Brigham Reflection 4

             This week at Brigham, I had the opportunity to be an assistant in the kindergarten room for the first time. I was nervous and excited for this because I knew from being in the preschool room most of the time; this room was going to be a lot different. I was nervous because I did not know if the students only talked in Spanish or also spoke English. I immediately get nervous going into bilingual rooms because I have little to no experience with speaking another language. Although, I have felt like overtime I am becoming more comfortable interacting with these students that are English Language Learners. This is also one of my goals that I have been working towards while being at Brigham.

            While I was in the classroom, I was assisting with a lesson about the four seasons. I knew I was going to be working with small groups of children and I was worried about taking good notes because I was unsure if I was going to be able to understand the students. Once I started working with the students and having conversations with them, I did not have any trouble understanding what they were saying. I was able to interact with the children and talk about the seasons. I talked about the season summer and I was able to learn a little bit of Spanish because I could hear some of the students saying the seasons in Spanish such as verano, primavera, invierno, and otono. Since I don’t have much experience with a second language, I enjoyed listening to the students say certain words and learn more about Spanish even though I was only in the classroom a short amount of time. I think each opportunity I get to work with English Language Learners is a great learning experience and I can really take in a lot from just talking with the students.

            In class, we have talked about what it means to be a culturally responsive teacher. I think all the characteristics we have talked about such as being patient and it taking a lot of time are things we can relate to while being at Brigham. It took multiple times in the classroom for me to become comfortable and to gain more confidence when working with English Language Learners. It is also important to really know the students to become a culturally responsive teacher. Even though I was only in the classroom every other week, I tried my best to learn their names and observe their personalities and how they interacted with each other and other teachers.

            Overall, my experience in the kindergarten classroom this week was a positive one. I made sure to stay optimistic and it ended up benefitting me. Besides interacting with the students I was also able to observe a new bilingual environment. I observed things around the room that were labeled in Spanish and other resources that were available in the classroom to help bilingual students. These kinds of things help me work towards my three goals that I made for myself this semester. 

Exceeds- Here is a link to a Scholastic page that gives tips for teachers about classroom setup strategies for ELL students.

 http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/teaching-ell-classroom-setup-strategies