This semester’s sessions have been different in comparison to the previous semesters’. Mostly I account this difference to taking part in session and coming into the class twice a week rather than once, I have found myself more comfortable with reading, circle time, and teaching the children. I noticed that they recognize me more easily and that I am able to remember their names better, which makes leading Circle time a lot easier. I remember suffering through Circle time when I couldn’t remember the names of the students and I would not be able to effectively get them to follow the rules. Simply calling them “friends” wasn’t enough to get their attention and make them behave. However, knowing the names of the students and also becoming more familiar to them has given me more authority in class and the students listen to me much more now. I feel like I am able to facilitate their learning much more proficiently and I can also guide them through activities better and help them understand more.

            With name tags I still feel like there is a disparity in comprehension, especially because I add new tags with things such as “hamburger” and “excited” and not all students are as eager to spell these things as others. I have one student who can read very well and he will actually take these extra tags with words and create sentences, he will take his name and add a word after and then tell me a story. Here’s an example, he’ll put down his name, “friend” then the word “afraid,” followed by “bees” and tell me that he is afraid of bees and how this came to be. The other students tend to stare at him with dazed expressions because they don’t understand how this story came to be with simple word tags. But with my explanations and the student’s continuous story-making with the tags, I think the other students will soon begin to follow his steps, especially once they are able to read more easily. I am most shocked when some students don’t say the right letter because they have been working on it so often, I sometimes think they they say the wrong thing just to see if I’m listening and occasionally that is the case. Therefore I am working on having a better way to divide my attention between all the children so everyone feels like they are included and learning. It brings me joy when I notice improvement, but I have to remember to not only focus on the students that are doing best, but focus on the students that need the most help so that they can catch up with the others.  The reason why I chose to reflect upon the name and word tags before the reading session is because that is where I have noticed the most significant changes and I am excited to implement some personal changes in how I conduct this activity to see even better results in the coming months.

-Ekaterina Vasilenko