are not afraid to ask even the dumbest questions and my teacher is so sweet that she really believes in “no dumb answers”.

I think that since my teacher has set up a comfortable environment that the conversations never get out of hand. Each child knows what is expected from them so if they choose to talk too much to their peers they know that they will have to make up the work during free time.

Honestly if each teacher would develop conversations within their classrooms I think more teachers would get gift during “Teacher Appreciation Week”!! I know what I need to work on and include in my future class. Conversation is everything! Helps the ones develop a new language and help the others just learn more words!

xoxo