Blog Post #2 Samantha Rader

Being in a kindergarten classroom, it's not at all what I expected. What I expected was a lot nurturing,  reading stories on the carpet, learning the sounds and letters of the alphabet, and maybe even some reading and writing of they own. Instead, every day the students are constantly forced to write sentences that they don't know how to read and that they don't even understand. This creates a stressful environment for both Ms. Jay and the students. Her biggest concern is that they can read, but some kids can't even identify all the letters. In fact, some kids are still trying to learn English. This stress is seen in Ms. Jay's non-verbal communication skills.

You can tell instantly when Ms. Jay is upset with a student. Before she even opens to mouth to speak (or in some cases yell), she has a very specific look that she gives the student she's upset with. That look alone usually stops the student from whatever he or she was doing in the first the place. Ms. Jay will still express her disappointment or frustration with them after. This frequently occurred walking to and from lunch, but in the classroom as well if the student weren't do what they were supposed to be.

Another non-verbal Ms. Jay does is lower the lights in the classroom when the kids get back from lunch. I asked her why she did that and she said that by lowering the lights she felt like it calmed them down and set a tone for relaxation. Another thing Ms. Jay does is bang her hand on the table next to them before she yells if she's really frustrated with a student. While I was there, a student who I previously mentioned, who was pretty new to the classroom, was drawing under the desk and Ms. Jambu had noticed. The first thing she had done was smack her hand on the table and then proceed to yell at him asking why he had done that. She then looked over at me and said that, "This is what happens when a student has never been to school before, they don't know classroom manners!" I wasn't really sure how to reply.

I've noticed that there is a lot of "shushing" done by Ms. Jay when the students are supposed to be quiet. I don't know if I would consider this a non-verbal action but there aren't any words expressed here when she does that. It's usually when a student is answering a question and other kids who she didn't call on are replying or when she's sitting at the computer trying to fill out paper work and needs them to quiet down. The most important nonverbal communication she does is making eye contact with her students ever time she is speaking to them. Whether it's when she's mad or happy or just listening. Making eye contact with them lets them know that she's speaking with them and either they are being heard or she wants them to hear her.