Happiness♥

On Monday I started softball and I had no idea what I was doing or any of the positions of softball. I've seen people play the sport but I never really understood it. It was pretty hard knowing where to go or what to say, but not impossible. I was pretty proud of myself that I went through the whole practice without stopping or thinking about quitting. I realized today at practice that I needed to pay more attention and see if I was doing the right thing. Therefore, I asked Ms. Jones to tell me when I'm doing something incorrect because if she does not tell me I will never better myself. Just like checking your grades. You need to know what type of grade you have in each class to know where to improve. Being unaware of yourself in any type of thing like sports, school, or even your job is very bad. If no one tells you your doing something incorrect then how will you ever improve? Moreover, students although they're doing the homework or taking the test, you have no idea if it's an A or an F. Just like softball you might be doing all the stretches, and warm ups but you have no idea if you suck at this sport and need improvement.

In my psychology class today we were discussing ways of disciplining. A topic we ran through was punishment and discipline. Punishment sometimes does not work as much as discipline, some might say because punishment makes the child angry or makes them do it again. Most often their are no good results out of punishment. Discipline is more involved with leaning and teaching them something in a correct way.

Mr. Maggi had explained to us that there are different forms of disciplining a student. One example he shared was how Mr. M always talks to the student when they have been acting out in class. Mr. M is the type of person who wants to know the student's side of the story when they have been written up by a teacher and figuring out what it is that is making them act the way they are. Then he gave us another example, Coach Cellars, who would deal with a student with no communication at all and avoidance. There is a big difference between the type of people Mr. M and coach Cellars are. They both seem to deal with things differently.

Something else we had discussed was that it's much more better that teachers teach differently with variety and show a type of relationship with their own students. OHHH and something he had also added was that teachers need to realize that your relationship with students depend on you. I do not remember the name of the other teacher but this teacher Mr. Maggi had brought up had a problem with a certain student but it was totally his problem. This teacher had make fun of a student and so the student made fun of him as well. Therefore, making fun of each other had gotten serious and so this teacher would write him up everyday. Mr. Maggi had told this teacher that of course students who are being made fun of by a teacher would say something back. This teacher was provoking this student to act a certain way. I believe that each teacher has to set boundaries and certain standards that they want followed by being upfront when the teacher first starts their classes or else the students will walk all over you.

Monday was a great day. Everything was as planned and today although I did not do much in Ms. Carney's class I was able to observed the students. Today the class was going over a test they had taken on Friday. Ms. Carney like usual showed much enthusiasm and understanding towards them. She explained the questions that most of the students had scored wrong. One question that most of the pupils had wrong was figuring out what the topic of an article is. Ms. Carney broke down to them that identifying the topic of an article was by looking at the title and whatever picture accompanied the passage. She also added that reading the passage was not even necessary. Most of the kids were like OHHHHHHH I KNEW THAT!! I found it very funny and amusing how children can be.

After that she had given a paper to the students called the "Anticipation Guide" where it contained statements stating whether if an article needed the things mentioned in each statement. On one side of the paper it said BEFORE and under it asked if the statement stated was true or false. The other side was the AFTER where it also asked if the statement was true or false. This paper was formed like this because first she wanted to see what the students thought about these statements before even teaching them about what articles consists of. Since she knew most of the children were shy to say their answers she made them close their eyes and raise their hands when she asked if one of the statements were true or false. Therefore, she noted down how many were true and how many were false.

I thought it was a great idea so that when she does the after part of the " Anticipation Guide" she will be able to know if there is a difference in what they have learned and if she has to change something about her way of teaching so that they can better understand. I will not be able to see what her results will be tomorrow but I will ask her on my next field trip. I really hope that all of the students will improve.

A way that I relieve stress is by putting Beethoven or Mozart on, lay on my bed, let my imagination take me, and open my window for some fresh air. Turning off the lights also helps me relax. Another way that I relieve my stress is by decorating pictures. I have no idea why I feel calm when I'm decorating something. I believe maybe it's because I let go of everything and let my ideas flow everywhere. Stress is something I always seem to have and even just imagining myself on my bed and listening to Mozart tend to make me feel better, it's surely difficult to concentrate but I get there some how. When I hug someone or someone hugs me I tend to feel at ease and loosen up. Including getting compliments on something that I did , that definitely makes me relax.