My Teacher Identity

This experience has been more than what I had expected it to be. At first I was worried if i was going to like it or if i was going to be good at tutoring. The first few times I visited my school, I just observed the classroom and helped the teacher if she needed it. It took a while for the walk to intervention to start because the reading coach was absent for the first couple of weeks. At first I felt like everything was really unorganized, but once the reading coach came back everything seemed to fall into place. She gave each of us our reading buddies. She said that the the groups usually werent this big, but she had no choice because there wasnt as many tutors as their usually is. I have a group of five students. Each time I tutor the kids I have to do a poem with them first, then an activity of my choice, and sight words. The first two times I tutored the kids, I didnt feel that confident. I felt that they seemed bored with the activities that I was doing with them. The second time I tutored was aweful, I think it may have been because it was the day before Halloween, but the kids were just completly out of control! During the first two weeks I was also having trouble with one of the little boys. I knew that he knew the answers, but for some reason he refused to participate. He constantly put his head in his shirt and wouldnt pay attention at all. I figured he wasnt trying becuase he was so bored with the activities because he already knew all the answers. I tried giving him more challenging questions, but he still didnt want anything to do with the lesson. The next time I tutored I decided to try and make the activities more interesting. Instead of just reading the poem to the kids, I read it and then had them do an activity with it. I brought each child markers and I had them circle all the words that rhymed. The kids were so excited about using markers. At first I wasnt sure if it was a good idea because they're only in kindergarden. I was worried they might just color rather than use the markers for the activity. I told them that if they used the markers the correct way then I would bring markers for them again next week. Then for the activity I brought in a paper snake and each child got one with a card. The card had some kind of object on it. The children had to find other cards that rhymed with their original card. The person with the most rhymes won. The kids really enjoyed this activity! They kept asking to play it again. It was nice knowing how much they enjoyed the activity. They all seemed to learn so much more by doing a hands on activity rather than me just telling them hat rhymes with cat etc. Then for the sight words I was taught to say the words and then show the the card and have the children repeat after me. I decided to try something new. Instead of doing that I passed out the cards evenly to each child. I told them to pretend to be the teacher and when it was their turn they got to tell the students the word and then have them repeat it. All the students loved this game. I feel that this experience has really shaped my teacher identity because Im starting to learn what works and what doesnt. Not only am I learning different methods on how to teach certain subjects, but I'm getting the general experience of interacting with children. I've realized that somedays are going to be better than others,but I've also leanred how to get my students to pay attention. I think the students have come a long way, and so have I. In the begining I felt like I had no idea what I was doing, but I fee a lot more confident now. Also, the little boy who never wanted to participate, is doing much better. This experience has made me realize how much I really enjoy doing this. Im not looking forward to the end of my tutoring experience. I plan on continuing to tutor till the end of Janruary if its possible!