Journal Entry #1 March 1, 2018

The first time that I had walked into Mrs. Callaway’s class the student’s seemed to
already be working on an assignment. Remembering what we had talked about in class about not
walking in and being distracting, I decided to walk in and stand there until Mrs. Callaway direct
me. I had noticed that there were four students in this class, three male and one female. There
was also a PARA in this class, who introduced himself to me as Mr. Russell. One of the male
students, noticing I had just walked in, started to talk to me. Mr. Russell seemed to be
encouraging him, so I felt that it was not much of a problem. Just as the bell rang, Mrs. Callaway
walked in. She started the class by introducing me and explaining what we were going to be
doing that class, which was science.
As soon as she told everyone to start working, she directed me to work with a different
male student. He seemed to me to be much more energetic, but as I started to work with him he
had calmed down a lot. The science topic we were working on out of the book had to do with
land formations and the water cycle. For each new section, I had him read to me. I could tell that
some words were a struggle to him. Most of the problem words were the bigger and less
common words. Any time he would ask he what the word was, I would give him the correct
pronunciation, then he would be able to correctly repeat it. However, the next time the word
would show up, he would still not be able to pronounce it correctly.
During most of the time I was working with him, he seemed to get off track fairly often.
In just about every new section he read, he would start telling me about his own personal
experience with that paragraph. Since this was my first time, I felt that getting to know about this
student outside was important. Due to this, I would acknowledge what he would say and maybe
give a quick response. However, I still tried to bring us back to the book quickly, which worked
every time that I did this. He was pretty focused with the assignment and we were able to get
through every part we needed too for the class time.
For my first time being in class, I felt that it went well overall. The class welcomed me
and I got along with my student very well. I did feel that there were times I could have been
more vocal. I definitely got a sense that my introvertedness showed most of the time.
Journal Entry #2 March 6, 2018
For my second type in the classroom, I was told that I would be working with the same
male student that I did during the last class period. For this class, we started to work on math.
When I was talking to Mrs. Callaway after class, she told me that they usually work on
assignments that would be homework if they do not get it done in class. I did realize that with the
four students in class, two are much more reserve than the other two. The female student and the
male student that works with Mr. Russell are a lot quieter than the other two male students.
Once we started, this assignment was over division. As we started working, I had noticed
that there seemed to be a lot of dirt underneath his fingernails. I didn’t know if this was because
they had just gotten back from being outside for recess, but I did not know at the time if they
even had recess already that day. Once we started working on the math, he repeatedly told me
about how he didn’t like to do math. I would acknowledge this and then he would start to talk
about something off topic and I would have to quickly bring him back to the assignment.
For my second time being here, I noticed that my student was getting more off topic than
before. During the last class period, on we got done with the assignment we still had about 15
minutes left for him to read his book. This time, however, there was only about 5 minutes left.
This makes me think that I need to stop letting him talk about other subjects and keep him more
on task. Also, I feel as if his antecedent behavior of getting off track seems to be after we finish
each question. Why we work on one question, he is very focused and on track, but once he
finishes that question, that’s when he started to get off topic. I need to better next time at quickly
moving onto the next question.
Journal Entry #3 March 8, 2018
For the third time I came in, the same four students were back. The one female student did,
however, come in late but Mr. Russell nor Mrs. Callaway seemed to have a problem with that.
Based on the previous two times I have been here, she seems to be the student who is the
calmest. The one student who sits with Mr. Russell doesn’t really talk much, but when he does
he is always passionate about whatever it is. The other two male students defiantly feed off each
other and hype each other up.
This time, I was once again working with the same student I had been the previous two
times. We were working on division once again and I got the same reluctance to doing math that
he gave the last class period. I did notice that, once again, his fingernails that were dirty last time
were still just as dirty. Based on the demographics of the city of Pittsburg, I did think that this
could be due to not having access to showering. I still didn’t know if they had recess already, but
I do feel that this can impact his learning and may contribute to him being distracted to learning.
By the end of the class, we had gotten done with the worksheet. However, I still had the
same problem that I did the last time. We were finishing up the worksheet just as the bell rang. I
felt as if he really just wanted to tell me about his family trips and other personal info, maybe
because none of his other teacher do or because I am still a new person that he wants to get to
know. We still were able to get done with the necessary homework needed, but didn’t leave any
time left for doing what he enjoyed the most, reading.
Journal Entry #4 March 27, 2018
This was the first day in which the class had a student change. Also, for the first time we did a
class activity that made all the students get up and walk around the room. The new student in the
class seemed to already know all the other students already as she was by no means shy. She
definitely talked to every other student and the teachers but was rather reserved to me at first.
The class activity we did revolved around multiplication and division. The student had to
go find 24 numbered cards on them that each had a multiplication or division problem. These
were all problems going from 1 times 1 all the way up to 12 times 12. All of the students had no
problems getting all of the problems correct, the difference was how long it took each of them to
find the answer. All five students I noticed had to count on their fingers for every problem that
was higher than 6 times 6. While they were doing the problems, the student that I had been
working with each time said to me that he had forgot my name. Given that it had been two weeks
since I had been in the classroom with him, this was understandable.
There was one student who I noticed was taking much longer than the rest of the
students. He was having to add up every number every time he did a problem. After watching
him do 8 times 8, he had the problem 8 times 7. When I told him that he can just take 8x8 and
subtract 7, he told me that he didn’t know what 8x8 was. This baffled me and I had no response
to this because I didn’t know if he was being serious or was just trying to take a long time so he
wouldn’t have to do as much work. Once Mrs. Callaway came over to help, once he gave her the
same answer as me, she pointed right on the page of when he had gotten the first problem done.
Looking back, this is definitely something I need to improve on.
During each visit, I had been trying the strategy of not trying to give away the answers on
worksheets so quickly. Whenever the student was struggling, I was trying to help them get to the
correct answer instead of just rushing them through the problem. However, after this visit it
made me realize that that isn’t always the best strategy. When Mrs. Callaway was more hands on
I noticed that this was much more effective in helping the student finish his work.
Journal Entry #5 March 29, 2018
During this class we were once again working on multiplication. These questions though
were much bigger problems, such as 535x3. I did notice that the original female student was no
longer in class. I didn’t know of this was because if she just wasn’t in school that day or if she no
longer need special needs services. Since today was a half day due to Easter, they had already
had class started.
When I walked in, I started to help the new female student with her problems. She was
very energetic and hardworking, however, I noticed she did have trouble staying focused. As I
helped her work through her multiplication problem, she got the answer right on the back of the
sheet then wrote it on the front. I did the same with the second question that she missed. Then
once she went to give her paper to Mrs. Callaway, both the questions were wrong. So then Mrs.
Callaway looked on the back to see what she did wrong, and the only problem was transferring
the answer from the back to the front. The answer was 286, yet she had written down 282 on the
answer part. Mrs. Callaway then corrected the answer and then me and the student worked on the
next question: writing a word problem that related to Easter. She didn’t have any issues getting
the problem started, yet she did need guidance on some of the details such as what it was that she
was trying to ask. The student quickly got that she wanted to have 12 kids looking for eggs, but I
had to help her with putting together a problem. I was then able to walk her through finding that
each kid was looking for 8 eggs in her word problem and then the math for her came rather
quickly.
This visit made me understand that I need to pay more attention to details. Whenever one
of the students had got the correct answer, I didn’t even think that she would have an issue with
writing the same number on the front of the page. I had been looking over a same detail because
to me it was something obvious that I never had a problem with doing, so why would she.
Therefore, I must make sure I do better at observing my student from start to completion of the
question.
Journal Entry #6 April 3, 2018
For this class that I came to, the female student who was not there last Thursday was back
today. Yet one of the male students was not in class today, so it was once again only four
students in class. The opening question for them was if they think that students should be
required to learn cursive. Three of the students all said no because they believed it was too hard
or that it was irrelevant. The one student who did say that we need to learn cursive was because it
would let people be able to right their name fancy.
This class we were once again working on math, this time with percentages. I went back
again to working with the same male student that I have been working with most of the time.
During this class he was much less focused than in the past, even having Mrs. Callaway not
knowing why he was so hyper. Most of the questions that were on the page he had to get
refocused too. Most of the questions he seemed to know the answer to, yet he kept writing down
the wrong answers. Once I would say are you sure that’s right? he would quickly change it too
the correct answer. I didn’t know if this was because of a brain chemistry issue or if he thought
he was being funny by writing the answer down wrong.
Once he was finished with his math, we walked down to the library so he could check out
a new book. In the section that was for his reading level, he was going through nearly every book
saying that he had read it already. A few times he would pull out a book saying he read it, and
when I asked what it was about he would tell me that he didn’t remember. This is not surprising
since reading all those books could make him forgot some of the details, but it did seem that he
had problems with remembering all of the book and knowing what they were about. A few times
he would get out another book and say it looks interesting, but most of them he said were about
his reading level. Then, we went back to the classroom and he started reading the new book that
he checked out. Most of the words he had no issues, but about one out of every 5 words he didn’t
know.
Journal Entry #7 April 5, 2018
During this class period all but one of the students were in class today. Mr. Russell had
mentioned that he had not been in school all day, so I’m guessing that this student was sick.
Once I walked in, Mrs. Callaway had me work with the male student that I am normally with.
He, and the rest of the students, had a science test coming up so I was helping him work on his
study guide.
As things got started, I could tell my student didn’t have much interest in doing the
homework. Just about every question I had to refocus him because he would bring up some other
subject. Though he did have most of the questions answered already, the questions he still had
remaining he had no idea what they were. For each question we had to go to the index of the
book to find the answers. One of the questions asked about what type of rocks, I didn’t even
know the answer. Now I know I haven’t been in a 6​th​ grade science class in nine years, but I
didn’t know if this says more about me or that the material they are learning is higher than their
grade level.
While most of the time the entire class is working, there can be a few times were the
entire class starts talking about something off subject. Normally this only last a few minutes so I
don’t feel that it is a problem, but during this class it seemed that every five minutes this would
happen. When it was a quiet period I did look up to notice the Mr. Russell and Mrs. Callaway
were much more hands off with their students than I was. They would still be there to refocus
and help when needed, but they allowed their students to seem to work much more
independently. Granted, they aren’t required to work one-on-one with a student for a grade, but I
was a little surprised by this. However, it did seem like those students had no problems working
by themselves, where as my student didn’t seem to have that much focus compared to his
classmates.
Journal Entry #8 April 10, 2018
Once again today, all but two of the students were here today. The female student must
have been gone all day because no one was talking about her being somewhere else in the
building. The male student was with Mr. Russell because he had to finish up taking a test. To
start today’s class Mrs. Callaway had each student write down one thing that no one knows about
them. While the female got her answer done before the bell rang, the two male students kept
talking to each other and not doing the question. I can definitely can tell that they are friends
because the always are talking when I walk in. Once they finally got everything written and
everyone shared their answers, Mrs. Callaway asked them about their science test.
All three students said that they felt they did good on the test. For today's class, they were
reading. Mrs. Callaway told me that they are required to read a certain number of books and then
get quizzed on them to see if they can move up to the next reading level. The student I have been
working with was only two books away from moving up to the next level while the other male
student still had nine books to go. This didn’t surprise me much in working with my student
because he always seems to love reading when I come to class.
As we started to read together, I could easily tell that today he had no interest in doing any work
today. Every time that we turned the page he started to talk about something else, tell me he
didn’t want to read anymore, or talk to the teacher. However, every time that I would try to
refocus him, he would reluctantly start reading again. He still seemed to struggle with certain
words, but I could tell that it was more of him reading to fast. He would be going so fast that he
would mistake one or two letters for a different one, and every time he did he would compensate
by saying a word that he knew thinking it was that one. There were also twice where I had to
explain the content of the book, in terms of storyline. This was the first time I had noticed him
having, or at least asking, about the content of a book. It makes me think that he reads so fast to
get through the book that he has a hard time understanding the details of a story. This seems like
the same type of behavior that happens when I helped him with math. He would understand the
overall lesson, such as percentages. However, when it came to doing the breakdown questions
that are supposed to help with understanding the material better, he struggled and had no interest
in doing them.
Journal Entry #9 April 12, 2018
This time that I went in I observed a few things that I was not expecting once I walked in. First, I
could tell that the two male students were much more hyper then they normally were. Mr.
Russell also informed the class that the student who I work with had gotten in trouble in a
previous class for talking back to a teacher. Once he got done explaining who the teacher was,
one of the female students had a choice word about that teacher. It was at this point that Mrs.
Callaway got onto the entire class for having bad behavior. The one female student didn’t really
seem to care that she was in trouble, while both of the male students acted as if they had seen this
before and knew from experience what being in trouble was like. I thought that what Mrs.
Callaway did was really productive because afterwards the student I work with went up to
apologize and give her a hug. The only thing that I would not in my classroom was whenever she
was giving praise to the one female student who wasn’t causing problems and asked her, in front
of the class, if she had taken her medicine for the day.
Once class got started, I worked with the student I normally do because he was one book
away from moving up to the next level in his reading comprehension test. As we were reading, I
could tell that his reading had gotten much better because there were very few words that he was
struggling to read like he had in previous classes. At one point he got to a word and just stopped
reading. I did what I usually do and told him the word, but this time he had told me that he knew
that word but that he had just lost focused. This seems to me that his struggles may not be purely
academic but rather just a short attention span. During my hours here, I have found that he really
does enjoy reading, telling me that he had read over 50 books this school year. In fact, this was
the first time that we had actually gotten through an entire book during the class period. I think
this was more due to him wanting to achieve his goal comprehension level because there were
still times when we got of subject and had to be refocused to the book. After he had finished the
book, we went to the computer to take the quiz. I had to read each question to him, and he got all
five questions correctly. With the number of books, he had finished and gotten quizzed over, I
noticed that he clearly had a high comprehension level.
After class was over, I went to Mrs. Callaway to ask her about the male student who had
not been in class for a few weeks. I had thought that he had been phased out, but I was very, very
wrong. She had told me that his dad had committed suicide and the entire family moved back to
where there could be closer to family.
Journal Entry #10 April 17, 2018
For this day, I was lucky enough to get to class early this time before the bell rang. This was one
of the first times I got to see all my students walk into class. Not surprisingly, they acted in the
same way that they usually do in class. As they came in, none of them seemed interested in doing
the question that the teacher had written on the board. The only student who did come in and
work on the question is the same girl that didn’t get in trouble during the last class. Once they
started writing in their books for the question, the male student who I don’t work with was
writing in highlighter. Once Mrs. Callaway noticed this, she asked him why he did this even
though she had asked him many times not too. Mr. Russell even got onto him about doing this.
After they got mad, he then looked to me smiling, I’m guessing because he wanted someone to
find it funny. However, after he realized that I wasn’t amused by this, he quickly shut down and
got back to work.
Right before class got started, Mrs. Callaway called both the male students over to her desk. She
pulled out a bag of M&M’s and gave them some because they finished all of their homework.
Once this happened, the two students seemed to get extra hyper and I think that she quickly was
regretting her decision.
Once the work time got started, I went to help the student who I usually work with. For this class
we were working on vocabulary. I had noticed once again that his fingers had had an
accumulation of dirt piled up again, something that had not been there for a few weeks. This
makes me think that it may not be due to home life but rather just him being outside. Anyways, I
was surprised by the words that were being given to a 6​th​ grader because I didn’t even know what
one of them meant. For this assignment, he had to write down the word and definition, draw a
picture of what it meant, and then write a picture based on the picture. He had already gotten all
of the definitions written, so I was just helping him with the pictures and sentences. After about
five minutes, Mr. Russell had gotten on all four students that they were being too loud. I tried to
keep my student focus because he would get loud only whenever we had been working for a long
time. However, whenever the two male students and the one female student got off task and were
talking to each other, Mrs. Callaway, who was helping a student from a previous class on the
other side of the room, had to come over and get on all the students about not listening to Mr.
Russell whenever he told them to be quiet. I noticed that for the rest of class none of the student
ever got too loud again.
As I was helping my student, I realized one area that I need to improve on. That is finding the
right balance between allow the student to be creative and having the student be structured. For
me I enjoyed whenever my student would write certain words extra-large to emphasis a point
(such as when the word or mortal and he took up half the page to write death because he wanted
to tell me how much he knew that everyone dies). I didn’t seem to have a problem with this, but
Mr. Russell would check to make sure that they were writing everything correctly. I felt that I
need to do a better job at allowing students to show their creativity but in ways that doesn’t affect
grammar or the work being organized.