So far, this project has been almost exactly what I expected in terms of structure and day-to-day, but I’m learning more about myself and the way I work in classrooms than I thought I would. 

I’ve only been in the Pink Cluster at Stephen Gaynor School for four days, but it’s felt like a lot more. Each day follows a similar pattern, one that felt pretty recognizable to me from my own elementary school experience, with math, reading, and writing every day, as well as a number of rotating classes, like science, art, music, and PE. They have a few other classes and activities that are specific to special education, like occupational therapy throughout the day and a class dedicated to Social-Emotional Learning. Coming into the project, this was pretty much exactly what I was expecting their class to be like. It’s a smaller number of students than I was expecting, only eleven, but besides that, the routines that the class has and the layout of the day line up completely with what I had imagined. Here’s an example of their schedule:

In terms of my more personal experience, I think it’s been going really well, but not exactly in a way that I expected. I expected to be able to acclimate to the school’s routines and environment immediately, which has not completely happened. I’m not sure why that was my expectation, looking back on it, that was a pretty tall order for myself. Although I’ve really loved the other teachers I’m working with,  and the students are really great, it’s been harder than I expected to be in an environment that isn’t LREI. As the days have gone on, it’s gotten easier and easier, and right now, I feel like I’m in a pretty good place. As for my experience as a teacher in the classroom, this has solidified a lot of what I knew about my skills. I knew going in that I’m much better at interactions with individual students than I am with full groups, and I’m quick to make connections, and that has definitely continued to be true. I’m trying really hard to push myself in the bigger groups, which I will definitely continue to do at Stephen Gaynor and LREI. 

Going forward at Stephen Gaynor, I’m looking forward to integrating myself more into the environment and culture of the school. Even if I don’t find myself fully integrated by the end of my time there, I hope that I will feel much more comfortable in a school that isn’t LREI and doesn’t share the same community values. This last week has really shown me, for better or for worse, how narrow my experience has been. I really only know one type of school, so it’s great that Stephen Gaynor doesn’t completely fit into the LREI mold. Additionally, I think I’ve learned a lot about special education and the things teachers do to support students with learning differences from watching, but I’d like to do some research specifically about concrete things teachers can do. 

Once I move to LREI, I know that I’m really going to need to continue to push myself in all the things that I’m working on at Gaynor. Mostly it will be about being more vocal in large groups and not just relying on my individual relationships with students, because I know how easy it will be for me to fall into comfortable patterns when I’m in an environment I know well.