In the Mindset of a Teacher

Even though May marks the ninth month for me as a teacher I often forget that I really am a teacher. I think this is mainly because I mostly think of myself as a YAGM volunteer and not as a teacher. But even if I am not completely used to the title of teacher I certainly am getting into the teacher mindset. I say this because the highlight of last week and this week has been that Adam got 100% on his weekly spelling tests. Adam is one of my favorite boys who is in the 6 year old class and who comes to my afternoon tutoring class.

The 6 year old children take weekly English, Malay and Chinese spelling tests. It is not part of my teaching responsibilities to teach them their spelling and until recently I didn't pay too much attention to it. However a few weeks ago I happened to look at Adam's spelling book (the notebook that he does all of his spelling tests in) I flipped back and look at the previous seven spelling tests. He had not got a single word right. This did not make me too happy. I didn't know how it was possible. I asked his teacher if she talked to his parents. She said no she didn't but that the parents had to sign each page to show that they had seen it. Sure enough, there was a signature on each page. I stormed down to Principal's office to show her. I just couldn't believe that Adam was doing so poorly. Yes, she knew. She said Adam just doesn't do that well in school. Ha... well if there isn't a comment like that to spark my "I'll prove you wrong" attitude.

I got the list of weekly spelling words for the rest of the semester from his teacher and I started working with Adam regularly on the spelling words. It definitely was not easy at first. I would say the words and then sound out every letter. It took lots of practice that was tiring for both of us. After a week of working on the words Adam took his spelling test... they have their English spelling test on Tuesday. Adam got one word right. I was very pleased with this. It was progress. I thought... okay I'll work to aim for one more word right every week. Again we worked hard and he took the next spelling test... only one word right. This time I was a bit disappointed, but I made sure to still give Adam positive feedback. I thought we were working about has hard as we could so I didn't do too much to change our studying. Again we worked hard studying the spelling words. This time there were seven words instead of the normal six. Now Adam was starting to get much more comfortable with it. When I would quiz him he would finish writing a word and then say another word and right it. I felt like he was definitely improving. On Tuesday mid morning I went to check his spelling test.... 100%!! I was ecstatic and so was Adam. He went from seven weeks of getting no words right, to two weeks of one word right to getting all of the words right! After school he came to my office.... he was ready for his new spelling words. Wow... and I was prepared to take a break that day since he had just taken his test. Yesterday he took his English spelling test.... another 100%. I couldn't be more proud. This is certainly what it feels like to be a teacher and it is very nice to see such improvements far more quickly that I anticipated. Adam is so pleased with himself that he is doing well and since I have started working with him I have seen his confidence rise quite a bit. I have even been in contact with his mom and she has thanked me for working extra with him. She works very long hours and doesn't have much time to work with him. What makes me just as happy as the 100% is the fact that Adam enjoys spelling now. Every day he asks to practice spelling. Now principal wants me to start working on his Malay spelling because apparently he needs to improve in that as well. I am going to try to squeeze it in but the next two weeks they have eight and then nine spelling words so we still have to continue to work hard on the English spelling. Next weeks spelling words are definitely the hardest yet... bank, sink, trunk, pink, drink, king, ring and sing. However we started working on them yesterday and as of today (Wednesday) I think he knows most of them already. So I am hoping for another 100%.

I have also been working a little on spelling in my afternoon tutoring class and I have a spelling progress chart for the children. When they get 100% on their English spelling test they get to put up a star next to their name. All of the children have improved since I stared this a few weeks ago.

I also continue to feel more in the teacher mindset as I progressively grow harder on myself. I really want the children to learn. I am often thinking of new ways to motivate the children to learn. At this point I have my style of teaching as set as I am going to considering that I'm leaving in three months. But of course, for the children to learn they have to be motivated to learn.

The hardest thing about my mindset now is that I continue to see how much improvement I can have when I work more individually with the children... Adam being an excellent example. Many of the students who aren't at the top of the class simply need more time and attention and when they get that they begin to excel faster. However... there are 150 students at the kindergarten and there are only so many hours in the day. I remind myself that although I can't make as much progress as I would if I worked with them each individually they are all still improving quite a bit. In the mornings before schools starts I assess all of the 6 year olds individually in their reading. This is part of my job and I really enjoy it because I do get to work one on one with the children. This is also rewarding because I can see that they really are learning and often more than I may realize.

I think it is pretty important teaching children at this age since it is the building blocks for everything else. I feel pretty lucky that I get to mold these children's brains... and especially these children who are all so amazing.