My Weekly Journal & Reflection

“My Biggest Adjustment”

Journal & Reflection: Week 5: March 6 to 9, 2023

Being attached to a variety of students, who would be my students, was something I was not prepared for during my practice teaching journey. However, Goodbyes are not the end of a memory or a journey; rather, they symbolize the start of a new one. I am aware that working with younger children would be much more challenging than working with pupils ages 7 to 9 years old. 

When I entered Mrs. Cora A. Quinones' classroom, the first thing I noticed was that it was full of hello kitty things, including her chair, the decorations, the water dispenser, and almost everything else. I was assigned to Kindergarten Yellow and Violet from the Grade 2 SSES under her supervision. Besides Teacher Cora's affection for Hello Kitty, I also observed how tidy and organized her classroom is. I love how everything in the classroom is arranged in a cabinet or organizer and sorted according to its purpose.

I was given two days of observation and adjustment, which was bursting my serotonin, and my question to myself is, "How, how flexible and adjustable are you self?". Something called "the breakdown" is popping into my mind. Teacher Cora gave me the Daily Lesson Log, which had everything from activities to pupil activities; however, I opted not to follow it because I prefer my own flow and way, I want to challenge myself by starting from zero and coming up with all of my own ideas. 

The highlight of my first lesson is the variety of vegetables found in the bahay-kubo; however, at this point, my printer is still out of ink, so I have to paint the vegetables. I was surprised to find that most of the students in Kindergarten Yellow do not know how to sing the Bahay-Kubo song; I had assumed that it was a very common song to teach at home. During this day, the activities that we did our show and tell the vegetables and treasure hunting for vegetables, During my second lesson, the highlights of this lesson is the different things found inside the house and their function. The pupils are able to identify their houses and the things that can be found inside their houses. The activities that we did this day are a puzzle of different parts of a house and creating a house with the letter h.

The comments that I have received for this week's lesson are, I need to make my materials bigger, I have to make sure that all of them are colored, and I can use different materials to make my materials more durable. So, I make sure to buy inks for my printer and make use of papers that are more durable for my instructional materials. 

“The Challenge”

Journal & Reflection: Week 6, March 13 to 15, 2023

I have learned a great deal during my first week of kindergarten, and this week I'm going to work extra hard to make sure that my lessons and activities are better than they were. 

The best part of this week's lessons is that on Monday, the students were able to demonstrate the various steps of washing their hands and the significance of doing so. They were also able to name all of the things that can be used to wash their hands. They were also able to identify images of objects that begin with the letter K and write the letter K. However, Teacher Cora stated that because I had concentrated on hand washing, I had failed to meet the lesson's "growth" objective. She also advised me to make my lessons more unified, which is very tricky for me since, some lessons in literacy are difficult to align with literacy. Tuesdays are not the days I teach classes, this day is their regional assessment, and I'm proud of my students because they did well on the test for the most part. On Wednesday, the pupils are able to identify the different steps of brushing their teeth, identify foods that are good and not good for their teeth, identify pictures that begin with the letter “N”, and sequence the size of an object. 

We have no classes the following days, therefore I spent the time enhancing my lessons. Last week and this week, I had either no sleep or just 2 to 3 hours of sleep, which affected my mental health and emotional well-being. The majority of the time, my brain was only working from 10 p.m. until early morning, making it difficult for me to plan my lessons, come up with six activities, and create teaching materials. 

I also noticed that I had a lot of breakdowns this week and last week, despite the fact that I had just started. It was challenging for me to change my mood on those days when I was not genuinely happy, but I needed to be happy and energetic for the sake of my pupils since energy may be contagious and I do not want my students feeling that.

“Getting Better”

Journal & Reflection: Week 7, March 22 to 23

I would say that during this week, I was getting better at planning lessons and activities, during this week the highlights of our lesson are rote counting from 1 to 20 and writing, creating sound identifying pictures that start with the letter Yy. I used different instructional strategies in teaching my pupils' rote counting, 

I used counters such as their own body, or body movements, a 1 to 20 chart snake and ladder and using the sound of the animals by group, and using eggs in rote counting in English, Filipino, and Ilocano. The students participate more actively in our class and enjoy the lesson while learning because of the use of interesting and colorful instructional materials. My next lesson will still be about rote counting from 1 to 20, writing the letter Zz, producing the sound of the letter Zz, and identifying pictures that begin with the letter Zz. To teach rote counting, I utilized clothes pins, popsicle sticks with animal heads, and connected dots with animal figurines per group. 

Teacher Cora loved the instructional materials and lessons that I made for this week. I would say that I enjoyed teaching and creating instructional materials for this week. I realized that the only thing that I needed to do to reduce the chances of having breakdowns is having enough sleep and rest. The only challenge that I had for this week is that the three of my students in Kindergarten Yellow are uncontrollable, and hyperactive, to the point that I would run after them and spend some of the time asking them to be quiet or just sit down, it even comes to the point where their parents or guardian need to be outside the classroom since I cannot focus during the discussion. 

“Last Week, First Observation”

Journal & Reflection: Week 8, March 27 to 30, 2023

During this week, my lessons are all about, identifying the sequence of the stories, and arranging the sequence of things according to sizes. We arrange sequences of events or stories such as planting flowers and more. On to the next lesson, our lesson is all about counting from 1 to 10, we use counters such as body movements, and we also had a follow-me game in which the pupils will follow body movements such as jumping, running, or hopping.  

The main highlight of this week is my first observation, I am feeling confident about my observation since I am well-prepared for this. My lesson is all about writing the letter Qq, producing the sound of the letter Qq, and pictures that begin with the letter Q, and classifying and manipulating objects according to their properties or attributes. My observation is a complete success, I was able to execute my lesson and instructional materials, and based on the comments of our supervisor during our conference, I could say that I did well, and every sleepless night are worth it. 

My time in kindergarten is coming to an end today, and I can say that it has been a unique combination of challenges and happiness. I am extremely grateful to Teacher Cora for being there for me from the beginning to support me, mentor me, and provide recommendations and advice that helped me more effectively with my teaching.