29 April 2007

oi

Tomorrow I start teaching my four year olds to read (well, 3 of my guys from my class of 12, and 1 of D's guys from her class of 10) and I'm quite nervous. I'm going to pull them right after prayer time once D does songs or whatever.. but I KNOW that D is going to freak about going outside, so I may do like I did with the last of the cirriculum... teach them outside in the sun.. it's supposed to be 80 degrees tomorrow afternoon.

Regardless, from all you homeschooling mummsys, please enlighten me on how to teach a child to read. I bought the Dick adn Jane books simply because that's how I learned a bit to read.. but I'm dyslexic, so I honestly only read by memory and tricks.. nothing I do is phonic. I want to teach the kiddos right, but dammit, who the heck asks the dyslexic teacher to teach them to read? What sense does that make...

So we have been working heavily on phonics, we've been doing phonic games and doing phonics reads, but now it's the true test of my ability to someday be a teacher.. can I teach 4 children to read in 12 weeks... it should be interesting! (and luckily the four kids I pciked, well who really showed the most ability to do the phonics, have great parental help that I KNOW will step up and read with their kids the materials I plan out.)

My game plan at the moment is simply to copy the book I want them to read (when I say book, the Dickand Jane book I have has something like 21 stories and I plan to do a story a week to start out with and as they get better, I want to pump it up to two stories a week and so on. I know for a fact one little girl will blow past me. And as the weeks go on, I will take 4 more kiddos and start them in the bit to read, starting at week on.. but I have my little test group and it's making me nervous that I am responsible in their parents eyes to teach them... when in reality they are my test group! haha!

Seriously I'm rambling because I fear failing these kiddos and their parents. I have only been the fours teacher for a month, but in that month I feel that personally, I have made leaps and bounds in their education. I don't want to toot my own horn, but so many of hte parents have come to me, talked to me personally about their children's education.. and I've been doing plus reports for each kid going "damn... how the heck would they have been prepared for kindergarten"... but I dunno.. I'm nervous.

Anyway.. I'm sick of waiting for Jason to IM me, I suppose some things never change and he is still an ass. He's been back from idle for 20 mins, but he's yet ot reim me even though he "promised" he would. LAdies and Gents, this dear soul is EXACTLY why I swore off love and boyfriends... it sucks.

Regardless, I'm going to reread my schudle and plan for tomorrow and just pray I can teach these kiddos to read in 12 weeks!

~Hawk

1 comment:

Deb said...

I taught learning to read about 10 years ago for one year. But I had the child (yep only 1) the year before when he learned his ABC's and sounds. His parents did not reinforce.
The program I used for learning to read though was through schooloftomorrow.com
The first year when the letters were taught it was with animals. Ricky Rabbit for "R."
Tiny Tiger for "T."
And so on.
The first letter that we started with for learning to read was "M" I believe. Then it was taught with the vowels. Mom, man, etc.

I would suggest going to a teacher store and looking at the curriculm there. Of course you are starting today so I guess that advice is a little too late.
Anyhow, good luck. I hope it went well today.