This weeks reading I really enjoyed, I think it is very true that school socializes children. There were some things that I agreed with in this chapter, and there were things that I didn't agree with. Something that bothered me a little was when the chapter talked about creating "desirable students' this wording bothered me a little. I understand that as teachers we want to install respect, caring, and understanding into our students, we essentially want to prepare them for the world after school, but I think there could have been different wording instead of "desirable" (that's my little rant).
On page 167 it talks about "streaming children", this is essentially realizing what your students are good at and putting them into classes that are going to foster those skills. I think as early years teachers it is important that we don't characterize our students too early, they need a chance to find out what they truly like, even if they are great at something, if they don't love it then we shouldn't force it on them. I think there are benefits to helping students find something they are good at because it gives them something they can succeed at, we just have to be careful we don't push it onto our students.
Something else the textbook talked about was on page 180 when it was talking about how teachers are far more then teachers. In my practicum school I learned that the hard way. Coming in I never expected I would have to be like a mother to some children, but for some of my students my CT and I are the only ones who show them affection. There are many hats a teacher has to wear, we have our teacher hat of course, but then we also have our parenting hat, our strong emotional support hat, our disciplinary hat, and many others. It is a challenge to realize how much we affect our students, and vice versa. We as future teachers need to understand how much some of our students may lean on us for support when they need it, and we have to be willing to help them with that. I think it is very important that we create a loving and caring classroom so they feel safe coming up to us and talking if they need to.
Something else that really struck me was just how many different cliques there are in high schools. I was always the girl who bounced around groups, I never really fit in 100% in any group, I was able to go from the "nerds", to the "jocks", and sometimes to the "popular" groups. But I never realized how hard it could be for some students. I don't believe in Early Years we are going to see a great amount of this, but there is still peer rejection and victimization. As a teacher it is our job ensure that these negative aspects are kept to a minimum. We can do this by creating a good classroom community where all the children are included and valued.
Discussion Question: How would you deal with a child being rejected in your classroom? What steps would you take to ensure it didn't happen again?
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