Student Reflection
Today was
a little more rowdy than usual at the International Prep Academy. I do not know
if it was because I came after lunch and right before recess or if it was
because it was close to the weekend. When I arrived in the classroom all the
children were not following their teachers’ instructions and she struggled to
get all the children to sit in their correct spots. Finally, the children
listened after she raised her voice and told them she was not proud of their
actions. However, five minutes later two of the students began misbehaving
again. The teacher encouraged all the other students to stay focused and to not
pay attention to the disruptive behavior.
This is
when the teacher had me step in and take on of the students to her desk and ask
her why she was acting this way. Sadly, I did not receive the response I
wanted. The student became disrespectful and the teacher had to instruct her to
sit and think about her actions. After the teacher finished her lesson the
students were allowed 5 minutes of free time for a brain break. The student who
was pulled aside was allowed to have a brain break too as long as she behaved
and treated other students nicely.
During
brain break the teacher typically puts on an educational song and all the
children sing and dance along. Today she put on the song, but as I said before
everyone was a little more energetic than usual. The students kept coming up to
me and showing me their TikTok dances they had just learned at home and kept
asking me if I knew how to “renegade”. I encouraged them to follow along to the
song, but it was free time, so they were allowed to do activities they wanted
to do. After the five minutes were up, I had just been taught five different
TikTok dances.
I believe
brain breaks are very useful and great for students at their age (7 & 8)
because they have so much energy and need to release some of this energy in
order to stay focused during class. However, sometimes brain breaks have the
opposite result and instead of releasing the energy they just built up more and
are not ready to learn again. This was the case that day and there must have
been some words exchanged between the two students I had mentioned who were
misbehaving earlier. I say this because once the teacher left the room and the
students were working on an activity a fight broke out between these two
students. I was alarmed and so were some of the other students. As fast as I
could, I got between the two girls and pulled them apart. I had never been in a
situation like this before, so I did what I thought was best. I instructed the
two students to sit on opposite sides of the room from each other.
Once the
teacher got back into the classroom the students did it again and someone from
administration was called down to the room. Both girls were taken out of the
classroom and I was left in awe of what had just happened. The teacher
apologized and explained how she has never seen them act like that before.
After this day volunteering, I realized there can be good days and bad days.
Individually there could have been something going on at home for one of the
students or I may have missed an interaction during brain break. It is
important to know how to deal with unexpected situation and to help as best as
possible. I think if a situation similar to this would happen again, I would
know how to handle it. Overall, I am happy no one was badly hurt and that I was
able to help.
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