Just Keep Learning

People say that learning never ceases, and I must agree. Once again, my mind has been "blown." The Learning Academy tends to do this to me, and I couldn't be more thrilled. I learn things, and learned things are brought forth in a new light.

The class started the day with OG (Orton Gillingham Instruction). While they were reviewing voiced and unvoiced consonants, which happens on a daily basis at the Learning Academy, Mrs. Paul made a profound statement. When touching on suffix "s," Mrs. Paul stated, "When the last consonant is voiced, then the suffix 's' makes a 'z' sound. When the last consonant is unvoiced, then the suffix 's' makes a 's' sound."

Excuse me? Why has no one taught me this before? I really started to think about it; for example, in the word 'dogs,' the 'g' is very harsh and makes a vibration in your throat, thus, making it a voiced consonant. Since it is voiced, the suffix 's' makes the 'z' sound. As I sat next to Matthew, I said it with him. "Dogs." I have never thought about it this, and it makes so much sense!

After learning this nifty trick, the class moved on to bingo. Mrs. Paul seperated the class into thirds: I took a group, my co-teacher canadite took a group, and Mrs. Paul took a group. We read words (I had words with the short a and i sound, for example), and the children had to find the word on their bingo board. The groupings switched; so, my group went to Mrs. Paul, Mrs. Paul's went to my partner, and my partner's came to me. Unfortunetly, my first group was not well behaved. I am relating it to the possible fact that they see me as a "substitute," and thus, do not need to take me as seriously. A competition arose between Bentley and Miachael. The whole time they said, "How many do you have?" or "I only need one more!" and "I am winning because I have more than you!" It was a constant battle of control versus learning.

Once, the bingo game was over, which turned more into a competition rather than the learning process, the class went onto their spelling and auditory drill. Mrs. Paul says a word, and the students must write it on their whiteboards. After each word, the class goes over COPS again. Many children have a hard time with remembering to capitalize the first letter in the sectence. They know that names must be capitalized because they say that when Mrs. Paul asks, but many, specifically Anthony and Cody, have a hard time grasping this concept. Kelly, had a hard time not drawing pictures, and she would erase and then rewrite what she just had written down on her whiteboard. During this time, the class received a new puzzle word, "have." Kelly, I noticed, put a 'u' instead of an 'a.'

After this time, it was my turn to do a read aloud. I read from the book, "Camilla Chamelon." I love reading to small groups of students, however, knowing that I was being watched by my partner, Mrs. Paul, and a video camera was nerve-racking. I had various questions throughout the book for the class to answer. For example, we discussed what a moral of the story was before reading, and then at the end the students said what they though the moral was: even though we may have different talents, it is not weird, but can be used for a great purpose. One thing I do need to work on is slowing down. I messed up a few words, but just laughed it off as to not show my embarassment to the class. Although I read the book multiple times before the read aloud, I still seemed to manage messing up.

Towards the end of my time for the day at the Learning Academy, the class began go over what a subject was. The students had to cut out words and categorize them into person, place or thing. After cutting and pasting, the class had to write a few sentences with one to three words in them (bare bone sentences) in them. Mrs. Paul was not worried about the framing, but the "just get your thoughts on paper" goal. Bentley finished this task in no time. When I went over to check his work, everything was correct. He categorized them into the correct location, and his sentences explained each example. This is a big deal for Bentley because he typically never gets his work done due to the fidgeting. Bentley told me, "This is easy!"

One thing I need to learn to do, besides slowing down in my read alouds, is to grow a back bone. I am the soft-spoken type and typically let people walk over me. I cannot be like this in the classroom because students will pick up on it and use it to their advantage as done today with bingo. Also, if I were Mrs. Paul, I would take the whiteboard away from Kelly and have her write on a piece of paper as to prevent the distraction of constantly drawing pictures and erasing. Kelly only focuses on that and not the answer or why the answer is the way it is. I would explain to Kelly that using the whiteboard is a privelage, and until she can prove her maturity, she will do the activity on a piece of paper. The next day, I would give the whiteboard back and say, "I think that you did really well using the paper yesterday. Please show me that you can use the whiteboard in the appropriate way today." I was so proud of Bentley! However, because this assignment was so easy for him, I feel like he may become easily bored and start with the fidgeting again. Perhaps, Mrs. Paul should give him some extra steps to do, or give him another assignment once the first is done for him (while the rest of the class is working).

Just like always, I am very thankful for the learning I am absorbing at the Learning Acadmey. I learn something each day. Afterall, our purpose is to just keep learning.