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I finished my last day at Go Project. I got a lot of goodbye cards from my students. During breakfast duty, I saw this student who didn't usually want to shake my hand when I greeted him. Surprisingly, he saw me and gave me a big hug. He said to me: "Don't leave, Mr. Li." Then, I realized it's my last day at the Go Project.

I was stunned at the moment and didn't know what to say. I remember this students from the first day I met him. He was a bit shy in the beginning. He had a special passion for trash can that I had a difficult time to stop him from putting his head into the trash can. He didn't like group work. He would prefer to roll around the floor rather than join the whole class lesson. He loved to tease the girls in the class. I found myself frustrating with him because he barely listened to me at all.

One time, I had an opportunity to read with him individually. He was so calm and focused. We took terms to read aloud each page and asked each other some questions. He showed his passion toward reading and wanted to read more with me every time during the guided reading section. Today, I worked with him for his argumentative writing. In the end, I said to him: "It's my last day here. I don't know if I'm ever gonna see you again. I just want you to know that it has been my pleasure to work with you. I see many good qualities on you. I hope that you keep trying until you achieve your goal." Upon hearing this, I saw tears rolling in his eyes. I would never think that I could make him cry. He held on his tear and went back to his seat silently. I've never seen him being so quiet before.

In the end, I feel bad for this students. There is only so much I can do for him. I know that he is a good kid who may just want a bit more attentions from others. He is really smart but can be easily distracted. I hope he can succeed academically.

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Monday is the most difficult day to start with. The head teacher came in late due to the delay of her flight. So I and Rosa had to organize morning meeting as well as Harambee. The morning meeting was alright overall. I made the morning meeting slide with Rosa and we came up some really fun activities. As a whole class, we played a game called Would You Rather. Basically, everyone in the room would get a would you rather question and ask his/her partner what they would pick. Most of the students were pretty engaged.

After the morning meeting, however, a few students started to act out. I tried to work with one student who constantly had to leave the room to get water. He won't join the reading or math group. Then, I asked him what's wrong. He answered that he did not like to wake up so early and that he didn't want to be here. After talking to this student, I realized that many students' parents sent their kids to Go Project because they don't want their kids to stay home. Unfortunately, many students also knew about that their parents are trying to sent them away from home. Having this mentality in mind, some students couldn't calm themselves. This situation can be related to the Commitment to Teaching and Professionalism section of the observation rubric. Teacher should always stay positive throughout the lesson. To reflect on students behaviors, I feel that teachers should give students opportunities to share their emotions during the morning meeting. Students need to let go of the emotions that they bring in with them from home environment. While they are sharing, teachers and classmates can provide supports and solutions to help particular student. As a result, students can be better prepared for the daily lessons.

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I taught my first lesson at Go Project today. Based on the feedback I got from rehearsal, I improved my lesson. For the comparing fraction worksheet, I added more visual to help students learn about how to use number lines and models to represent fraction. In the end, I decided to ask students to share what they learned from the lesson.

Overall, the lesson could have been better. I wanted to use this lesson to bridge the gap between the students who are more advance and the students who are struggling. In my slides, I incorporated many visual to enhance students' comprehension of basic fraction knowledge. I also demonstrated how I would use number lines and models to compare fractions on a chart paper. In the process, students built on their knowledge of fractions step by step. Despite these strengths, my lesson had many flaws. Many students were disengaged in the second half of the lesson. The more advance students did not pay attention because I made my practice questions to easy for them. I could have differentiated my lesson to challenge the advance students' fraction skills. In terms of management and positive reinforcement, I could have given students more positive comments after they participate. I also need to work on my skills to get students' attention and deliver instructions more clearly.

One thing that I felt really proud of is that students who were struggling with fraction did their worksheet today. Even though they did not complete their worksheet, I saw that they were able to understand the concept of using number lines and models to represent fractions.

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I had some troubles with leading guided reading group. There are two students in my group. Both of the them are currently at the O reading level. During the guided reading time, I always took term with the students to read aloud part of the text. After reading a few paragraph, I usually stopped and asked students some comprehension questions. These questions were based on the crucial element of literature such as character traits, theme, plot, and main message. Both students were pretty engaged when they read aloud the text; however, they soon lost their interest when I started to ask them comprehension questions. They would fool around with each other and disregard my questions. The head teacher prepared some worksheet for students to complete. Students did not like the worksheet either. The worksheet had some visuals and charts that could help the students to improve their reading comprehension. Unfortunately, students did not put in any effort to finish the worksheet.

To reflect on my own teaching, I feel that I can improve students' guided reading experience by changing the assessment. Based on the requirements of subject specific section of the observation rubric, teacher should use a variety of way to engage learners. Therefore, I should try to make the assessment more fun for students. Instead of completing the worksheet, students can design their own literature project in which they could work in group to present the stories they read during guided reading. Another option is that the students could role play and reenact a few scene from the stories they read.

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Today's field trip to the American Museum of Natural History is much better than the field trip to the High Line. We visited different exhibitions in which students learned about animals, patterns, and senses. During the presentation about senses, the presenter talked about how people's senses can affect their daily life. Students stayed engaged throughout the whole presentation. When talking about the sense of smell, the presenter brought two small containers with totally different smells. She went around the room and let students smelled each container. Students were curious and interested to learn about how each container smells. Then, the presenter made connections between the sense of smell and people's ability to distinguish foods. During her explanation for the sense of sight, the presenter performed an activity in which students closed their eyes while she waved around a flashlight to see if students could follow the light. Furthermore, the presenter played a video showing how eagles use the sense of sight to catch their preys. Surprisingly, students were extremely focused and did not even want to leave in the end of the presentation.

The presenter incorporated a variety of elements to fulfill students' learning preferences, which helped students to stay engaged during her presentation. Therefore, this presentation achieves the requirements within the skill in teaching section of the observation rubric. It also provided an great example to help educators think about how they can engage the students during their lesson.

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Another new week at Go Project. Today, I went to a field trip to High Line with the class. It was ninety degree outside. Everyone was thirsty and sweaty. Students complained a lot throughout the whole trip. Some of them said that they want to go home because High Line is boring. Some of them kept saying that they have been to High Line a million times. There were not much to do either. We just walked and walked until we ran out of time. Although students had a High Line packet with them, they did not put in any effort to finish the packet. In addition, the packet is not well designed. It asks random question such as what do you expect to see in High Line?

Based on the packet, the learning objective for this field trip is to let students learn about High Line while having fun at the same time. Unfortunately, it is evident that the learning objective is not accomplished in the end. When I asked students about their experience of this trip, most of students just complained about the heat and how tired they were. There was barely any learning throughout the trip and students did not treat the packet seriously. Therefore, this field trip, as a informal lesson, does not meet the requirements for Skill in Planning section of the observation rubric. Due to the fact Go Project have designed everything before the field trip, the head teacher was not able to make any change to trip. Since each of the teacher in the classroom was assigned a few students, I would have organized a scavenger hunt activity in which students can go to different parts of High Line and find out more information about each part.

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Today, I made some progress with one student during the math independent work time. The student was solving three and four digit subtraction equations when I noticed that he made a few mistakes. He tried to finish solving the equation very quickly using mental math. He did not use other ways such as drawing a number line or algorithm to check his answers. I complemented his enthusiasm for math and told him there is no need to rush through the questions. Then, I went over some questions with him by asking him:"Can you show me how you got the answer?" With the prompt, he used algorithm to check his answer. He transferred his mental math to concrete algorithm in order to show me how he got his answers. During the process, he realized that he made a few mistakes and self-corrected his answers.

As a result, I feel that using open-ended questions to enhance students' thinking process is extremely helpful. This also relates to 4f of the subject specific section in the rubric. Teachers should use open-ended questions more frequently. When responding to open-ended questions, students actively applying skills they learn from the lesson to support their answers or opinions. Instead of correcting mistake  for students, students' ability to self-correct is far more crucial.

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Fraction has been the main focus for math in the class. Due to the lack of supplies, the head teacher was not able to give students pattern blocks to help them learn about fraction with hands-on activity. Today, the head teacher taught a lesson about comparing unit fractions. With a few examples, most of students understood that the denominator is the key to figure out which fraction is bigger or smaller. Most of students comprehended the notion for unit fraction that smaller denominator means bigger fraction. However, the head teacher didn't give students opportunities to practice before they proceeded to independent working time. When students worked on their own, they had trouble to compare fractions with different numerators. Fortunately, some students were able to figure out the answer by drawing a bar model. Other students struggled to complete the practice questions.

This situation reminds me of subject specific section (4b) in the observation rubric. Due to the time limit of the Go Project program, the head teacher did not have enough time to guide students through the working process. In order to get the desired result, the head teacher had to rush a little so that students would have more time to practice independently. The head teacher walked around the classroom to monitor students' work and prevent misconception as well. If same situation happens in another setting, I would have spend more time in mini-lesson and guided practice. I would completed some questions with students together. I would make sure that students know how to compare fractions not only limited to unit fractions. In addition, I would provided more visual aids, such as different pictures showing the parts and whole relationship.

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Today was a little rough. Many students stopped following directions. During the mini lesson time, two students refused to join the class to learn about writing and math. They were rolling around the floor while making noises to interrupt the the lesson. The head teacher was very upset because she had to stop her lesson multiple times just to discipline students' inappropriate behaviors. She tried different management skills. She raised her voice when speaking to the students. She took away the objects that distracted students' attention. She also used nonverbal gesture to remind students to follow directions. Unfortunately, those strategies did not work effectively. In fact, many students became extremely upset with the head teacher. Instead of following the directions, these students often did the opposite of what the head teacher asked them to do.

For me, I also found it difficult to communicate with students when trying to help them stay focused during the lesson. I tried to talk to the misbehaving students. Some of them just ignored me. Some of them listened to me and were able to do some work with me. I feel that I need to improve my management and communication skills in order to engage these students. For me, I would have extended the snack time a little longer than five minutes. Students need at least ten minutes to take a break and come back to their learning with a fresh mind. I would also conduct some stretching exercises with the students before the beginning of the next lesson.

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This is my second week at Go Project. I feel really excited to work with students and teachers from diverse background. Currently, I'm observing at a third grade class which has fifteen students and four teachers.

Today, I worked with some students during the guided and independent reading time. I noticed one student was a little frustrated and had a difficult time focusing on his reading. He was wondering around the classroom when other students were reading. So I talked to the students and asked him what he was doing. He respondeded that he did not like reading and that he was bored. I could understand his frustration since the students haven't had any break since nine o'clock in the morning. So I sat down with the student and tried to read a book with him. Initially, he was a bit upset because he did not get to walk around the classroom anymore. Then, he became calmer as I read the book to him. He listened to me carefully while following the text and pictures in the book. I stopped a couple of times asking him some questions about the book. I asked him to predict what will happen next. He answered with predictions based on the text details. I was surprised because he seemed to enjoy reading a lot. He even read aloud some pages to me.

Students have different learning needs and styles. For this student, he is an audio learner who prefers to learn from speaking and listening. He was not able to focus on his reading because he couldn't stand the silence. Once I read the book to him, however, he was fully engaged and was able to read aloud the book to me. I am extremely happy that I helped him to find his passion to read.