My name is Autumn and I am a student at Ball State University. I have been in an Indianapolis school for one full week and a couple of days. Before school started all of the BSU students participating in the Urban Semester met for a day of beginning instructions and introductions to classes we would be taking in Indy. We also helped our classroom teachers set up the room, put up bulletin boards, make nametags, and whatever else needed to be done before the students arrived. That whatever else turned out to be a variety of things that most of us never thought had to be done.
The first couple of days went very good. Students were very well behaved and we did not have much mindless talking or other inappropriate behavior. Mrs. C went over some procedures about going to the bathroom and walking in the hallways. Before we went to lunch, we went over a couple rules for the lunchroom and recess. When we discussed the classroom rules, students brainstormed about what good behavior and what bad behavior looked like.
The first full week of school was interesting for me. I was in with students during recess that misbehaved in lunch or during morning work. At least one of the students in the room was crying each day that we were in from recess. I tried to talk to each of them about what they were doing that was inappropriate and ways we could fix the behavior. There was a lot of time that I was not in the room because I was in class for BSU. I feel that this interferes with disciplining in the class because I am not there all the time. The students still take what I say seriously but I still wonder about how they see me as a teacher figure. I am quickly learning what to do with students who are very active during instructional time. We have many students in our class who speak out and move about the classroom as if they were having free time.
I feel that my decision to be a teacher has not been swayed by any of the events that have happened so far. Everything has just confirmed what I know would have to be done as a teacher.