Read-Alouds
Read-Aloud #9: Our ninth read-aloud was Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson, read by Leyla Mohamed (ISBN: 9780616763568). This was one of my favorite read-alouds. First, Leyla is such a great narrator and story-reader. Her different expressions for different characters are astonishing. I’ve had the pleasure to work with her on the Big Book project, and I don’t think our story would have been what it is without her amazing voice overs. Also, this book touches close to home for everyone. It reveals the harsh realities of bullying through Chloe’s eyes; though not the victim, it reveals the truth of bullying through a bystander’s perspective. I feel like this story has so much potential in different ways in classroom settings. It can be used in art class where younger students are first learning how to use water colors because the art in this book is full of absolutely stunning watercolor pieces. It could also be used in a social studies/sociology standpoint to teach young kids about different socioeconomic backgrounds, which could be connected to a lesson on bullying and accepting those of all backgrounds.
Learning Experiences
The past two weeks have been focused on different psychologists approach to explaining different aspects of humans as they developed. We split up into 4 different groups, and each group took on a different psychologist. My group had Jean Piaget and his Theory of Cognitive Development. This was a fun project to work on but one of the more difficult ones in my opinion. I feel like it gave us a lot of insight into what teachers have to do daily because I never would have imagined that planning a lesson would be this difficult. It was particularly challenging trying to figure out a way to teach our peers the content without only lecturing and making our lesson too long. In the end, through interactive videos and a trivia game, I think our group was able to execute a successful performance. I absolutely love psychology, so I truly enjoyed learning all these different theories and also getting to see a different aspect of it and how it relates to teaching. A lot of our time this week was spent listening to guest speakers, talking to us about colleges and also the USC college credit. We didn’t do as much as we have done in previous weeks, but I truly loved what we’ve been learning.
Current Event
The article I chose this week talked about the staggering 3 million children who have been deprived of a decent education since March, when COVID-19 was beginning to exponentially worsen in America. The research that it quoted was mainly focused on students with disabilities, English learners, students in foster care, migrant students and homeless students. They explained how some students can’t get their education because of wifi and technological issues. Others can’t get a proper education because there isn’t enough support for English learners or those with disabilities. Some sadly can’t even make time to go to school because they have to take on full-time jobs to help support their family during this crisis. I gravitated towards this article because this week, our school district revised our hybrid plan from 2 days a week-in person to 4 days a week. This made me reflect on how privileged we are to have a school district who is able to make these changes and to have a decent school with amazing teachers, who accommodate their plans to better suit our needs. I feel like a lot of students I know, including myself, have been frustrated about our senior year being messed up and how chaotic things have been with our schedules constantly changing. This just woke me up to the harsh reality that there are 3 million people who aren’t getting an education at all this year. And yes, my senior year definitely isn’t conventional, but I am so much more grateful now to even get one.
Quote of the Week
Observations
As we were learning about different psychologists’ approaches and theories to explain human development, I couldn’t help but look for these stages in people. I absolutely love psychology, so it was exciting to apply these lessons to my real-life situations. For example, one of the psychologists we discussed was Jean Piaget, who incorporated the concept of object permanence into his theory. Object permanence is essentially when young babies learn that even if they cannot physically see a toy, for example, that toy still exists and is just hidden. This is why peek-a-boo is such a classic, favorite game to infants because they truly believe that whoever is behind the hands has disappeared. I was babysitting a few months old baby, and the timing of this lesson felt perfect because I knew that whenever the baby got fussy, I could play peek-a-boo with him to hopefully calm and distract him. Even though I knew this game was a classic, it was even better knowing the reason why it was so fun for babies. We also discussed that even if they do develop object permanence, it won’t always be perfectly understood. For example, if a child sees you pulling out a toy under a blanket and then placing it under a separate one, they will only look for it in the same where they first saw it: the first blanket. This reminded me of how active parents and even daycare teachers must be in making sure their children are stimulated and are able to learn and fully develop object permanence. Even though that lesson was about babies, it reminded me that teachers must be meticulous when teaching a lesson to all students, much older than infants included. To us, that new content is object permanence, and we need someone to carefully and precisely teach us how to master this new skill.
Reflections
These two weeks have been particularly stressful and hard for me because school has definitely been reaching its peak in terms of stress for me. I know I shouldn’t think this way, but I’ve been extremely frustrated with how my senior year is going. I feel like every since we were younger, we dreamed of becoming the “big and cool” seniors and dominating the school. Even last year, I was ecstatic that by next year, I would be the senior. I would get the red senior shirt. I would get the senior assembly. I would get the senior study halls. I completely understand how and why our district had to make the changes and adjustments it did because of COVID-19, and I completely understand that there is only so much they can do to make this pandemic any easier for students and teachers. But I have been having a hard time getting adjusted to virtual school and feeling like I am truly learning the best I can. I can’t even imagine how hard this pandemic has been for teachers, and transitioning to virtual learning is harder for them than it is for students. But I have noticed that for most of my classes, I feel like I’m just not learning well or enough during class lectures, aside from Mrs. Jackson, who has been going through extra measures to make sure virtual students get the same material as her in-person students. I, of course, mean absolutely no disrespect to my teachers. I love all of them, and I can tell they are doing all that they can to make this easier for us. It is completely subjective to me. I learn so much better when I get interaction with teachers and am able to build one-to-one bonds with them. And it is difficult to do so virtually because our classes are extremely large, and it would be nearly impossible for teachers, or anyone for that matter, to build strong bonds with all their students when they are divided by a screen. I find myself having to read and take notes from every chapter of textbooks for certain classes to be able to learn the material, which contributes to my stress because I spend so much time taking textbook notes and trying to understand this material that I have to stay up late or sacrifice time for college applications to do this. This is completely my-doing and not my teachers’ faults in the slightest. I just wish this pandemic never happened, and times can be easier for all of us, so I’m hoping that the next blog will be a little more positive!
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