This week I have started to notice that students are developing practices which are related to my teaching. This first became visible during any sort of writing activity. During writing activities students often ask me how to spell words or to write the words for them. Depending on the student I react several ways: sometimes I tell them how to spell the word 
(often this is reserved for the students that I know are already writing longer/multiple sentences), tell them to ask their friends around them, ask them what letters they hear and repeat the word slowly several times (this is what I do most of the time).
One student often asks me for help with words and I always tell him to sound it out and write what he hears because it is often the case that he asks a teacher before he tries the word on his own. This week I noticed that when he asks me he has already tried since he now says “How do you spell friends? I have the ‘f” and then he continues to say the word rather than waiting for me to do it. It is very exciting to see a student move from having a teacher scribe their words to beginning to try the words themselves. Furthermore, he is obviously very excited about being able to write words on his own. When I am working with him he gives me the biggest smile every time he guesses a letter correct.
Another practice students have developed, related to my teaching, is taking more time with their book of letters. Since these lessons are done once a week the class is extremely familiar with the steps to complete this lesson and the free time that follows it. Due to this, I’ve noticed, that many students rush through their worksheet to get to the play time. Naturally this has resulted in sloppy penmanship (obviously this varies from student to student given their abilities but many times it is obvious they can do better because where they trace/copy the letter it is messy but the letter on their labelled pictures is much more legible). Since I have started erasing letters for them to redo I have noticed students who take their time with their letters or students who are waiting for me to review their worksheet see what is going on and go back to fix their letters.
This week I also learned that a student in the class can read. I have noticed that he is helpful during mystery message spelling words but usually during book times I find he is just looking at Lego books with his friends. During a book time this week, that I was leading, I kept reminding the boys that it was read to self; thus, if they wanted to sit beside each other they had to be looking at their own books. 
To prove that he was reading his book (partially because I said I would separate them if they couldn’t do their job) he began to read it aloud as I walked by.
Another noteworthy event of this week occurred on Friday when a student returned to the class who had been away for a while (I haven’t seen her since the beginning of my practicum). It was interesting to see her friends be excited to see her again as well as to see her hesitancy to rejoin them during their regular play times. It quickly became obvious that having two close friends who were patient with her and sat and spent time with her, despite her initial reluctance to interact with her peers, made the difference for her to more quickly become comfortable in the classroom again.
Overall, this week it has been exciting to see students progress and to see my influence on them. Furthermore, I am thoroughly enjoying building relationships with the students, we have come particularly fond of playing Simon Says (I usually use this game to get their attention before moving to different locations or waiting before recess or going home).
See Week 4 for more information.