My observed lessons are for the Intermediate ESL class, but I am also involved in the ESL Economics and the Living Environment class. The Living Environment has special education students along with some of my ESL students. Being able to work with students from different backgrounds, language proficiencies, learning levels helped me become more aware of their needs. I was reluctant to take on a role as an adult in the biology class because there were already three adults in the room. Taking on an authoritative role in a classroom is hard when you have students almost your age and other adults watching you. I am so appreciative of the teacher I work with because they treated me like a teacher and helped me ease into the classroom.
Pushing into a classroom can meet challenges because students do not want to feel different from anyone else. At this point in their lives, they want to fit in and not stand out. My role was to help my students without them feeling any less than others. I also made a conscious effort to not only make sure that my students were on task, but the other students as well. I think this helped levitate any frustration towards having my teacher and I push in.
With all these adults in the room, students might feel like they have no room to breathe. This was the first thought I had when I realized how many adults were in the room. One adult was a para-professional for a wheelchair bound student, one teacher was the biology teacher, another teacher was her assistant, and then there was my cooperating teacher an I. A total of five adults in the room of a class of about 14 students. That is quite the ratio of teachers to students. With that, I began to realize the need of the students for individualized attention and help. Although there were so many adults, each of us were able to accommodate students in order for the lesson to run efficiently.
Because the students are also preparing for their Science regents exams, they are constantly being reinforced and catered to. I think that the students were adjusted to the amount of help available because many of them did not hesitate to ask questions or follow our directions. For this particular classroom environment I think four to fit adults helped meet the needs of the students.