In the second week of EDJH 385, we discussed how we as educators can create a trauma-sensitive classroom and how we can best address and tend to any trauma or emotional issues our students face. One thing I will absolutely implement in my classroom and keep an eye out for is when students sleep in class as one of the examples I was given was in my SS 350 class speaking with Mr. Fossald, a very experienced and well-respected middle school teacher here in Indiana, is that one of his students would sleep in class every day and Fossald would attempt to wake the student to get them to pay attention. One day Fossald spoke with the student and learned that this student worked a full-time job outside of school to provide for his siblings as his parents had recently passed away. Mr. Fossald then explained how he apologized to the student for waking them in class and instead allowed the student to sleep in class but made arrangements to allow the student to get their class work done when it was most convenient for them. I really appreciated this example as it shows how we as educators can see a student every day and have no idea of what troubles they could be facing at home and how we should do what we can to show empathy and compassion for our students and attempt to understand how we can accommodate their needs as much as possible.
This week I completed my lesson covering the Kingdoms of Ancient Egypt with Mrs. Fox's 5th and 6th period Social Studies Class. On the first day when I first introduced the topic to the 5th-period class, I was very nervous and had a hard time keeping my mind on track so I ended up making a few mistakes. My first major mistake was talking far faster than I should have which made it a little difficult for students to keep up. My second major mistake was when I finished the lecture portion of my lesson I had an activity prepared for the class to get them a little more excited for the rest of the week by having them build pyramids out of plastic cups. This activity was just a test for me to see if having a fun activity can help build up a relationship with the students or interest in the topic and it had mixed results I would say. Yes, the students did get very excited about the lesson but I did not give directions that were very clear and left the explanation vague which led to a bit...
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