Blog entry #2:

     During my second visit to Westmore Elementary I was assigned to a different teacher, her name is Mrs. Draper. Mrs. Draper is an short disciplinarian, not quite as patient as Mrs. Hone or Mrs. Topham. Her room is quite cluttered and not as organized as the other instructors' rooms. Regardless, I could tell right away that she too holds true to the tried and true method of keeping the kids who have trouble concentrating or doing their work, right at the front row of the classroom. However, unlike the other two instructors, Mrs. Draper does not use the amplified microphone. She seemed to be able to keep the kids in line with her stern voice just the same.
     There was something a bit different from this class vs the other 5th grade classes. This class seemed to have a few more slower learners and attention deficit type kids. And because of this I was able to be put to work much more than the other classes. She gave them much more free time to work on various school projects and instead of taken the time to focus and get to work, most of the slow learners used it as a time to take advantage of Mrs. Draper not being at the front of the class to socialize. Several times from the back of the room as Mrs. Draper was checking and working with individual students on writing assignments, she would have to sternly admonish the kids on the front row to get to work. 

     And so because of this difficulty in concentrating I focused my time and attention on those in the front row. My presence, even though I was not in my Army uniform, seemed to quiet them, or at least focus them more on their writing assignments. Most were engaged in finishing an outline that they would be using for their essays. Thus, I quickly refreshed my writing skills involving topic sentences, catching readers' attention and thesis statements. Many a time I would have to refresh the kids on what each of these were and how their body of essay work would relate to both the introduction and closing paragraph. They were quick learners to remember what I'm sure Mrs. Draper had taught them previously. But they had much difficulty grasping the concept of how the body of each paragraph had to refer back to the topic sentence. I would take time to ask them reflective questions to help them answer their own questions. Trying to find ways to have them understand why essays were formatted certain ways. 

     It was quite difficult to gain the attention of several of the kids who I could tell suffered from attention deficit. I would ask them questions about what they wanted to write about in an effort to get them focused on their introduction paragraph and thesis and thy would answer me, only to lose focus by the movements or voice of their neighbor, who inevitably was someone with similar learning deficiencies. In my opinion putting all the hard learners in one row up front did more harm than good. I would have suggested putting one of them with a brighter, more focused student so each of them were paired. I firmly believe that we rise to the expectations and standards of those around us. And who better to give us those motivating standards than our classmates?