Last Thursday, I had my very
first experience being in the preschool room at Brigham Elementary. I was very
nervous to go to that specific classroom because I had heard from my peers that
these students are very quiet and do not often participate. However, I do try
to not let what others say influence my perspective about things, including classrooms
and children. However, I would be lying if I didn’t say I was a little sad
about not going back into the kindergarten classroom. I feel like I have
started to become comfortable with the kindergarten students and the same for
them with me. In my last lesson, one of the kids said to me, “Hey! I saw you in
here before!” I knew that I would not get one of those greetings in the
preschool classroom. I was, however, a bit pumped that I might be able to use
my second language to help the preschoolers. Little did I know, the preschool
students were not all Hispanic. In fact, only about 2 out of 11 students were Hispanic.
Considering my limit of languages, for I only have two, walking into the
preschool classroom was the first time I felt like I was at a disadvantage and
therefore the students were also. How was I supposed to connect with the
students and make them feel comfortable despite the language barrier if there
was actually no way for me to jump over the said “barrier”
While in the classroom, I was a
teacher assistant for two of the other girls who would be teaching their
lesson. They allowed for me to pick which station that I would like to run that
corresponds with the five senses. I chose the “seeing” station as it had to do
with sorting colors into a bin labeled with the color words and the colors. I thought
if I could in any way use my second language to help even two of my students, I
would be able to do so at the “seeing” station. Once the first group of
students came by my station, I quickly knew that it would be more than being
able to say the colors. I wanted to know how I was going to be able to make
these students feel comfortable with me and able to connect even though there
might be a language barrier. I pride myself in that fact that I was quickly
able to consider how I might encourage my students while they sort the objects
according to color at my station. I decided to incorporate “fist bumps” with
the kids after they would make a correct color and object match. Almost all of
the students smiled and giggled as we would fist bump for their successful
match. This was something that may seem so little but I really feel like it
helped for the students to feel comfortable with me and also excited to learn
further. In addition, I made sure to be gentle with the students specifically
when they made an incorrect color and object match. I feel that my gentleness
again helped the students to feel comfortable and able to learn. I also wanted
to be extra sensitive to the English Language Learners because I can understand
how hard it might be to not understand what others are saying and how that can
affect one’s learning. Not to mention, it might be challenging to even try to
participate if you feel like you are always wrong. All in all, I would call
last Thursday a success!
The definition of a fist bump is:
a gesture of greeting
or affirmation in which two people lightly tap each other's clenched fist.
That is all folks, until next
time!
-Alaina Murphy
EXCEEDS: Over 500 character
requirement. Definition of a fist bump.
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