Samantha Smith's Page

I have several students in my kindergarten class that have me concerned. They are doing fine academically for the most part but they just can't seem to get used to the classroom environment. Several of them cry almost everyday because they want to go home or they didn't get their way. They have a lot of trouble following directions and many times just don't listen to what the teacher says. My cooperating teacher disciplines them, takes away their free time, and sends notes home to their parents.… Continue

I read one of the other posts that was talking about holidays and it reminded me of something that happened in my classroom. At my school the students were allowed to dress up for Halloween (we even had a parade). There is one student in my kindergarten classroom who is Jehovah's Witness and does not celebrate holidays. He was the only student in the classroom without a costume and he was confused and very upset. He did not understand why he could not have a costume. It broke my heart when he st… Continue

I just completely a technology inventory on my practicum school. I was very impressed by the amount of technology that was in the school. The school even has a plan to have an over-head projector, an 8ft projection screen, a wireless keyboard and mouse, a document camera, and a computer pod consisting of four computers in every classroom. This is a radical idea to me. I grew up in schools that were lucky to have just an over-head projector in a classroom. The teachers often had to share an over-… Continue

So I'm a first semester education student and I've started going to my practicum school. My placement is in kindergarten and I'm having trouble getting involved in the class. I want to help out as much as I can because I want to be useful and get used to having students but I also don't want to get the the teacher's way or be detrimental to the students' learning. Does anyone have any suggestions?