The tasks a teacher does all day are directly correlated with their students. The classroom I am observing is a first grade class. The students in this class are reading level delayed. It was interesting to see the activities that these students were doing compared to a standard first grade class. The teacher clearly had to plan her activities to focus on the development of their reading skills no matter the subject she was teaching. She did the typical introduction to the day, calendar, days in school, season, weather etc. However as they went through these activities she was constantly pointing out things to read and how to decode them.
The teacher has gone to great lengths to be in tune with the needs of her particular students. Knowing and understanding the different learning modalities as well as the learning theories and the development of the brain have had and will continue to have an influence on how this teacher organizes her materials and manipulatives as well as how she interacts with her students. The teacher needs to be flexible when presenting new material so that she can meet the needs of her students at all levels. I think that teaching is a juggling act! While observing this teacher I assisted by cutting and assembling a number of manipulatives that the teacher would be using during math. She had clearly taken time at home to find them and print them.
Teachers are busy ALL day long. It is a good thing that teachers teach because they want to and not because the have to. It takes a lot of heart to really invest in these little developing minds. The teacher I am observing understands that incorporating all of the learning modalities will have the farthest reaching effect on her students. Teaching is one of the most challenging jobs there is but I believe it is also one of the most rewarding.
