Field Work

In my first semester, I was placed in a kindergarten class at Bahia Vista. Many of the students were English language learners and a few were on the spectrum. I appreciate the diversity of the class as it presented me with many opportunities to grow from mistakes as well as develop relationships with students. In the beginning, I acted more as an aid, completing tasks as the teacher would handle the majority of the kids. At this point, there were still students who were timid for various reasons.  I would show up every day to participate in activities ranging from PE to art where I would come to see those shy and quiet kids light up and find joy in expressing themselves. The first half of the year was a great setup for the transition that would come with semester 2 as it allowed me to create a relationship where the students are comfortable to approach me first to tell me about their day, problems, and goals.  As we studied ways in class to analyze things like silence in students and how to provide alternative actions for students based on how they learn and respond, it helped me so much as I transitioned from an Instructional Aide position to a more 1 -on-1 experience.  

In our readings, we learned that students could have a plethora of reasons for being silent including comfortability which was an obstacle for many of the English language learners in the class who felt left out as the majority of the conversation was incomprehensible to them. With one student in particular we would never hear her speak unless there was an issue, and it would always result in tears. As the year went on, I practiced common English words with her as we found the Spanish translation to link the definition for her.  I got to watch her grow into herself as she grew comfortable talking to others and telling me about things she loved in a mix of Spanish and English and now every time I look around, she is at my side laughing and proposing a game to play. This emphasized the importance of trying to connect to all students in some manner despite language barriers there is always something that can act as a bridge for common ground to make them feel seen. Especially for those students who may be very silent, it can be beneficial to provide them with rich and interesting activities to encourage interactions with not just the teacher but with their peers as well. In my transition to the second semester, I was asked to work with one student in particular who had a pattern of behaviors ranging from threatening other kids and even escaping from the classroom. In our class, the thing that has provided the most results has been meeting students' misbehaviors with alternative suggestions. For example, in the moments I knew the student was feeling antsy and had completed a good amount of work I would offer him jobs that would allow him to get up and walk around or even take short trips with me to the garden. This in turn would limit the number of times he would want to run away from class because he understood that he did not have to run away just to get a break from his work.  As well as this, in Everyday Anti-racism we learned that highlighting students' background and identities can help develop relationships. I found this to be a great tool for building a relationship with this student as he would talk to me in Spanish about his love for animals. I wondered if he had a favorite in particular because I wanted to get some books so that we could read in class. He told me he loved birds because they could go anywhere in the world and because his grandfather had several in his hometown. With this information, we were able to form a relationship over our love for animals, nature, and family. It wasn't until towards the end of the year that I would be told that the student struggled with ADHD and because I had done my case study report on another student with ADHD, I was able to notice there were similar actions when it came to being seated for long amounts of time as well as being a more visual and hands on learner.  I appreciated the experience along with the notes of the class because I'm unsure how I would have been able to get through those tough moments of feeling like I was not getting through to a child. I was provided different perspectives from educators as well as text that helped me develop the patience to help that student in the best way that I could.