Aug.

15, 2023
Today is my first official day of teaching since I started my internship. From today’s
internship, I learned that being a teacher requires more than just mastering teaching
skills, and that actual teaching is much more than imparting knowledge. One of the
most frequent things the homeroom teacher did today was to establish classroom
rules, as well as emphasize the order that students need to follow in everything they
do.
I also noticed some issues among the students that may present some challenges for
me in the future in my teaching, namely bullying, dyslexia, and drama. After I got into
a real classroom, I realized that being a teacher required me to deal with much more
than lecturing, and that I also need to deal with problems among the students and cater
to the needs of different students. At the same time, I saw the students’ desire for
knowledge and their need for me, so I will use this internship as an opportunity to
improve myself and to help the students.

Aug. 16, 2023

By today, the students have met the vast majority of their teachers, and the procedures
for the various events and class they need to follow has begun to fall into place.
However, for some students, there are still procedures that require constant
supervision and training such as lining up and following the teacher’s instructions.
Also, there are classroom rules that need to be refined, such as the location where
students place their shoes before entering the classroom.
One of the things that makes me happy is the willingness of students to ask me
questions as well ask for help. My current job is still based on observation, less
involved in teaching activities, only occasionally to assist the teacher to do some
things. But even so, as I walked around the classroom, keeping order among the
students, some of them would ask me questions, which made me feel happy that they
had a strong desire to learn.
I also learned that good teaching that is consistent over time is inextricably linked to
adequate preparation. My homeroom teacher has been working even when she’s not
teaching, setting up the classroom, arranging where the students put their shoes,
making their name tags, etc., and these preparations will make the teaching more
effective.

Aug. 17, 2023

One of the things to celebrate today was that most of the students, including the boys
who were very disobedient before, were getting on track and obeying the teacher’s
instructions, even though there were still times when they needed to be reminded
repeatedly by the teacher.
In terms of obedience to the teacher’s instructions, boys and girls behaved very
differently, and most of the time, the boys disobeyed the teacher’s orders. For
example, in the first class this morning, the teacher organized the students to go
outside the classroom for an activity. The two groups of boys often went where the
teacher didn’t allow them to go, and a couple of the boys sat across from the others
when the teacher sat them down to take photos. Then as they were returning to the
classroom, a few of the boys were walking particularly fast, leaving the other students
far behind. This is an area for improvement. For me, when I organize my students to
stand in line to go somewhere, I should first make sure that all the students are lined
up in an orderly manner before leaving.

Aug. 18, 2023

It’s been almost a week since the school started, and most of the student sin the class
are now showing their true colors. By and large, girls as a whole did a better job of
following instructions and cooperating with their teachers than boys did. For example,
in this morning, the teacher led the students to sing and accompanied by movements,
as usual. All the girls, whether they knew how to do the moves or not, there were
trying to follow along with the video, But on the contrary, only a few of the boys were
trying to learn the songs as well as the movements, and even a few of them had been
sitting there without participating in the others. In short, more effort needs to be
invested in the management of boys than is required for girls.
I think I need to put more effort into getting to know each student in my class, their
personalities, as well as their needs because I realized that on some level, teaching is a
individualized process, and that I can’t generalize to all students, and that their
personalities are different, and they require different teaching strategies to be used
with them. Therefore, in the coming week, I will focus more on observing the
learning characteristics of teach student and then try to use different teaching
strategies for them to some extent according to their different characteristics.

Aug. 21, 2023

In today’s art class, Teacher Marvin Marcelino opened my eyes to a whole new way
of teaching the class. Since last Monday was a holiday, today the students had their
first art class since the beginning of the school year. And the two grade-2 classes had
the art class together. When all the students arrived at the door of the art classroom,
the teacher had them stand in a line outside the door and then walked into the
classroom himself to observe who among the students were moving or talking. He
talked with me about the discipline of the students. Then I learned that it was his
custom to have the students stand outside the classroom and be quiet during his first
class of the semester. He then called the students into the classroom in numerical
order and arranged their seats. All the students did in the class was take their folders
and write their names on a piece of paper and put it in the folder. The teacher argues
that given the very good discipline in Chinese schools, students are only expected to
be strict so that they don’t do everything they want to do, which and lead to some
serious consequences. I partially agree with this teacher, but I think that while
pursuing students' obedience to orders, we as teachers also need to cultivate students'
creativity and flexibility, which is lacking in most Chinese students.

Aug. 22, 2023

One of the things to celebrate today is that this is the first time that I have organized
the students to walk from the cafeteria to their homeroom teachers after they had
eaten at noon. Before this, I had only observed my homeroom teacher or the assistant
in our class doing this, but when I organized the students myself and took them from
point A to point B, I realized that this was not easy to do. The students were playing in
the playground after lunch, and when the bell rang I waited for them in one place, but
I noticed that our class seemed to have been incomplete, and later I got known from
the students that some of them had already gone to their homeroom teacher. Then I
took off with the rest of the students. This is what I still need to learn: I always need
to know where my students are, either by communicating with the other teacher or by
asking the students.
Some behavior that seriously disturbed the class happened today. In the Thai class this
afternoon, some students took their socks off and threw them to each other, and the
teacher just called their names and asked them to come to him (the teacher was sitting
in front of the computer doing an activity with the students, and the students were
supposed to stand around him). In my opinion, in this way, it’s hard to manage the
students’ behavior, it’s better to divide the students into groups, and each time call one
group of students to go to the teacher and answer the questions.

Aug. 23, 2023

The good news is that I learned a lot about the problems that exist among the students
through my observations today, but the bad news is that they are all serious problems.
First of all, there is a rule at AIMS that students are not allowed to touch other
people’s heads, this kind of behavior is considered bullying, but it seems like the more
teachers remind them of it, the more they do it. One of the students even hit another
student over the head with a large dice made from a cardboard box. There are other
types of bullying in our class like making uncomfortable faces. And in today’s library
class, two students prevented another student from getting and reading books. While
all of these behaviors were bad, fortunately, we identified them shortly after the
school year began and can work to address them.
Once again today, I took my students from point A to point B. Compared to the last
time, I gathered my students more quickly. But I still have things to work on, like in
the last two days, some students had gone to the homeroom teacher, some distance
from the cafeteria, and I didn’t know so I couldn’t be sure if the class was complete or
not. I will need to go to the homeroom teacher before the bell to confirm how many
students are already there and how many students I need to take with me.

Aug. 24, 2023

One of the things to celebrate today was the discovery of different students’ mastery
of knowledge as I got more involved in assisting the instruction and monitoring their
MAP TEST.
As I assisted in proctoring the students’ test, I got to know more about the students in
our class, some of whom surprised me. It seemed to the homeroom teacher and to me
that some students should be considered good in their studies, but they didn’t pass the
test, and there were also some students who I previously thought would not do well in
class because they didn’t pay attention, but they passed the test. Through today’s test,
I gained a better understanding of the students.
Right now, there is a serious problem in our class that needs improvement. The
behavior of some boys not only prevents them from studying seriously themselves but
even affects other students. A boy who used to play with the teaching aids given to
him by his teacher for learning purposes, and who did not care when the teacher
reminded him or asked him to put those teaching aids down. He seemed to have some
violent tendencies, often fighting with another student and hitting other students on
the head with his hand or other objects. We still have a lot of work to do with him.

Aug. 25, 2023

It was a marked improvement when the student in the class who often didn’t listen
carefully and was affecting other students, even bullying them at times, changed his
behavior, listened very carefully, and cooperated with the teacher very well. From the
first class this morning, this student showed great concentration and rarely talked or
played with the other boys. He was also very active in raising his hand when the
teacher asked questions, and he didn’t speak until the teacher called his name. He
showed some misbehavior during the Adventurer’s Club this afternoon, probably due
to the change of venue, but he even reminded the boys in the queue who were still
talking when they were lined up to go back to the classroom. Just yesterday, the
homeroom teacher and I were almost driven crazy by him, and even after class when
we were talking about him, we said we wanted to punch him. But of course, we
didn’t, but continued to guide him patiently, and today, he changed dramatically.

Aug. 28, 2023

Last Friday afternoon, the homeroom teacher and I discussed and eventually decided
to adjust the students’ seating, which did have some effect. Originally, the seating of
the students in our class was six boys sitting in two groups of three and eight girls
sitting in two groups of four. The homeroom teacher then decided to keep the girls in
their groups (which were divided according to their learning speed), and split up the
boys and move their seats to the front of the classroom. It’s the first day of class like
this today, and the boys’ constant talking in class has really decreased a lot. And
because they sit in the front of the classroom, it’s easier for the teacher to monitor
them and call them back when they turn their heads backward or to the side. Now
there’s only one boy left in the class who’s the most difficult to manage.
Following on from last week’s art class, this time the students became much quicker
at lining up and listening to the teacher, and without wasting much time they made
their way into the art classroom and completed some of the tasks.

Aug. 29, 2023

Today is my first day of teaching. It was a celebration that the students were very
cooperative and listened attentively in today’s lesson. My topic today was singular
and plural nouns in language arts. I spent a long time helping students understand and
memorize the concepts of singular and plural nouns and the rule of changing regular
singular nouns into plural nouns. I asked students to give examples of singular and
plural nouns one by one. They could answer my questions very well and correctly.
Many of the students in this class are not at a second-grade level, so I explained those
important concepts to them many times to reinforce their understanding and
memorization of those concepts.
However, I still have a lot of room for improvement. First of all, my voice needs to
have a wider variety of tones and rhythms, as well as appropriate pauses. I’ve even
realized this myself, and the teacher also reminded me about this in the feedback.
Also, I should learn to organize my time more wisely – in this lesson, I spent so much
time explaining concepts to the students that they didn’t have enough time to do the
exercises. Lastly, I need to design more enriching activities to keep students actively
engaged in their learning.

Aug. 30, 2023

One of the things to celebrate today is the realization that I’m continuing to get to
know the students in our class from different perspectives.
At the beginning of the school year, the primary way I got to know my students was
by observing their participation in class and their level of attention and responses to
the teacher. But now as I’ve got more involved in teaching activities, I’ve got to know
my students better. For example, Using the MAP Test that students took last week and
today as an example, Through my observations in the past, there are some students
who, in my perception, should not be achievers, but they passed the test. On the other
hand, I thought some of the students were smart, and one was 2-3 years older than the
average age of the other students and listened carefully in class, but it turns out none
of them passed that test!
In addition to this, I have been more involved in grading student work this week,
some of the students’ work once again refreshed my perception of them. There is a
student in our class who often draws or does other things while the teacher is talking,
and even when the teacher confiscates his pencil case he will still find something else
to play with, Not only did he pass the MAP test, but he also got a high percentage of
correct scores on the in-class quizzes.
Also, for that student who is the most difficult to manage in the class, the homeroom
teacher developed targeted strategies and I will get involved to help him.

Aug. 31, 2023

Through my observation as well as my own teaching, I have come to realize that
contingencies can arise at any time during the teaching process. The unexpected
happened in my teaching today as well as the homeroom teacher’s teaching, but I did
learn a lot from it.
Since one of the students in our class was sick and couldn’t come to school, the
teacher let her listen to the lesson through Zoom and shared the screen with her. I
didn’t know why, but the screen always jumped back to the computer desktop when I
shared the screen, so in the end, I had to give up using the computer and use the
whiteboard instead. However, I didn’t prepare the material on paper beforehand and I
had to follow what I remembered from the slides. Fortunately, the lesson ended
relatively smoothly, and the students mostly understood the content of the lesson, my
remedies had worked.
So, through today’s lesson, I learned that debugging equipment is also part of lesson
planning, and that I need to make sure that all the materials and equipment that will be
present in the classroom are ready, and that if there are any “surprises” that might
happen, I also need to have a plan B.
Sep. 1, 2023
The only thing that could be called a celebration today was that many of the problems
that existed among the students came to light, and the exposure of these things will
give us an idea of what further adjustments should be made in those areas in the
future.
First of all, through observation, I noticed that two neighboring boys in the class
talked a lot and whenever they were asked to do some task or exercise, they could not
concentrate. One of the kids was better, he could do his exercise while talking to the
other, but the speed at which he did the exercise would slow down. But the situation
was even worse for the other student, who was dyslexic himself, when he talked to the
other, he was completely unable to concentrate and couldn’t write anything. So,
through this period of observation, I finally proposed to the homeroom teacher after
today the idea of adjusting the students’ seating, moving the dyslexic student to a
corner of the front row, and next to him was a boy who didn’t like to talk.
Maybe it was because it was Friday, the students were acting restless and couldn’t pay
attention to the teacher. In Adventurer’s Club this afternoon, the boys in the class did
not listen or follow the teacher’s instructions at all, no matter what the teacher told
them to do. So, through this event today, I’ve learned that there needs to be some
special preparation every Friday for students to calm down and focus on learning.

Sep. 4, 2023
The homeroom teacher and I are constantly getting to know these students by
checking their work. After school, today, the homeroom teacher showed me the paper
of a student who had previously scored zero on a math quiz. This quiz was about two-
digit addition. By observation, in a significant portion of the questions, he wrote
answers that were two of the two numbers in the tens digit of the questions. For
example, his answer to the question “18+63” was “16”. At the same time, this proved
that he didn’t put enough effort into his studies, the best example of this was when I
tutored him in three-digit addition, and if he went through it carefully, he was able to
get some of the correct answers.
After adjusting the seating, students’ talking in class has improved to a certain extent.
The dyslexic student (who is also the student I mentioned above) was moved to the
front row, where it was easier for the teacher to monitor him and manage him.

Sep. 5, 2023
One thing to celebrate today is that although the students are slow learners overall,
they have mastered a few things in this month. Yesterday the classroom teacher and I
were talking about some of our students’ mastery of singular and plural nouns in
language arts and two-digit addition in math, and we were thinking about whether to
start common and proper nouns in language arts and other things about addition in
math or to have the students continue to reinforce what they’ve learned. The
homeroom teacher showed me their performance on the quiz in language arts and
decided to spend some more time helping them refresh what they had learned. And for
math, the teacher gave the students the quiz they had taken before, and last time some
of the students did not do well on that quiz. Surprisingly, the student who got a zero
last time got a perfect score this time. This is a special class because there are a lot of
slow learners in this class, and even they are not currently at the level expected of a
second grader, but I believe we can work together to help them improve little by little.

Sep. 6, 2023
One thing to celebrate today was that I realized it’s necessary to separate two students
who frequently with each other. This morning during the language arts class, one of
the students was taken from his seat to another place where he would not be disturbed
anymore, and the assistant teacher was there to help him. It had been very effective,
he got full points for his worksheet. Now we’ve found a way to help him to learn
efficiently, which is to cut down on the things that distract him.
With our help, this boy gradually began to study seriously, but new problems have
arisen. Through observation, I noticed that a girl was always distracted in class,
always holding something in her hands, and every time the teacher reminded her it
didn’t take long for her to start playing with it again. For her, the teacher planned to
separate her as well, and have her tutored individually by the assistant, like the boy.

Sep. 7, 2023
Today there was a significant improvement in the students. In today’s math class, the
student who couldn’t concentrate before concentrated for a longer period of time. He
didn’t get a single question right on a previous math test, but it’s not that he’s
incapable of doing them. It’s that he can’t concentrate. Today, the teacher had them
retake the quiz, but this student focused on these questions and he got a perfect score
on this quiz. Unfortunately, there were many things around this student that could
distract him, he often held something in his hands or turned his head to the back to
talk to other students. Based on this situation, the teacher decided to try to teach this
student one-on-one. In fact, since yesterday, the assistant teacher has been teaching
him one-on-one with very good results, But the assistant teacher can’t be in our class
all the time, and it’s possible to teach this student one-on-one in every lesson, so we
still have a lot of work to do with this student.
Regarding my teaching today, it went well overall, perhaps because my class was in
the second period of the morning and they still had the energy to concentrate. In this
language arts lesson, I used flashcards to help students reinforce the rules about
changing singular nouns to plural nouns they learned, and I ended the lesson by
assessing their learning through exit slips. The results of the test showed that most of
the students had a clear understanding and memory of the rules for changing a
singular noun into a plural noun, but most of them did not know how to use the words
to form sentences, this will be one of the things we’ll be focusing on afterward.

Sep. 8, 2023
Every Friday is the hardest time to manage the students because it’s the last day of the
week they go to school, and today is no exception. Compared to Monday through
Thursday, students today are more easily distracted while studying. But it is in this
environment that I, as an intern, continually learn what actually happens in the real
classroom. This is the knowledge that no one ever told me when I was studying at the
university. So far, although I don’t have any effective strategies to deal with this
situation, I have learned from the homeroom teacher through constant observation.
Today a lot of problems happened again in our class: a student did not listen to the
teacher’s instructions and didn’t participate in learning, a boy squeezed a girl’s bott,
and two boys had a fight again. The homeroom teacher talked to each of them and
pointed out to them the mistakes of what they had done. Through these things, I have
learned that problems can occur every day in school among the students, and that the
teacher needs to address these problems in a timely manner.

Sep. 11, 2023

One of the things to celebrate today was that the student who was often unable to
concentrate before was able to focus on learning for almost the entire class period. In
today’s math class, the teacher assessed the students’ prior knowledge about
subtraction through a worksheet. In the previous test on addition, this student couldn’t
concentrate and didn’t get a single question right. However, this time, he only got one
question wrong. I can feel that his attitude towards learning has undergone a
significant change. Although he still got distracted by some things around him at
times, he has started making an effort to overcome these difficulties.
Today, I learned that I can only make judgments about students and decide how to
approach them when I have a thorough understanding of them. During today's class, a
student who used to frequently disregard the teacher's instructions continued to
disrupt the teacher's lesson. He remained lying on the desk and ignored what the
teacher told him. After lunch, he went to the clinic, and I eventually found out that he
had a fever of 39 ℃. Sometimes, when we don't have a complete understanding of the
situation, we tend to make incorrect decisions. So, when we notice unusual behavior
in students, it's important to first understand the reasons and then decide on an
appropriate response.

Sep. 12, 2023

Today was a special day because the homeroom teacher went to the immigration
office. Yesterday she told me that there would be a substitute teacher for our class, but
she didn’t even know who the substitute teacher was until this morning, and at about 8
this morning, the substitute teacher came to the classroom finally. Actually, the
homeroom teacher already told me what to do for today’s lessons, but still, I was
surprised that the substitute teacher didn’t know much about our morning activities,
so it was pretty much just me leading the students in the activities the entire time, and
the substitute teacher only gave the students the worksheets. This was the first time
I’ve handled students like this, I realized how important it is to have the skills I need
to have as a teacher. As an example, because I had a classroom teacher to help, I
didn’t establish my own classroom rules and expectations of my students previously,
and then today the homeroom teacher left and it’s even harder for me to get my
students to follow my instructions. So, even though I teach only a few lessons, I still
need to set clear rules and expectations for the students.

Sep. 13, 2023

In today’s reading lesson, the teacher explained to the students the three elements of a
story: characters, settings, and events, and then used the story of Three Billy Goats as
an example for them to practice identifying the three elements mentioned above in
this story. I have learned to “combine theoretical knowledge with practice”, which is
applicable to any subject. First, the teacher explained the concepts of character,
setting, and event to the students, and then she showed them the video “The Three
Billy Goats” right away, and ask them to find the three elements in this story.
Whatever the students learn, the teacher needs to assess them to see how well each
student has mastered it and to make certain adjustments to the subsequent teaching.

Sep. 14, 2023

Looking back on my day teaching and assisting, there are some things to celebrate
and some areas I still need to improve on.
First of all, regarding my teaching, after my last teaching session, the homeroom
teacher made some comments to me that I needed to establish my own classroom
rules. I actually realized this myself because the homeroom teacher wasn't here on this
Tuesday, and the substitute teacher gave the time almost entirely to me that morning,
and then I realized that the students were out of control. And the reason for all of this
was because when the homeroom teacher was there, she could help me manage the
students to a certain extent and the students didn't keep doing things that disrupted the
classroom, but when she wasn't there, because I didn't have my own rules for the
classroom, the students just did whatever they wanted to do. So in the Bible class I'm
teaching today, one of the first things I do is talk to the students about my classroom
rule-they need to get my permission to speak. Of course, I’ll be adding other
classroom rules later to improve the classroom order. Then in the middle of my
teaching, accidents happened, some students went for vaccination and then the
classroom teacher and the teaching assistants left the classroom and the students
suddenly became noisy and eventually I didn't finish all the activities of that lesson
because of the incomplete number of students, and that activity was delayed until
tomorrow. Even so, I always improve when unexpected things happen because I can
learn a lot from those things.
Two students were sent to the school counseling office today for multiple fights. Then
I realized that I had never communicated with the students in my class other than
about their studies, especially since both the homeroom teacher and the teaching
assistant in this class were women, and for boys, a male teacher and a female teacher
talking to them gives them different feelings. This will be something I need to try to
do.

Sep. 15, 2023

Looking back on this period of my internship, I have learned a lot, whether it is the
classroom teacher's teaching style or management style, I have benefited a lot. Before
the start of each day, the teacher leads the students in reciting the classroom rules as
well as the ESLG as a way of constantly reinforcing their memorization of these rules.
In the course of the lesson, if a student was not paying attention, she would stop
teaching and make sure that the students were paying attention before she continued.
Also for the use of teaching aids, the classroom teacher gave me a lot of ideas. I did
learn about the use of teaching aids in my teaching method courses, but what kind of
teaching aids I should use for teaching specific content is something I never learned in
college. I’m thankful for the opportunity to experience the real teaching.

Sep. 18, 2023

Today, through my efforts, a boy in our class who had often left his seat to go to the
back of the classroom to play returned to his seat and cooperated with the teacher to
some extent. Before that, he would leave his seat at times to do something else, we
told him many times to go back to his seat, but sometimes he didn’t listen at all, and
sometimes he went back to his seat but didn’t listen to what the teacher was talking.
Today after the students returned from the cafeteria, he went directly to the back of
the classroom. I went to him there and asked him why he didn’t want to go to his seat.
In the beginning, he didn’t reply to me, and I repeated several times and asked him
what was wrong and if he was feeling well. A few minutes later, he finally began to
talk, he shook his head and said, “No.” And he told me that the reason he didn’t want
to listen to the class was because the teacher took his mask box and broke it during
the Spiritual Emphasis Week program. I then asked him what the teacher took his
mask box, and he said: “Because I played with the dice.” I said: “That’s why, the
teacher didn’t like it when you play with the dice during the Emphasis Week program.
Can you go back to your seat? I will fix the box for you.” “Okay.” He said.
Through this incident, I realized that there is a reason behind every misbehavior of the
students, and what I have to do is not just to stop the students, but to find out the
reason why they are doing it and to help them in a proper way.

Sep. 19, 2023

I taught two periods in a row for the first time today. When the homeroom teacher talk
to me about the activity of investigation that the students would need to do in today’s
science class (which would last two periods), I felt a tension I’d never felt before
because I needed to plan for the lesson for two periods. After thinking about it for a
while, I decided to teach. Then I proceeded to start preparing lessons and writing
lesson plans. When I wrote the lesson plan this time, I wrote it in more detail than I
had ever done before. As I wrote my lesson plan and as I worked on my PowerPoint, I
went from being unsure and nervous in the beginning to becoming more and more
confident because I have been getting more and more familiar with what I was going
to teach.
In this lesson when I organized the students to do the investigation I realized a
problem, they many times could not understand the task they were going to do. I still
need to improve my explanation of the task, I need to make sure at the very beginning
that the students know what they are going to do and understand every step of the
process.

Sep. 20, 2023

During this week, perhaps because of the Spiritual Focus Week program, it was very
difficult to control the students, today is not exception. As the students were sitting on
the cafeteria floor during the Spiritual Emphasis Week program, they were so close to
each other that the boys often touched each other, talked to each other, and at times
some of the students laid down on the floor. And they were excited when they got
back to class and easily distracted. I was thinking, if I were to manage these students,
how would I do it, would I be able to control them. I think that's something I still need
to work on - I need to make my own classroom rules to make sure I can control the
students no matter what the situation is.

Sep. 21, 2023

It’s been a very busy, tiring day for me. This morning after the students returned to
class from the cafeteria, three boys had been doing disruptive things to the classroom.
They left their seats and talked all the time, and no matter what the teacher said, they
still did things like this. Eventually, the teacher placed three of them in the back of the
classroom. I took the other students to do classroom activities, and she talked to the
three students herself, and tried to get them to quiet down and read some things. This
experience has helped me learn that in the future, all sorts of things happen in a
classroom that I don't expect, and that the teacher needs to react accordingly to the
student's situation.
During my last class period this afternoon, I took the students on to complete the
activities they didn't finish in science class on Tuesday. Most students have problems
understanding the questions. Most of the students had problems with understanding
the questions, so I still need to improve my explanation of the questions and
instructions. After today's lesson, I still need to prepare for the phonics and spelling
lesson I'm going to teach tomorrow, which will last for two class periods. This full
schedule makes me very tired, but at the same time it gives me a better experience of
what it's like to be a teacher, which is a very valuable experience for me.

Sep. 22, 2023

Today I learned a practical way to manage students. In today’s reading (phonics &
spelling) class, before I began my lecture, I clarified my classroom rules to the
students. Previously, in our class, the homeroom teacher had some beads as a reward
for students who behaved well. I used these same beads as a reward for students who
behaved properly, but I changed my interpretation of the rules. I told the students that
at the beginning of the lesson, they had each been given ten beads, but that if they
misbehaved each time, I would have to subtract one of the beads they had earned. And
I encouraged them by saying, "Let's see who can get ten beads in the end."
Surprisingly, few students broke the classroom rules in the first period, and in the
second period, perhaps because of their inability to concentrate for long periods of
time, a few students occasionally talked to each other, but these were within my
control. Rarely, a boy who had often talked in class and disturbed other students was
very quiet in this class and answered questions actively.

Sep. 25, 2023

At the beginning of this new week, When I had just arrived at AIMS and had just
walked into the classroom, I saw the homeroom teacher talking to a boy who had
violated the classroom rules. Students breaking classroom rules and then the teacher
talking to them seems to have become a staple of this classroom. Therefore, I spent
the rest of the day being lethargic. I realized I needed to adjust my mindset until I
returned to AIU. I’ve realized that in every classroom there are students who break the
rules, and as a teacher, my emotions can’t be affected by my students’ behavior. At
AIMS, I experienced the reality of what it is like to be a teacher, and the experience
was invaluable.

Sep. 26, 2023

From today’s experience, I realized one more area I need to improve on – controlling
my anger. During each week there are many instances where students break the
classroom rules such as fighting and not listening to the teacher. In the beginning, I
was able to control my temper and talk calmly with my students, and when a student
continued to do this after the teacher talked to him over and over again, I was prone to
anger, and I would even shout at them when I was talking to them. I realized that I
should learn to talk to my students in a calm tone and not speak to them with
emotions when I am angry.

Sep. 27, 2023

One thing to celebrate today is that as the teacher adjusted the grouping and seating of
the students, their concentration during class improved. Before, this, the concentration
of the students had been a problem, they were always talking to each other in class
and were unable to concentrate, and the teacher and I used to spend a lot of time
managing the students during class time. In an activity today, the teacher tried to seat
the students in their teams, with a leader in each team who would be responsible for
helping the members of the group to learn. From this experience, I learned that I
should always adjust my studetns’ seating according to their different situations to
help them learn better. Sometimes it's not just the teacher who can help students learn,
it's their classmates, and placing leaders in each group to lead the rest of the students
can sometimes be even more effective than direct intervention by the teacher.

Sep. 28, 2023

Today was my first math class for the students. I thought that math was always my
best subject from elementary school all the way through high school, and teaching
math would not be particularly difficult for me. But when I was preparing my lesson,
I was stumped because teaching math required more than just my own extensive
knowledge base, I also needed to consider my students. What seems simple to me
may not seem simple to them. So I try to use some methods to help them understand,
for example, I use blocks when I teach them "multiplication as repeated addition" and
let them represent the equation by putting the blocks together. In this way, on the one
hand, the students' interest was motivated, and on the other hand, this helped them to
understand the concepts better.

Sep. 29, 2023

For today’s phonics/spelling lesson, I used the “word building” activity. After
introducing the long and short "u" vowels, I put the students into groups and gave
them pieces of paper with the letters, then I assigned long u or short u and they spelled
the word according to my instructions. In this way, I assessed their understanding of
the long and short vowels "u" and helped them to build their vocabulary. The spelling
of words has always been a problem for our class, and there are many simple words
that they cannot spell correctly. I'm glad I can get them to try spelling words on their
own in this way.
The area I still need to improve on is reducing my reliance on PowerPoints. I can
create a PPT for every lesson, but sometimes if I can't use it when I'm teaching, I don't
know what to do. This is a problem, I need to try to use other ways than just slides,
and at the same time, I need to be more familiar with what I'm going to talk about so
that I can teach without problems even if I can't use PowerPoint.
October 2, 2023
Today while I was assisting my homeroom teacher, I noticed a common phenomenon
amongst the students - students, especially in the lower grades, are more attracted to
the external rewards of learning than to the desire for knowledge. In order to get more
students to answer the questions, the classroom teacher asked me to write down all the
students' names on the whiteboard when asking them the meaning of the words, and I
gave one point to a person for every question he/she answered correctly. Surprisingly,
almost all of the students actively participated in answering the questions, even the
one who had often drawn in class before.
One area that I still need to improve on is that I need to pay more attention to the
special needs students in the class when I am assisting the homeroom teacher. When
the students were about to separate for Thai class, one student suddenly grabbed
another student by the collar and he was so strong that even the class teacher was
pushed aside by him. I then forced the two of them apart, and he still tried to go over
and grab the other student. After this, I learned that if I have this kind of violent
student in my class, I need to keep an eye on him all the time because I don't know
when he's going to do something that I don't expect him to do.

October 3, 2023
The students were so excited today that they kept talking to each other whenever the
teacher took them to do an activity and they had a hard time focusing on it. This week
my main job is to assist the homeroom teacher in managing the students, the main
work was done by the homeroom teacher, and the first thing she did before starting
each new activity was to make sure the students were focused on her. I think this is
one area I need to improve on. When I think back on my teaching experiences, many
times when I was teaching, if the students weren't paying attention to me, I would
intervene to get their attention, but that wasn't always the case, and one of the results
of that was that the students weren't clear about the instructions when they started
doing the activity. What I learned today is that I always need to make sure that the
students are paying attention to me when I am explaining rules or instructions.

October 5, 2023
Today I had my teaching demonstration. Something unexpected happened, so that I
didn’t complete all the steps in my lesson plan. The students were late from their last
class, so they didn’t get back to the classroom on time and the class was delayed.
Instead of fully explaining my classroom rules to my students because they were
incomplete, I had them begin warm-up exercises after a brief introduction. Then
during the teaching, I sometimes didn’t quite get the students’ attention. Aside of this,
I sometimes didn’t look at my students when I was talking to them. These are all areas
that I still need to improve on, but through this teaching demonstration, many of my
problems were exposed, which is good news because I know the areas I need to
improve on.
Problems arose among the students this afternoon when two boys got into a fight and,
eventually, the homeroom teacher sent them to the counseling office. Through this
question, I realized that one of the areas I still need to improve on is understanding the
motivations of students who misbehave. For example, some students fight just to vent
their emotions, and as a teacher, I need to understand these reasons and guide my
students appropriately.

October 6, 2023
One aspect that I still need to improve on from this recent week’s experience is that I
need to put myself in my place and change the way I view myself. Whenever some
problems arose with the students in my class, my first reaction was that the homeroom
teacher would have dealt with them anyway, and there was nothing I had to do. I need
to change my perspective and see myself as a real teacher, some days I should be the
one talking to the students (especially the boys). And I need to build up my authority
by speaking because if I don't exercise myself to do so now, I won't be able to manage
my own students when I become a teacher in the future either.

October 9, 2023
It’s exam week for AIMS students. Through my observation, I realized that the AIMS
exams were conducted in a completely different way than the way I used to be tested
in public schools. When I was in elementary school, for every test the teacher just
handed out papers and monitored students for the test, but here, the teacher even
explained their tests to students to some extent, and when the students submit their
papers the teachers take a look at them to see how well they've done and tell the
students where they've made glaring errors. I'm so glad I learned that I need to help
my students answer better on tests based on their ability to learn and their level of
knowledge.

October 10, 2023

Today there were still students who didn’t listen to the teacher and disrupt the
classroom. Except for the time when they have their exams, the teacher had taken the
students to review the lessons. Then there were a few students who didn't listen to the
teacher, went to the back of the classroom from time to time, and played with
something. At first, only one student did this, but after a few others saw him do it,
they began to follow him. This is one area where I still need to improve -
understanding the problems that exist among the students and addressing them. Just
like today, I need to understand why that student left his seat and help him properly.

October 11, 2023

One of the things to celebrate today was that the student who had been disobeying the
teacher and disturbing the other students was relatively obedient. He didn't bother the
other students as much as he did before, and cooperated with the teacher whether it
was for exams, revision, or other classes. Relatively speaking, this was the day he did
best in this week.

October 12, 2023

Today is the last day of the students’ exams. After all the exams were finished, the
teacher took the students to practice their dancing for the Christmas program. Boys'
unwillingness to participate in dance practice has always been a problem in our class.
This time, one boy even walked out of the classroom angry that the teacher had asked
him to practice dancing and had taken away other students' projects that he had been
playing with. So I walked out of the classroom and followed him, and when he
spotted me he ran out of sight. Some time later, he returned to the classroom and
locked the door, locking me out of the classroom. I know I still have a lot of room for
improvement in my understanding and management of this student, but my problem
right now is that I don't know what motivates him to do these behaviors.

October 16, 2023

One thing to celebrate today is a boy’s improvement. Previously, he was unable to pay
attention in class, and due to his dyslexia, he was often unable to understand what the
teacher was saying, especially in subjects such as language arts and reading. Even
during the last week's exam, he needed the teacher to read the questions for him to
understand. But this last time, his attention span in class has improved dramatically,
and although he is still sometimes influenced by and talks to other students, he is
beginning to make a conscious attempt to focus his attention. The next point we need
to work on is gradually guiding him to talk less with other people in class to further
improve his attention span.

October 17, 2023

Today I taught a math lesson on money. My feeling about the whole lesson was that I
didn’t articulate what I was supposed to be talking about very well. It took me so long
to help my students understand the denominations and look of the various dollar bills
that I had very little time to do the activity. And during the activity I divided the
students into small groups, and then one student in a group took most of the toy
money by himself and didn't give it to the other students. I had to change the rules of
the activity and assign students to take turns to complete the activity. I had to change
the rules of the activity and assign students to take turns to complete the activity, and
even then, the activity only lasted 2-3 rounds before the class ended and I didn't even
have time to summarize the lesson. Math is the subject in which I am most confident,
but I still have a lot to learn when it comes to teaching it.
Today a student nearly got into a fight with a PE teacher in PE class because the PE
teacher told him to wait his turn and he didn't want to, so he pushed the PE teacher
and grabbed the PE teacher's arm, almost had a fight with the teacher. After that, in
another class, he took a piece of play dough from a student's project without the
teacher's permission and played with it, then threw it in a girl's face. From what he
said, I could hear that he was not afraid of any teacher or counselor, he thought that
teachers and counselors could only talk to him and could not do anything with him. I
have absolutely no idea what I'm supposed to do with or for this student.

October 18, 2023

One valuable lesson I gained today was about time allocation. I didn’t teach today, but
by observing the classroom teacher, I learned about time allotment. The last class this
morning was a reading class, and before that class, the students went to the computer
lab for the Fast Forward. For some reason, the students’ return to the classroom was
delayed for a while, and the teacher shortened her lecture as much as possible, leaving
enough time for the students to do the activities. Through my observations, I have
come up with a way to deal with this contingency. First, explain the concepts to the
students briefly and clearly, making sure that each student is clear about the concepts.
Then allow enough time for students to do their classroom activities to ensure that the
activities can be completed on time. Finally, always make sure the students are
focused.

October 19, 2023

Today the teachers and students in our class went to the AIU auditorium to practice
the program for Christmas. I was supposed to teach language arts in the second period
this morning, but our return to school was delayed because we were practicing for the
program. The homeroom teacher switched the time of language arts with one of the
math classes this afternoon. I learned from this experience that unexpected situations
can arise every day while I'm teaching and all I need to do is to be ready and flexible
to adapt.

October 20, 2023

Through this time in my internship at AIMS, and through the reminders of my
teachers, I realized that I need to change the way I speak to the students. From the
beginning of my internship, I was so soft-spoken with the students that many times I
couldn't control them when problems arose among them. During the week we took
students to the AIU auditorium to practice their Christmas program there was an
argument over props, and I didn't respond firmly to it. I need to improve the way I
speak to the students. I need to improve the way I speak to my students to show my
authority as a teacher and to give them a sense that they need to listen to what I have
to say.

October 25, 2023

The homeroom teacher didn’t go to the school today because she was sick, so the two
TAs and I took the students through practice. Because of the absence of the
homeroom teacher, the students became very active from the first two classes of the
morning onwards and did not listen to the teacher. The most frequent task I did during
the day was to take the students from classroom to classroom because they had a lot
of classes in other classrooms today. It's been two months since the beginning of the
school year, and there is still a problem among the students, that is, the problem of
queue-jumping, every time they line up some boys always go to the front, and now to
some extent I am tired of managing them. However, this is still an area where I need
to improve – effectively lining up students.

October 26, 2023

With three teachers in total teaching our class today, managing the students was still a
tricky problem. After school in the afternoon, some students were playing with
pillows in the back of the classroom, and one boy hit another boy with one of the
pillows. The teacher told them to stop, and then one student obeyed the teacher and
didn’t play with the other student again. Another student was still holding a pillow
and the teacher pointed her finger at him and told him to put the pillow down. The
student threw the pillow and then asked the teacher very angrily “Why are you
pointing at me?” After a while, the teacher talked to the other boy and told him not to
play like that with that boy again. The boy heard this and then picked up his water
bottle and walked towards the other boy, trying to hit the other boy with it. This boy
was very sensitive to everything and everyone that concerned him, always thinking
that other people were isolating him and hurting him, when in fact it was because he
was always hurting the other students that they were afraid to be with him. We've tried
talking to him, trying to understand his problems, but it doesn't seem to be working.

October 27, 2023

There are still many student behavior problems today. The boy who hit another boy
with a pillow yesterday punched a girl in the stomach. One of his characteristics was
that he would always interrupt the other students while they were playing, throwing
things at them or pushing them, which is probably a big reason why many students,
especially girls, don’t want to play with him. The other teachers and I have reminded
him many times, but it still doesn't help, he always says “It’s not my fault”, and I don't
know how I can effectively help him make changes.
This afternoon a student had an item confiscated from him by his teacher because he
was always doing something else while rehearsing his Christmas program, and the
teacher told him that when he listened carefully to the teacher she would give it back
to him. But until the end of the school day he didn't listen to the teacher, always doing
his own thing, so when he asked the teacher to give him back his his things the
teacher didn't agree, so in great anger he took his bag and slammed the door of the
classroom vigorously, went outside and got his shoes out of the shoe closet and
slammed the door of the closet vigorously, and then went away. This student doesn't
seem to have the mental age of a second grader. This student doesn't seem to be at the
mental age that a second grader should be, he goes to school every day just to do what
he wants to do, he has no knowledge of learning at all, and he gets angry or even hit
someone else sometimes when the teacher doesn't allow him to do what he wants to
do. One day the homeroom teacher asked each of them to write what they needed to
improve regarding their behaviors and what they would do in the future, and he wrote,
“I will do nothing.” For a student who lacks self-awareness of his role, I need to keep
making him aware, verbally and otherwise, of the purpose of going to school and the
rules he needs to follow.

October 30, 2023

Conflicts often occur among the students in our class, and how to deal with conflicts
among the students remains an area that I need to improve on. There are times when
one student may accidentally touch another student and that touched student reacts
violently, and it is possible that another student actually touched him/her
unconsciously. This is where I need to clearly determine if the students are
overreacting and respond correctly.

October 31, 2023

I learned an effective teaching strategy from my homeroom teacher today. In this
afternoon’s science class, she organized the students to do an investigation, guiding
them to fold paper boats, and each group received some water to test the effect of
different factors on the boat’s carrying capacity. Through my observation, I learned
that as a teacher, I need to prepare all the materials I need to use before class and that
using an inquiry approach to teaching can help students visualize and understand what
they are learning.
November 2, 2023
Today I taught two lessons, one on phonics/spelling and one on math. In
phonics/spelling class there was an emergency because it was their “Twins Day” and
every two or three students wore the same outfit and then they were called outside the
classroom for picture taking when I was about to start the lesson. As a result, my
teaching time was cut short, and I had less than thirty minutes to deliver my lesson. In
my lesson plan, in this lesson, I was going to take the students through a review of l-
blends and then learn about s-blends. I took the students through an abbreviated
reading of l-blends and some words with l-blends then moved on to teaching about s-
blends. Through today's teaching, I experienced that sometimes there are unexpected
situations and I need to adjust accordingly.

November 3, 2023
This afternoon in Adventurer Club all the students in levels 1 and 2 went to the
cafeteria to practice their Christmas programs, and our homeroom teacher left for a
while due to something, so I was in charge of watching over the students in our class.
I was happy to have the opportunity to manage the students individually, especially
since some of the students in my class were very naughty at times, which was a
challenge for me, but also an opportunity to improve.

November 6, 2023
This week the students’ class schedule was adjusted as they practiced for their
Christmas program, which was supposed to be forty minutes for each period, but this
week it was adjusted to thirty-five minutes. Timetable adjustments have reminded me
that I need to adapt my teaching to different situations to ensure that I can complete a
full lesson in the time available for it, otherwise, students are likely to be confused
about what they are learning. I also need to remind students of the schedule changes.

November 7, 2023
All the students of levels 1 and 2 went to the AIU auditorium to rehearse their
Christmas program. It was important to seat and monitor students, especially in
crowded environments. What the homeroom teacher did was she sat next to the
students and then had me sit in the middle of them, so it was easy for us to watch
them and remind them when they left their seats or did something inappropriate. From
this one simple thing, I learned that I should always make sure that I can clearly
observe the condition of my students, which will reduce a lot of possible problems.

November 8, 2023
Today continues to be a challenging day, with students unable to concentrate,
especially as they practice their Christmas programs. It’s an area I need to improve on
to engage my students’ attention. During class some students were always playing
with something, either drawing or fiddling with their toys. Even though the
homeroom teacher and I reminded them many times, it didn’t take long for them to
continue playing again. Something similar happened in the afternoon when they
practiced their Christmas programs, the girls always talking and the boys walking
around and playing with their props. I need to come up with effective strategies
(perhaps talking one-on-one with my students) to help them focus better.

November 9, 2023
I taught a science lesson today. From the very beginning of the class, I felt that the
students were not in the right state, they were too quiet, and when I asked them to
have a group discussion, they spoke very little. Regardless, each group of students
completed their project as well as the presentation. As I reflected on the reasons for
the unusual quietness of the students, I realized that when I spoke to them I was
conveying a flat emotion that didn't motivate their desire to learn. This is my
challenge - to convey emotions to my students through tone of voice, thus driving
their desire to learn.

November 10, 2023

Something unexpected happened after school today. The homeroom teacher had a few
things to deal with, so I helped check the names on the “Students ready for pick-up”
list and reminded the students to go home. But one student left the school without
telling me before his name appeared on the screen. And there’s another student who
we didn’t know who picked her up from school these days, some days it’s her parents,
some days it's her brother. I realized that I need to confirm who is picking up each
student from school at the end of the school day.

November 13, 2023

One of the things to celebrate today was the fact that the vast majority of students
were in a very good state of learning and they showed a high level of concentration.
They like to talk, and most of their conversations today during the teacher’s lecture
were related to their studies. One area of improvement for me is to better organize the
students as they line up to the different classrooms, as many students, especially boys,
always want to be in the front, I need to firmly, over and over again, explain to them
the rules and what I expect of them.

November 14, 2023

Today the students once again went to the AIU auditorium to rehearse their Christmas
program and were pleasantly surprised that although they usually made mistakes
when practicing in the classroom and didn’t always concentrate, they did better than
usual when they rehearsed on stage. But one area they still have to work on is their
standing, as the stage is narrower than the space in their classroom and their boat
takes up a lot of space. They need to try to use props in their daily practice to get used
to the stage setup.

November 15, 2023

Today the homeroom teacher adjusted the students' seating, and they spread out from
their teams and were seated individually. While they were sitting in their groups, they
often talked to each other and were unable to concentrate, and argued several times
per day. The teacher made each of them sit in their own seat, not next to others, and
set up three centers in different areas of the classroom for them to go to while doing
the activity. Through this incident, I learned that adjusting students’ seating
arrangement is effective in minimizing distractions in my students' classes.

November 16, 2023

I taught a math lesson this afternoon. Based on the advice I received from the
homeroom teacher, I presented my classroom rules in a slide show and explained
them one by one, and was pleasantly surprised that most of the students listened
attentively to me throughout the lesson. My lesson this afternoon was about
subtracting money, and the most I did in the whole lesson was to show the students
how to do the calculations and let them practice on their own, which was relatively
boring, but after I explained the rules of the class and what I expected from them, they
could concentrate very well. Throughout the lesson, most students mastered the
calculation of subtraction of money.

November 17, 2023

Today I learned more about the background of the student in our class who constantly
disturbed other students and broke the rules of the classroom, and then I could
understand to some extent the things he did. I’m glad that there is such a student in
our class during my internship. Although he often frustrated me, I gained a lot of
valuable experience. From him, I learned that if I am a teacher, I need to know every
one of my students, not only about their own personalities, but also about their
families and the environment in which they grew up, as these can be important factors
in their learning and growth.

November 20, 2023

Today, the students were so active that many of them didn’t listen to the teacher
during the lesson. The teacher had talked to them many times and told them that they
needed to listen to the teacher, but some of the students didn’t care about what the
teacher said, and even while the teacher was talking to them like this they were still
playing with each other. It’s important for them to have self-awareness and realize
how important learning is to them.

November 21, 2023

I taught a science lesson in the second period this morning. According to the schedule,
science is in the last two periods this afternoon, but this afternoon we went to the
auditorium to rehearse the Christmas program. The science class was supposed to
have two class periods, but due to rehearsals, there was only one class period left for
me to use for my teaching, so I had to shorten the time I had for the lecture. In terms
of results, the lesson went pretty well overall, with students completing the activities
and presentations on time.

November 22, 2023

Today is their Thai lesson, in the class of Thai students, only two or three students
were listening to the teacher attentively, the rest kept messing around with each other,
sometimes leaving their seats or even the classroom. These students need to realize
that they need to respect their teachers. In a way, the students don't respect their Thai
teacher because the teacher is too kind, never shouts at them and is not strict with
them, but that's no reason for them to disrespect any of their teachers. As I reflected
on this incident, I realized that I needed to show my authority while building good
relationships with my students.

November 24, 2023

Problems with following and paying attention to teachers’ instructions persist among
these students. During Adventurer Club time this afternoon, our class went to the
cafeteria to rehearse their Christmas program, and the girls could at least listen to the
teacher's instructions, while the boys were running around from the very beginning,
and no matter what the teacher said, they didn't listen to anything at all, and they kept
on playing with each other and talking to each other. Then, the teacher decided to
keep them out of rehearsals.

November 27, 2023

One of the things to celebrate today was the high level of focus the students showed in
class. They like to talk and many times they talk to each other during the teacher’s
lectures, thus distracting their attention. But today, most of the time, they can
concentrate on the teacher, and what they say is about their lessons. But there were
still problems among them when they practiced their Christmas program. They can’t
always concentrate on the teacher’s instructions during practice.

November 28, 2023

Today the students had their last general rehearsal. Surprisingly, their rehearsal was
better than ever. Before, they were always out of sync and the girls could never find
their place on stage, but this time, they’re all in very good formation. The only
problem was their speed. They hadn’t finished their moves by the time the music was
over. SO the next thing they’ll be practicing will be timing, completing all the moves
within the time limit.

November 29, 2023

I learned a lot today in their library class. After the teacher released the tasks to them,
they began to complete their respective tasks. I noticed a couple of the boys had been
hovering around the bookcases looking at various books, but not choosing what they
were going to read. I walked up next to them and got the situation. Most of them were
just hanging out there and I told them to go finish their tasks. One of them told me he
didn’t know which book to choose, so I pointed to a box and asked him to choose a
book from it. From this incident, I learned that not all students always understand the
teacher's instructions and that I need to follow up with students after I have issued a
task to make sure they all know what to do.