Personal Interest Essay -- Essays Papers

Personal Interest I have been interested in the study of shy children and their inability to actively participate in a classroom environment since my youngest daughter, who is extremely shy, started kindergarten. I saw the difficulty that she faced in class because of her shyness and I became frustrated because I knew that her lack of self-confidence was affecting her ability to excel in school. Fortunately, we were able to work with her teachers and help her develop the self-confidence to eventually become an excellent student who is an active participant in her class. Because of my experience as a parent, I am very aware of the potential to overlook or mislabel shy students and have found myself extremely conscientious of these children since I began teaching. I want to find ways to help these students develop the confidence to become more active participants in my classroom. I wondered what I could do differently in my classroom to help a shy student develop self-confidence. The student who I observed for this inquiry project came to my attention the first day I visited the class I was to student teach in. While she was clearly intrigued by a book I was reading to the class, I noticed that she was the only student to not participate in the discussion which followed the reading. It became apparent the first week I was in the class that she was not an active participant and had difficulty answering questions during class discussions. Although she was quick to raise her hand, she became very distressed when called on in class. I noted that my cooperating teacher often bypassed her, calling on other students who were more outgoing. As a teacher, I want to develop tools to help my student... ...Bibliography Brody, Jere. (1996). Working with Shy or Withdrawn Students. Learn2Study. Retrieved February 1, 2005 from http://www.learn2study.org/teachers/shy.htm Crozier, W. Ray & Perkins, Pam. (Sep. 2002). Shyness as a Factor when Assessing Children [Electronic Version]. Educational Psychology in Practice, Vol. 18, Issue 3, p. 239-244. Hyson, Marion C. & Von Trieste, Karen. (1987). The Shy Child. Child Development Institute. Retrieved February 1, 2005 from http://www.childdevelopmentinfo.com/disorders/shy_child.htm Kemple, Kristen. (June 1995). Shyness and Self-esteem in Early Childhood [Electronic Version]. Journal of Humanistic Education & Development, Vol. 33, Issue 4, p. 173-183. Malouff, John. (2002). Helping Young Children Overcome Shyness. Retrieved February 3, 2005 from http://www.une.edu.au/pshychology/staff/malouff/shyness.htm