Go, Dog, Go

When I first found out I was teaching reading and phonics I was bit overwhelmed. I student taught in 2nd grade and I didn’t have to teach phonics from the beginning stages. I felt this internal stress that if these children couldn’t read it was all my fault. On the flip side I was also told that I would have the most rewarding class because you can see the progress the kids are making. It wasn’t until the end of July, beginning of August when I started to teach vowels that I began to really understand what people had been saying to me. The classes were beginning to take what we had been working on in class, and using it on their own. It is one thing for the students to sound words out with me helping them or doing it as a class, but actually seeing them do it on their own is a whole other experience. One day a few weeks ago I had Cedar class (Toriann’s class and the only class who spoke no English in March) and one of the student’s Ricky, had finished his work early and we only had about 5 minutes in class left, so I told him to get a book from the classroom library. He chose “Go, Dog, Go.’” Growing up this was my favorite book and the first book I read on my own. I have never read this book to the class, but I have it in our classroom library because it has small, simple words to sound out and I enjoy the book. Well Ricky, who is by far one the cutest 6 year old boys we have, started reading this book out loud. This was a boy who for the first month of school said only said a few token phrases he heard from us teachers. His first month at school we called him the “opps, sorry” boy because that’s all the English he knew. We all loved Ricky at this point and he just continued to grow in his use of the English language. Fast forward 6 months later and Ricky is reading “Go, Dog, Go” on his own. I stopped what I was doing and went and sat next to him, and just smiled and listened to him read. Ricky is a smart boy, and so I know not all his reading ability came from our 40 minutes a day in class together, but I do take a little pride in his achievement of reading.
Throughout my 6 months of teaching I have had moments where I doubt that I should really be a teacher. I would get frustrated and feel like I was losing my patience and wasn’t even sure I was teaching them anything. This past month though I can see how the students are using what we have practiced in phonics class and applying it to reading class. I have learned a great deal about what I would do differently if I taught this again, but I am finally feeling at peace with my decision to teach, and in coming to Korea to teach. I also learned a great deal about myself in the process. When it comes to teaching I have these unrealistic expectations where I expect change so quickly with the students. I also expect perfection within myself in teaching. When I finally realized this was my issue and could let go of these thoughts, it made teaching all that much easier and more enjoyable.
My other student who I have seen great change in is Brian. Brian came to school in May and was completely spoiled by his parents. He couldn’t eat on his own and would do everything in the slowest manner possible; mostly I think to annoy me! I quickly learned he is an extremely bright child, which actually made me more upset with him that he wouldn’t do things on his own. Well I was incredibly hard on him these past few months to become more independent and not to throw temper tantrums when he didn’t get his way. Ever since break he has been more independent and listens when I tell him to do something. There are still those times he is told more than once, but he is so much better than he was before. All his little “Brianism” as we call them, are now much more adorable because he actually does his work and follows directions. I never actually thought I would get to the point with Brian where I world miss him on days when he was sick and I never thought Brian would get to the point of being so independent.
I posted a few pictures of my class. Birthdays, swim days, Star of the Week sharing, and random cute moments. Enjoy =)