Week 5

What do you think is the most challenging role a teacher plays?  Why?

Today (October 23) was my first day in a fourth grade classroom. This class was working on math during the time I was there, specifically learning about estimating in story problems. The teacher, Ms. Hutchinson, had me sit in the back of the room and observe while she lectured the students. The desks in the classroom were arranged in groups of four, so the students could discuss their answers or explanations for their math problems. Also, they each had their own white board to write out their work for the math problems she would read aloud.
After their lecture was over, they were allowed to spread out in the classroom and do their worksheets. I walked around and helped a student if they raised their hand and looked over shoulders to make sure they were doing their work correctly. Many of them were having a difficult time figuring out how to do their story problems.
When I was observing Ms. Hutchinson's math lecture, she was continuously getting frustrated with the students for being rowdy, but I don't think they were being bad at all. She made them seem like they were behaving ten times worse than they actually were. There were about three students she scolded out of the group and those three were having the hardest time on their math assignment. If she had not been so hard on them, I think those kids would've done better on the assignment. I think the most challenging role a teacher has is learning to keep her patience and her emotions controlled without letting it interfere with her job.