Mejores Prácticas

I had a bit of a strange, awkward and uncomfortable week this week, but I feel like things are going to be much better here on out.  My goals for this past week were to continue working with my teachers to gain their confidence in me and to make sure we are on the same page and to plan my unit for the book I’m teaching in ESL. I made good headway on the my unit plan for Red Scarf Girl and my cooperating teacher for ESL seemed really excited about the activities I had planned. As for my other goal, I seemed to gain a lot of respect from my ESL cooperating teacher, but not from my Spanish cooperating teacher. I feel like it was ironic that the teacher I was having trouble with at first ended up being the teacher who was the most excited about me being in her class and had gained the most confidence in me, while my cooperating teacher in Spanish seemed to feel differently.

My goals for the upcoming week are to collaborate with my cooperating teacher to get a sense of the rest of the semester and to work on promoting critical thinking and performance skills in my lessons. Sometimes I find it hard to incorporate critical thinking when I am teaching a lot of Spanish grammar, but my goal is to find ways to do so this week. I also want find ways to have my students practice their performance skills in order to feel more comfortable with the language.

A word to best describe the events of this past week is awkward. I had to have some uncomfortable conversations this week, which made it feel weird. I am confident, however, that the rest of the year is going to go well.

In my ESL classroom, I was able to teach a lesson about the book we’re reading: Red Scarf Girl. For part of the lesson, I gave my students the option of responding to one of two quotes from the book, which held a lot of importance.  This activity required my students to use their critical thinking skills. They had to tell me what the quote meant to them and why it was a significant part of the book. I received a lot of different answers, which showed my that my students were thinking hard about what they were reading. I was really happy with how they did with it.

I have also been working on trying to ask my students more questions. For example, when they ask me a question, instead of just giving them the answer, I try to ask them questions that will lead them to answer the question themselves. I like this technique, because it makes them think about what they already know and they realize that they know more than they thought they did.

Even though I don’t have to write full lesson plans anymore, I think it’s still important to make sure I at least write a sequence of events and goals/objectives for my lessons. I find it important to still write goals/objectives from my lessons, because it reminds me what I want my students to know in the end and keeps me focused on what I’m teaching. It also urges me to think about the relevancy of all the activities I have planned.

When planning my lessons, I also have to think about ways I will have to modify my instruction for different groups of students. For example, my eighth period class is usually quite a handful. There are a lot of students in this class that are really close friends and like to talk a lot. Sometimes this means that I have to modify my lesson so that they can participate in a way that they can handle and stay under control. But, I also want them to learn the same information. One day, for example, I had my students play a vocabulary game to review for their quiz. For this game, students were in groups on the floor. Instead of playing the same game with their class, however, I had them play a different game with a partner in their seats. They were still able to learn the same thing, but in a more controlled environment that was better for their learning.

I have one student that uses a microphone because she has a hearing disability, but this does not seem to interfere with the class at all. She doesn’t need any modifications other than me to wear the microphone when I teach. If she ever has a problem, however, she knows she can come talk to me and I can go over it for her if she needs.

One way I am able to meet the diverse learning needs of all of my different students is to offer several different activities with provide a variety of ways for students to show me their true potential as a student. Offering different options for projects and different assessments is a good way to give students a chance to use their strengths as well. I have done this a few times at my placement, but I think it’s something that I could continue to work on, even if it is a little more work. It’s just better for the students.

This past week I did not teach a lot due to the unusual circumstances, but I did teach a lesson which the students seemed to have fun with. I was teaching students how to do commands in Spanish. In order to practice, I gave each set of partners a different location (so that they could use a wide variety of vocabulary words) in which they had to write down five affirmative commands and five negative commands that would be appropriate to the location. So, for example, if they had “la clase de español” (Spanish class) they might write “Escucha a la maestra” (listen to the teacher), “Haz la tarea siempre” (always do your homework), etc for the affirmative side and then “No uses un telefono cellular” (Don’t use your cell phone), “No masques chicle” (Don’t chew gum), etc for the negative side. Students really seemed to like working on this project. In order to make sure my instruction was clear, I gave students an example of what I wanted them to do.

Sometimes when I am explaining an activity or assignment, I can tell that I am not being clear based on the reactions I am seeing from my students. For example, students will usually have a look of confusion or questioning if they don’t understand exactly what I want from them. Some students can be hard to read, but others can hide it at all. If I notice any students with these looks I try to give them example or go over the instructions a different way. Then, I ask students if they have any questions. This allows them to ask any specific questions about something that I may have forgotten to explain or needed to explain more thoroughly.

For example, the other week when I was teaching students about direct object pronouns, I gave them an assignment that I could tell they were having trouble understanding how to do. When I noticed their frustration, I had them stop so that we could do a couple examples together. It turned out that the task was more doable than they thought, but they just needed an example to compare it to.

Although there isn’t always a lot of time allotted in the general curriculum to teach students various cultural aspects, we decided to take the time to teach students about day of the dead, which occurs on November 1 and 2. It was important to learn about day of the dead, because many people think it’s the same as Halloween is here, but, in actuality, it’s very different. In order to prepare, we started students on an art project that is typically done in Mexico to celebrate day of the dead. They are making what is called a reverse glass painting. Instead of actually paining it on glass, we had students draw out a skull on a piece of overhead transparency. Then, on Monday, students are going to use different colors to paint the skull. When they are finished, we will put a piece of black paper behind it so that the colors will pop out. They look really good when they are finished and it gives students a chance to take part in a cultural experience. While they are working on their projects, we are going to share facts with them about the day of the dead. This is also a good activity, because it allows students that enjoy art to excel in their creativity and get involved in what they are learning.

(Here is an example of a reverse glass painting of a skull, just like we're doing in class.)

The anticipatory set is another part of the lesson that can get students involved in what they’re learning, because it sets the tone for the lesson each day. I find it hard to administer a good anticipatory set sometimes that hooks and holds the attention of my students, because often my cooperating teacher wants me to start with reviewing the homework from the night before. After we review the homework, however, I usually try to create an anticipatory set that gets students excited about what we’re going to learn.  Anticipatory sets are important, because it not only gets students excited about what we’re going you learn, but it gets their minds set to think about the topic and has them wondering and wanting to learn right off the bat. 

Colaboración

Although I don’t feel completely comfortable at my new placement yet, I think this week went much better than the last. I’m starting to get to know my surroundings, my cooperating teachers, and my students, which has helped a lot. I know that this placement is going to be a challenge for me, but I think it will be a challenge that will really push me to grow as a teacher.

Last week, my goals were to gain some respect from the cooperating teacher that didn’t seem to have a lot of faith in student teachers and to develop ways students can work on their speaking (in Spanish) in the classroom. It seems like I did gain some respect from my cooperating teacher, which was great. On Monday, we sat down and talked about things we were having trouble with and it seemed to help a lot! It seemed as if we were on different pages beforehand and it just needed to be understood what we needed from each other. Things have been going a lot better with her and I believe she has gained a lot of confidence in me after seeing me teach this past week. I’m excited about the improvement we have made in our relationship. I have also given my students a few opportunities to speak this week, but I’d like to keep developing this throughout the semester.

My goals for this coming week is to continue working with my teachers to gain their confidence in me and to make sure we’re all on the same page and to plan my unit for the book I’m teaching in my ESL class.

The word I chose to describe this week is actually a Spanish word: “mejorando”. It means “getting better”. In my eyes, I feel like this is the only way to describe how this week went. Last week, I felt terrible and overwhelmed about my placement. This week, I’m don’t feel all the way adjusted, but I do feel like it’s getting better and better each day. It may not by my ideal placement, but I know I can get a lot from it and become a better teacher because of it.

This past week I learned a lot about collaboration. I have two cooperating teachers at this placement and I am finding that it can sometimes be hard to try to collaborate with both of them. I especially had a hard time last week, my first week, when I wasn’t exactly sure where I was supposed to go and when. This is when I learned just how big of a role communication plays in collaboration. If there isn’t clear communication, it is impossible to collaborate. After straightening things out between my and one of my cooperating teachers this week, I feel like I have been able to collaborate with both of them much better.

I have also come to realize what a big part schools take on within the larger community context as well, especially being as big a school as ETHS. This was definitely apparent as we had teacher’s conferences, which make up a large number of the people who live in the community. There were many students that were very interested in everything we do at school and wanted the best for their child there.

While I was at my old placement, Lincoln Hall was trying to decide on whether they will renovate the whole school or tear it down and build a new one. The larger community played a big role in this as Lincoln Hall had to get permission from various people in the town to do either one. This is because it truly does effect the community around the school.

So far, I have been able to work with my cooperating teachers to develop different activities and teaching strategies to create an effective learning climate. We have been trying to work together to make the most of our time. In my ESL class especially, my cooperating teacher and I try to incorporate their cultures, personal experiences, and personalities into the course as well. This makes helps students feel comfortable and accepted in the classroom, which is what we want. We hope to make it a place where they will feel safe and valued.

At conferences, my cooperating teacher and I were also able to discuss students’ lives outside of the school with some of their parents. We learned a lot that we didn’t know previously, which can account for some of the behaviors of various students, whether they are good behaviors or not. For example, we learned that one of our students is dealing with depression and sometimes gets really angry because of it. Although we have not seen this to be much of a problem in the classroom for far, it is good to know so that we don’t set him off for any reason if he seems to be overly depressed or unmotivated. We also just received an email from the mother of one of our students explaining that she was absent quite a bit because of depression and anxiety problems. She mentioned that one of her biggest phobias is rain, which made us understand why she keeps missing so much school. She really struggles with the phobias, to the point of having been hospitalized a few times because of them. It was important for us to know this so that we can understand her struggles and help her out in any way we can.

Because I’m only in my second week at my new placement, I have been doing a lot of co-teaching and co-planning. This has been working well, because not only have the students been able to get used to having me do more teaching, but I can also get used to the way my cooperating teachers teach their classes. I also sit down with my teachers to plan for the next week before I create all of my lesson plans.  This semester, I also have a class of native speakers, in which they are learning a lot about Hispanic myths and legends. Unfortunately, I have never read these myths or legends and, therefore, I don’t know how well I would be able to teach them alone. I have also been warned that the native speakers like to challenge their Spanish teachers, especially if they’re not Hispanic (like me). This makes me feel really uncomfortable, so we have decided that it might be best for my cooperating teacher and I to just work on co-teaching for this class.

During this past week, I started feeling a little more comfortable at my placement, which made it a little easier to initiate collaboration with my cooperating teachers than it was last week when I was new and terrified. I think a lot of my problems with my one cooperating teacher stemmed from lack of communication and, therefore, collaboration in the two days I was at the school for class last week. Things are starting to get better, though, which makes me happy.

I was really happy to see my supervisor this week, because he was a familiar face in a big, somewhat uncomfortable place. It felt comforting to talk to him and tell him how things were going so far, even though it wasn’t easy. He made me have a more positive look on the whole situation and reassured me that I wasn’t the only one to have had trouble adjusting. I was really glad he could come. J

Escribiendo, Escuchando, Leyendo, y Hablando

This week was certainly a change, to say the least. It has been really hard for me to adjust to the high school level, especially during the middle of their semester. I’m sure it will get better as time goes on, but this past week was a little overwhelming for me. But, to start off, let’s review my goals from last week. They were to have a first good week at my new placement and to learn how to prepare for and present an upper level Spanish class. I suppose I can say I probably didn’t really meet either goal. I can’t say that I had a good first week at my new placement. It felt uncomfortable as I am in such a big high school and am nervous about connecting as well with my students. One of my cooperating teachers is really nice, which helps. I am a little nervous about having to coordinate with two cooperating teachers as well. I learned some about how to conduct and present an upper level Spanish class, but it was kind of a short week due to conferences on Thursday and Friday and a test on the first day (Tuesday) I was there. I feel like I need at least one more day to observe, but my teacher kind of wants me to start right away on Tuesday. I feel like this last half of the semester is going to be very stressful for me.

My goals for next week are to gain some respect from one of my cooperating teachers, as she doesn’t seem to have much faith in student teachers and to developing ways students can work on speaking in the classroom as the structure of the course doesn’t allow them many opportunities to do so.

As I alluded to before, a proper word for this past week might be overwhelming. I just didn’t feel good about it and really don’t look forward to going back. I do, however, realize that this challenge will probably make me a better teacher. It was a little reassuring to hear my teacher talk to me about how much she has learned over teaching the classes for the last 11 years. It’s just hard for me to deal with, because I feel like I won’t be able to teach at the same level as she does in the Spanish classes.

One of my strengths in English grammar is that I am able to give students examples of how it works to help them understand how it is used in Spanish. Sometimes, I have to teach a grammatical form in English before I can teach it in Spanish or else they might not know it even exists. For example, when I teach Direct Object Pronouns, as I discusses last week, I had to show them what they are and how we use them in English first before they could understand how to use them or what they are in Spanish. I don’t know if this applies to me directly, but many native English speakers often have trouble with pronunciation, spelling and capitalization in Spanish due to their inherent desire to make it like English. We need to remember, however that it is a foreign language, not English. (This is kind of a hard question to answer because I teach a different language. J)

Using diverse instructional strategies and assessment is extremely important because each student has different strengths and weaknesses. By incorporating several different strategies and offering different assessments, each student should be able to use their strength at some point or another. By doing the same thing all the time, you are doing some students a disservice, as you might not be able to see their true potential. Each student learns in different ways and has different gifts. It’s only fair to let them have the chance to show you were they excel.

I feel as if I usually explain myself well with oral instructions. But, sometimes what I think will be a good enough explanation, it turns out that I need more. When I was at my first placement, I taught the same class five times. During the first class, I was able to recognize when I didn’t explain something well based on student’s reactions or once they started working and it was different from what I had wanted. When this would happen, I would stop and explain myself more clearly, because I was then able to see what I was saying that didn’t make sense or wasn’t clear enough for them. Then, I would change my strategy of explaining for the later classes in order to avoid this confusion.

As a teacher, it’s important to listen to your students well, for several reasons; to help them with their work, to make them feel comfortable and accepted, and to realize when a student is struggling and needs help. One day, I was helping a student and realized that he was very confused with the material that we were learning. So, I sat down and explained things to him again, and in different ways. I wouldn’t have realized he was struggling as much if I hadn’t taken the time to listen to him.

There was one day, when I had a student try to ask a question, but was able to articulate exactly what she was asking. After she stated her question, I tried to answer her based on what I thought she might be asking, but I could tell it wasn’t the answer she was looking for. Instead of changing the way she asked the question, she tried to ask the same thing over and over, which had my cooperating teacher and I both trying to figure out what she might be asking. She finally gave up and we moved on to answer a different students question. He posed it very clearly and I answered it with no problem. Then, the first students piped in and said that that’s what she was trying to ask. I believe she had trouble asking the question, because she didn’t know the material as well. She didn’t know how to ask the question she was wondering about, which also made it hard for my cooperating teacher or I to answer.

I have had several students whom have missed school for different cultural holidays as well. Both Id for Muslims and Rash Hashanah for Jewish people occurred while I was at Lincoln Hall. It was sometimes hard to have everyone caught up after these holidays, but the students did pretty well making up what they missed. Many planned ahead of time as well.

I think it’s very important for teacher to be good models in effective reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills, because it will hopefully rub off on students. It will also benefit students because the teacher will then be able to help them easily. This isn’t only important during some activities, but in everything.

I’m a little concerned about having my observation this coming week, because I have only been at my new placement for a week, in which was only had two days of school due to conferences and Columbus day. I don’t feel comfortable enough to start teaching really, because I have only seen my teacher teach once (the other day the students were taking as test). But, I want to practice once before my supervisor gets there. It just feels uncomfortable and I don’t know exactly what I’m doing yet.

In Schmidt, we read about writing, which provided several great ideas. I didn’t have my students at my last placement write too much besides what they would do for their projects and homework. Their first project they had to write a poem about themselves and the second project, they had to write a script that had at least 16 lines. In order to prepare them for this, I explained the rubric to them and them gave them an example.

But, as Schmidt suggests, there is much more that I could’ve done, and can do in the future, to help them. For example, we could have done some warm up activities, which Schmidt highly recommends, because she explained that one the scariest things for a student, or even adult, can be a blank page, which you know must be filled. She gives several warm up activities students can use. I really liked to of her strategies, including from lips to their pens and sequence. From lips to their pens get students thinking in the right way and allows them to realize how to paint a picture with words. Sequence is a great warm up activity, because it forces students to think about when they should say what and where it makes sense.

I really liked what Schmidt said near the beginning of the chapter, “that if students are to make knowledge their own, they must wrestle with facts, struggle with details, and rework raw information into language that reaches their audience”. I really believe this is true. It’s good for students to work hard on and struggle with writing in order to make it perfect.

She also mentions that writing is like a sport. I understood this as writing needing to be practiced. You can’t just automatically be good at writing. It’s something you can always get better at with practice.

I think journaling is a great idea which allows students a lot of practice with writing. When I’m a teacher, I plan on having my students journal. It’s not only great practice, but they can look back on their work and see how much they have improved.

Recuerdos Entre Dulces y Amargos

This past week, I finished up my placement at Lincoln Hall. I can’t believe how quickly it went by. I had a great time there and am really going to miss it. It was a bittersweet week as I felt so blessed to have such a great placement and so sad to have to leave. The students were really sweet, though. They made me feel really special by proclaiming to me how much they were going to miss me as well.

One of goals for last week were to maintain communication with Lincoln Hall after I’m finished, which I will have to do in the remainder of the semester/year. My other goal was to have a great final week at Lincoln Hall and to make sure I leave as a good role model to all of my students. I had a great last week at Lincoln Hall and know that I’m going to miss being there a lot. I believe that I left as a positive role model in my students’ lives as well.

My goals for this upcoming week are to have a good first week at my new placement and to learn how to prepare for and present an upper level Spanish class, since this will be new for me (something I can work at all semester).

The word I chose to describe this past week at my placement is bittersweet. I had such a great placement and we all felt so comfortable together that it made it really sad to have to leave so quickly.

One thing that I think is really cool about teaching Spanish is the ability to incorporate so many different content areas and relate what we’re learning to students’ lives. For example, this past week, I taught students about Direct Object Pronouns (DOPs). In order to do so, I had to relate what they knew about DOPs in English/teach them DOPs in English. I was also able to relate it to their lives, because it’s something we use in language without even realizing it; it just come naturally to us. I gave them several practical examples in which they might be able to use them in everyday situations. Because Spanish is a foreign language, we are able to cover all the different content areas and life situations/career language throughout the course of learning.

In learning a language, there are times when we misinterpret pronunciation, grammatical rules, and cultural tendencies. One way I try to correct students’ misconceptions is to try to show them where they might have gone wrong and then explain how they can correct their thought. This week, I encountered an example that goes along with this perfectly. While teaching students Direct Object Pronouns, I noticed that several students were getting mixed about knowing when to use “nos” (we) vs. the nosotros form of the verb. While checking their homework one day, I stopped and asked how many students were using “nos” instead of “lo, la, los, or las.” Several students raised their hands, so I decided to write the sentence on the board and show them where their misinterpretation took place and how they could fix it. I made sure to remind them that underlining the verb and then circling the DO can help them determine which DOP they need to use. Then, they should make sure the DOP they have chosen stays the same in their final sentence. By explaining to students where their thinking may have gone wrong, they are able to correct their misinterpretation and fix their false ideas. It was exciting to see many students light bulbs go on while explaining to them.

This week, I taught several lessons about Direct Object Pronouns, incorporating several different ways to explain them and let them practice. During one day’s lesson, I started out presenting their homework in a different way than usual. Instead of just putting the answers on the overhead for students to correct and make changes on their own, I made sure they understood how to find their answer by breaking down the questions for them. It seemed to help them a lot more than if I had just put the answers up. I was also able to correct their incorrect ideas as we went on by answering questions that students had on specific questions. I was able to explain where students were going wrong (as I mentioned earlier) and how they could fix it. After this, I handed each student a piece of paper with a picture on one side and question on the other side. I started them off by asking a question. Then, the student with the picture of the Direct Object I was asking about would respond by changing the verb form and using the Direct Object Pronoun. After they answered, they would ask the question on the back of their sheet. The game would continue on throughout the classroom so that each student had a turn to ask and answer a question. (For example, I asked, “¿Quién lleva una chaqueta?" (Who wears the jacket?) and whoever had the picture of the jacket would answer by saying “La llevo.” (I wear it.) Then, they would read the question on the back of their sheet which might say something like “¿Quién prefiere la primavera?” (Who prefers spring?) and so on.) This activity helped a lot of students understand how to use DOPs when answering a question, which was great!

Although we only had time for two different activities (and a quiz) this day in class, we practiced several different ways to use DOPs, which met the needs of different learning styles and abilities. It was helpful for them to do these different exercises not only because it helped a range of students who learn in different ways, but also because students were able to see that what they were learning applied to their everyday life. In English, we use DOPs without even thinking about it. My goal is for students to eventually become more comfortable with using DOPs that they won’t think about it in Spanish either.

This past week, I didn’t have to use any adaptive devices to provide access to students with disabilities. I usually have to wear a microphone around my neck for one of my students with slight hearing loss, but this week it was being fixed. I reassured her that I would talk pretty loud and to let me know if she was ever having trouble hearing me. We got through the week just fine, though, which is great.

Throughout the review of last years’ materials, I have had to teach my students many grammatical rules in Spanish. In order to do so, I often relate it directly to what they know about grammar in English, which helps them transfer their ideas. I also reviewed the numbers in Spanish and did some simple math problems for them to practice. There are also units that students often cover in Spanish in which they learn about the body parts in Spanish, different occupations, household items, and much more. There are so many different subject areas and life experiences that Spanish can relate to, which is great. It helps students realize how we can use Spanish in our every day lives and how they can transfer what they know about one content area to Spanish and vise versa. These lessons can be taught in several different ways, including the ways I have already chosen to teach them in.

By incorporating other content areas and life experiences to what students are learning, I am able to practice making Spanish even more relevant to their lives, which, in turn, would hopefully make students more interested in learning.

Comunicación 2

This week was an exciting week at my student teaching placement. I can’t believe that I only have a week left at Lincoln Hall! I’m going to miss it a lot. To start off my reflection, however, I want to discuss my goals from last week. My first goal was to come up with a good project with my cooperating teacher for the students to work on this past week. We ended up coming up with two projects they could choose from. We each made a rubric for one of the projects too. We worked very well together.

My second goal was to set up an interview with the superintendent of district 74. I emailed him this past week and am now working it out with his assistant. Tomorrow morning I will send her a copy of my resume and cover letter for him to start looking at.

My goals for the upcoming week are to maintain constant communication with Lincoln Hall even after I’m finished with my placement there. My second goal is to have a great final week at Lincoln Hall and to make sure I leave as a good role model to all of my students.

The word that I choose to describe this week is practice, because practice makes perfect. My students worked on their projects this week and did a great job when performing them. When they first got their projects, some students saw it as overwhelming, but we tried to reassure them that we’d gone over the information before and now it was their turn to get a little more practice with the material. We also finished the review this week and started some brand new material. They had a lot of questions about it, but by the end of the lesson, most students understood what was going on.

I have also learned how important effective communication is in the classroom. Not only between my cooperating teacher and I, but also with other teachers in the building, our students, and parents of the students. At Lincoln Hall, we meet with the eighth grade team three times a week to discuss various things and make sure everyone is on the same page and to bring up any issues concerning students. We also need to make sure we are clear when communicating with our students so they understand what we expect from them and what is going on during class. This week, my cooperating teacher spent a lot of time call the parents of students who seem to be struggling in her classroom, because she wants them to know that they are struggling before the end of the school year comes and they can’t do anything about it.

The way you communicate ideas can also be different depending on the audience and the purpose. For example, I would address a parent differently when talking about their child’s grades than the way I might bring up in the group meeting that I’m concerned about the student and how he’s doing in my class.

Because each student has different strengths, it is important to offer a variety of activities. This semester, we have come up several different ways for students to express themselves, including written, verbal, non-verbal, and visual communication. They have done various written exercises with their homework and group projects. They were also able to express themselves verbally and non-verbally with their “pregunta projects.” Students that prefer a more artistic side were able to express themselves in their “yo soy” poems. By offering so many different activities, we allow students to show us what their different strengths are. Offering choices with projects is also a good idea, because students can choose the one they think fits their strengths the best.

During students projects this week, students were able to practice effective listening. While they were being presented, students have to listen carefully, because at the end, my cooperating teacher and I would ask them what the conflict was in the skit or who the celebrity was that we were supposed to guess. (Students had to create a project in Spanish were they practiced asking different types of questions. They could either come up with a conflict and interrogate between two people or they could choose a celebrity and ask and answer questions that would lead us to who the celebrity is.)

We didn’t spend a lot of time doing any conflict resolution this week, but they were able to work on their group-facilitation skills this week as they each had one or two partners. For the most part, students seemed to work very well together and are developing good collaboration skills.

I was able to challenge students in a supportive manner as I walked around the room while they were working on their projects. If they had a question, I was there to answer it for them. Also, I checked many students work and helped them correct their mistakes in their script. I was also able to give them constructive feedback while grading students’ projects.