EDE 4504 BLOG 2 & EDP 3273 REFLECTION 4

The routine that I chose for my second reflective blog was take the lead on the dismissal routine. This routine requires the teacher to have control of the classroom as she is trying to get the children ready to go home. My CT started the routine by getting the students attention. She said “Class! Class!” The students responded by saying “Yes! Yes!” She asked them to clean up their social center activities and then to go sit down at their table groups. Once the kids were all sitting quietly, she informed them that it is the end of the day and her friends that are following all the class rules are going to get to pack up their bags and get their planners signed first. She kept repeating that the students were to walk quietly to their back packs and pack up all their belongings. This impacted the students by giving them a time to gather all their belongings and calm down before they were sent their respective ways. After all the students had their planners signed, backpacks packed, and were all lined up, the teacher told the dance club members to go next door, sent the host program kids to the cafeteria, and walked the bus riders and walkers to their designated stations. My CT pointed out the individual students that usually have issues with this time of the day and what methods were the best to handle each of them. I knew this was going to be very insightful for when I was to perform this routine on my own.

For this routine, I started out by getting the students attention as they were playing in their social centers. I said to them, “Waterfall, waterfall…” and they responded “Shhhhhhhhhh!” I told them that it was time to clean up social centers because we were going to be going home soon. The students were already responding better to this routine than when I tried to line them up. I asked them to clean up their area and return to their tables. When all the students were sitting down, I reminded them of the dismissal routine, which was that every student was to be sitting quietly at their table. The table that was doing the best job would get called upon to pack up their belongings, return back to their seat and have me sign their planner. I would take each students planner, color in the face that corresponded with their behavior/attitude for that day and leave the parent a note if necessary. One student lashed out as I was signing his planner. He saw that I marked it with a sad face because he did not follow instructions for most of the day. He yelled at me and told me that it was my fault that he wasn’t going to be able to play outside with his friends. He walked over and kicked a stack of books sitting on the floor near the book case. I called his name to get his attention and then gave him a non-verbal cue to walk back over to me. I wrote an extra note saying how he reacted when I signed his planner and made him to sit in his chair until I had gone through every other student. Once I got through everyone and they were lined up, I dismissed them by group into their designated areas and walked the bus riders and walkers to their stations. I got my desired result relatively easily. I believe that the success of my routine came from the students finally starting to listen and view me as a teacher. The developmental level of the students impacted how I planned the routine by making sure that I continued the repeat the procedures and expectations throughout the whole routine. Through this assignment, I completed FEAPs 2b, 2c, and 2f during this routine. I was able to manage individual and class behaviors through this well-planned management system (2b). I stayed on top of students to make sure they were following the class rules in place. I conveyed high expectations to all students by repeating what I expected of them throughout the whole routine. I also kept a close eye on all the students to correct those who were not following directions (2c). Lastly, I maintained a climate of openness, inquiry, fairness and support by communicating with each student how their day went, telling them what face I am signing their planner and giving them time to talk with me and understand why they are getting that specific mark (2f).

When walking my student through this routine, I realized that there is a significant amount of social skills that are required to successfully complete this routine. The definition of social skills as defined by EdPysch Modules is “the ability to reason, think through situations, pick up cues, and make appropriate decisions with respect to interpersonal relationships” (Durwin & Reese-Webber, 2017, p.58). These students are still developing sociability and prosociality and it was very evident as they were performing this routine. The students are starting to develop their own personal levels of social participation with their peers but they have not yet grasped the needs and interests of others. Some of the students were having a hard time reaching their backpacks due to their height and the children that could help were oblivious to this issue. These students were more focused on what they were doing instead of trying to help a friend in need. This is a good example of these students lack of prosociality. At what age do these students start to realize the needs of others? Another thing that I realize was that the student’s emotional expressiveness and understanding are still being developed at this stage of their lives. These kindergartners still have a difficult time expressing their positive and negative feelings properly, along with being able to verbally acknowledge their peer’s emotions. During my instance where the student was not performing the routine properly, I noticed that he was unable to display his feelings properly to me and that is what resulted in the book kicking and yelling. His classmates were very dumbfounded as to why he was acting this way. You could tell that they could not understand and/or relate to how he was feeling at this present time. What activities are appropriate for kindergarten students to do that promote emotional expressiveness and understanding?

The most important things that I learned through engaging in this routine is that you have to continue to repeat what is expected of these students and talk to the students at the end of the day. It is important to make them aware of why they got that certain face marked in their planners. This helps explain any miscommunication about the students behavior. Everything leading up to the student that acted out went well. I believe that this interaction went south because I did not stay on top of him like the CT usually does. I let the other students distract me from giving the attention needed to this student. This routine met the developmental needs of my students by keeping them on task and giving them an end goal, which is completing all that is asked so they can go home. Next time, I will engage in this routine differently by making sure that I give each student the attention that they need and really explain why they received the mark that they did.

Durwin, C., & Reese-Weber, M. (2017). EdPsych (6th ed., pp. 58). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications, Inc.

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