I have always enjoyed coaching people or teaching people new skills my entire life. Nothing makes me happier to see someone who has previously struggled at something, succeed with what I’ve showed them or taught them and I can see my teachings in their game or work. This was another reason why I wanted to do TC. I really enjoyed FE and getting to work with the kids and being able to notice them getting better at something or gaining confidence in an area after I worked with them. I also liked and thought it was fun to give some of the guys relationship advice when the asked for it. Pretty much what FE has assured in me is that I like being able to pass on my talents to others and be a mentor to them.

I am really excited for college in the fall. I love the feeling of independence and I look forward to testing out life on my own. Thinking about it just gives me goosebumps; the football games, tailgating, pledging, going to class occasionally(kidding), and getting to meet new people, some similar and some extremely different. TC class did not really affect my college major. I plan to pursue a major in the Business field and all incoming freshman are in Pre-Business and declare their actual major sophomore year. I hope to double major in whatever I pick between Economics, Business Administration, Marketing, and so on but I will have a better idea after sophomore year. I plan on returning to Columbia to get my master’s in International Business after getting my undergraduate degree at Clemson. I will truly have mixed blood but I will always be a Gamecock. After all of this I want to be a salesman of some sort, preferably a medical salesman and work for an international firm. I am confident that I will succeed.

The kids seemed to enjoy this by having someone read with enthusiasm and in varying tones and it seemed like they comprehended more of the book this way because they could be more focused. I remember we did this only once or twice when I was in Elementary School and I really liked it.

Something that I could apply to this week from TC class was how attached the kids get. When Mrs. Hunter told the class it was my last day there was sadness in the classroom and a bunch of the kids came up to give me hugs. That was kind of sweet and made me feel good that they cared about me being there.

School is almost over and I am very happy for that. I have just been hired at Miyos so hopefully I can make alot of good money there before I have to head off to college.

An observation I had this week came at an odd time. All of the kids in the class have “Silly Bands”, which are little elastic bands in various shapes. Some of the kids have around 40 wrapped around each arm which takes the form of a sleeve. These playful animals are often the cause of chaos in the classroom. If somebody drops one, someone else will snag it up and then gloat about it to other kids at which point the ‘lose-ee’ (he who lost), becomes upset and comes after the ‘snag-ee’ (he who snagged) at which point the class erupts. Kids are pointing fingers saying he dropped it or she found it in the middle of the hallway and Mrs. Hunter has to be the Silly Band Police and determine who gets what. It is often settled pretty quickly but I often find myself thinking “Really?” This demonstrates how some extremely petty things that I think are silly mean a lot to kids and I have to realize that they are a legitimate concern.

Applying something I learned in TC class this year comes with the Silly Band silliness. The teacher having to be a fair mediator is crucial in this situation. If not, there would be Bandlords who would hoard all of the precious Silly Bands and despair would be ever-present in the classroom. Mrs. Hunter seems to be pretty fair with everything and keeps the Silly Bands from being too much a distraction.

The weeks keep going by faster and faster. I have officially finalized on Clemson though and I have already changed what my previous major was. I am excited about it and I am just trying to survive these final weeks.

An observation that came this week was with the combining subjects (literature and history). Some of the kids seemed more interested in reading the book because although literature wasn’t their favorite subject, they really enjoyed history so reading about a specific time period they found interesting made them more willing and enthusiastic to read the book.

Something this week that could be tied back to TC class was on Tuesday morning. There was some kind of “emergency” meeting for chorus. There were only six kids left in the class total. Mrs. Hunter said that she had needed all the time they had that day because she had a lot to teach. It just reminded me though of how Mrs. J told us in class that sometimes unexpected things come up that completely throw off your plans. What Mrs. Hunter did was allow the kids to play some factoring game on the Smart Board which I thought was a good idea because the kids love the game and it is not a complete waste of time while everyone else is gone.

The weeks for me keep going by faster and faster. AP Exams are ever approaching which will mean my life for the week before and two weeks during is going to for lack of a better term, suck. Also I still have to decide on where I am going by May 1 and try to get a roommate lined up. I thought I had decided on Clemson but my trip to Furman really got my attention and now I’m not sure what I am going to do.

Something I observed this week that I liked came from the money system; the 5th grade’s token economy. Every month, a certain amount of money is due for ‘rent’ and if you can not pay this money you have to take everything out of your desk and turn it around so that you can not use the inside of it. You can begin using your desk again when you amass enough money to pay ‘rent’. I thought this was a cool idea because typically in these token economies, the only reason to get money is to get small prizes after a certain amount of time by redeeming your money. Therefore, if a student had no interest in getting a small prize, the threat of losing their money would mean nothing to them and they would misbehave all they wanted. Losing the usefulness of a desk though is pretty inconvenient and would cause a kid to want to behave well so they can gain it back as soon as possible.

An application for what we have learned in Teacher Cadet class is the FQR charts that the kids use. This is an example of Maslow’s hierarchy of learning. The first category, ‘facts’, is the first level of knowledge retention. As the kids make questions and responses to the topic at hand, they reach the higher levels of the hierarchy.

Something that made me feel good from this week was when a kid that I work with a lot said “Mr. Williams, I wish you were my older brother, because you’re awesome”. I liked knowing that I was putting a positive influence on this kid and that he was looking up to me. It is also good to know that me being there in the mornings is appreciated by at least some of the kids. Hopefully I can be an ‘older brother’ figure to kids in the class because I think that’s what younger teachers are to elementary aged kids. They aren’t quite father/mother authoritative or rule making, but they serve as an influence for the kids and someone who kids can relate to and want to share characteristics with.

I really enjoyed this week being able to stay at the school all day. I felt I got to actually know all of the kids because I got to see them all day instead of just the hour and a half I usually get to when everyone is still half asleep in the morning. I also feel that a lot of the kids, especially girls, who had been shy beforehand opened up and were a lot more friendly and talkative. I had forgotten though how crazy that elementary school cafeterias were. It was a lot of fun getting to play at recess with the kids. Everyone wanted Mr. Williams to play quarterback on their football team and that was a lot of fun because it reminded me of my days in elementary school and kind of made me want to go back. On the way back in from recess, it kind of became a game of get Mr. Williams’ gum and cell phone from his pocket which turned into half the 5th grade boys assaulting me which was kind of fun but I was very relieved to finally reenter the building. If I just would have been very cold and said stop or not played along, the probably would have stopped, but I played back and it was fun. I think that I was kind of an older brother/teacher figure to a lot of the boys especially and that’s why they wanted to play and talk with me so much. After Taylor gave me a hug at recess, one of the guys wanted advice on girls and all of the girls wanted me to ask Taylor out and all of the guys wanted to know if she was my girlfriend. When both Taylor and I said I already had a girl friend one the guys said I was two-timing which I thought was pretty funny. It brought back to me all the memories of 5th grade relationship drama. Once back in from recess the kids took a test for the remaining hour of school and it was good to be able to sit down and rest. The full day was partly very enjoyable because it was like a walk down memory lane, but it also allowed me to get to know the kids a lot better and to see what teaching for a whole day is really like.

Something I observed this week was how when one kid was sharing during the morning meeting, other kids around him would say things in a low voice to try and make him laugh or lose his train of thought. I remember doing this in elementary school and thinking I was sly and no one could hear me but it appears I was wrong. This situtation is kind of hard for the teacher to deal with because you have to find the medium between getting the kids to be quite and also not making the situation into not too big of an issue.

Something I noticed in class this week that applies to what we learned in class came during the morning meeting. I remember how we were taught that little kids just need a little stimulus and they can go off on all kinds of different tangents. This happens, or would happen a lot during the morning meeting except whenever it does Mrs. Hunter says something to change the subject. She is not cutting them off, but not letting their story or whatever it is take up a large amount of time.

This week their were not really any heart-touching stories. I did hear a couple of tall tales though about beat downs being put on kids a few years older and breaking of necks which I thought was pretty entertaining to listen to.

Something I’ve noticed this week is a couple of the guys in the class are really starting to want to talk to me because I am an older male influence on them instead of just the female teacher. I think that being a guy I bring a certain dimension to the classroom a female can not because the guys in the class will be more open with me because they can relate to me.

Something that applies to what we have learned in TC class this year was the multiple thinking levels. While going over a chapter just read in a book, Mrs. Hunter had the students not only write key facts in the book, but also had them predict what would happen later in the book and then defend that standpoint. This is an example of reaching a higher level of Bloom’s Taxonomy.

In the class, I can already tell I’ve made a difference. There is one kid who Mrs. Hunter says does not like to read, but he’s found one series of books he kind of likes. On Thursday we read a book from that series (which he went on to finish that night), and on Friday he had brought a different book from a completely different series and was excited to read it. His new excitement towards reading because of me being able to be there to read with him and talk with him about a book means a lot to me. This is another aspect that I feel I bring towards the class, being an open and friendly male, because if I was not talkative with him about his book he would probably not want to read and he also feels more comfortable around me because I am a guy. I look forward to working with him more along with other kids.

 “Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand.”

 “A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university education he may steal the whole railroad.”

 Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire.– W. B. Yeats

 “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.”  ~Attributed to both Andy McIntyre and Derek Bok

 “The great aim of education is not knowledge but action.” -Herbert Spencer (1820 – 1903)

“The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.”
– C. S. Lewis

“Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army.” -Edward Everett

“Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.” – Will Durant 

“There are two reasons why people learn; one because someone said you can’t and the other because someone said you can.” -Howard Wilson, Retired NZ Principal

“Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten”. -B.F. Skinner

“A professor is one who talks in someone else’s sleep.”- Anonymous

An observation this week was how Mrs. Hunter controls and awards the class. I believe the entire 5th grade uses it but they have a cash system. Good behavior and turning work in gets you money, and being disruptive or not doing your work loses you money. After a while the money can be exchanged for rewards. I think this is a good idea because it utilizes both positive and negative reinforcement. If good behavior is present, more reward is issued. But if kids behave badly then the reward is taken away.

This week I did not observe anything we learned in class this year. Since it was the first week I did not have much of an opportunity to interact with the students.

Tuesday was kind of funny because I think it was Doctor Seuss Day. Some of the kids dressed up in costumes including one kid who dyed his hair blue. I thought it was pretty funny. Something I saw though that was gross was as one kid was reading to the teacher he had visible green snot coming out of his nose that he kept sniffing back up. It was nasty.