Observant

It has been nice to see the workings of a school through every angle, from the principal, to the counselors, and down to the teachers and janitors, to see how a school functions. Sometimes I feel like I don't know how much the faculty actually gets together to talk. It seems like these conversations and meetings are a lot more frequent than what I had envisioned was a reality.

All the guest speakers helped me to see what issues I might be dealing with this coming year. It was especially nice to have the counselor for my school there, which gave me a feel for what I need to be on the look-out for with my students. Although I was not surprised, I thought it was particularly interesting how often "girl drama" seemed to come up in every grade level. I think girls tend to have a pretty high self-awareness at an early age, and knowing how to "fit-in" can be especially crushing. The words or isolation, that total rejection, has always seemed far more psychologically damaging and more long-term than a punch in the face.

As far as bullying, the hardest part for me is looking back on what damage may already have been done that I never stopped in my life. It is so prevalent, and I feel like I often dismiss it as harmless, especially at the elementary level when it hasn't really reached the point of "bullying." However, it can still lead to very serious issues later. Similar to Prof. Bennett, bullying has struck a chord (a special phrase for all you music majors) with me. On that video we watched in class, the little boy with ADHD is a lot like my little sister. Unlike him, though, she freezes up and won't talk about her feelings with her family, even when we pry. She has a condition where she has no remorse herself, and I have a feeling she retaliates, even when we talk about how excluding others is wrong. She hasn't ever grasped the concept of "turning the other cheek." One statistic I read during my research for this class said that a child's moral conscience is virtually established by the age of nine. My sister is nine. I almost feel like I might be too late to do anything about it. This class got me thinking about being a parent someday, and I know all this information will help me to be an observant parent, as well as a good teacher. My cooperating teacher once told me that teaching becomes so much easier once you become a parent. I hope that I can learn to be more observant in every way, now that I am hyper-aware of these issues.