What is the most important thing you have learned during fieldwork observation? Why?

          I don't want to sound cliche' in this post but the most important thing I have learned is that I truly can make a difference. I won't have 100% control over my student's actions, thoughts, and behaviors but how I treat students and my response to their many different behaviors is something I have 100% control over. I have seen teachers handle situations in ways I wouldn't necessarily handle situations. I have seen teachers handle situations better than I would have handled a situation. I have seen predictable students and I have seen unpredictable students.

         I have the ability to set up a classroom with effective classroom management techniques to promote a structured and healthy learning environment. I have the ability to be pro-active or re-active. I have the ability to love my job or hate my job. I have the ability to see the good in the students and give the benefit of the doubt or I have the ability to pass judgment and hinder learning in child. My choices are a big deal. My response to situations is a big deal. Whether my impact is a positive one or a negative one is based on my actions and with much thought, planning, and sacrifice, whether my impact is for a minute, an hour, a day, a month, a term, a year, or a lifetime, I can make a difference in a child's life.

What are the procedures the teacher uses to make everything run smoothly in the class?

2/27/14

When the class gets too noisy the teacher says "class class class" and the students respond with "yes yes yes" and it helps turn the their attention back to the activity or to the teacher. Everything is very routine and consistent; there are no surprises. For example, students know that if they don't follow a classroom rule then they will get their name on the board; if they behave for the rest of the day until lunch time then their name can be erased but if they continue to disrupt class then they will have to stay inside for recess. I like this because it gives the students a second chance, their name on the board is just a warning and a reminder to follow the classroom rules. She also reinforces good behavior with treats and prizes. Everything that I have seen is pretty standard classroom management techniques, if it were my class I would maybe try to be a bit more creative by incorporating some if the ideas in the videos we watched on the modules. I really like the credit card idea from the module because some of the most fun I had in elementary school was through prizes and activities from teachers who used fake money as a way to reinforce good behavior.

What strategies does the teacher use to actively engage the students? How effective are these?

February 27th 2014

I've have seen many active engagement strategies this semester. I will write about a few that have stood out to me. One was a "time check"assignment which enabled students to get some wiggles out. At certain times throughout the day the teacher would say "time check" and the students would take out a green sheet of paper and go to a clock in the classroom and write down the time on their green sheet. Then at the end of the day as an entire class they would review the times and talk about the ones they wrote down correctly or incorrectly.

Another active engagement strategy I observed was when they were writing mystery stories. The teacher would read a mystery story to give the students an idea of what to write and then they would begin working on their mystery assignment. Once they had a chance to write a portion of their story they would share their story with their neighbors aloud and then a few of the students were selected to share part of their story in front of the class.

The last one I will mention in this post is a scavenger hunt. For this activity the teacher gave the students a list of of descriptions of items or vocabulary words (I forgot some of the specific items listed on the scavenger hunt but a couple examples could be to find something fuzzy or find a food that is considered high in calcium etc. depending on the subject/grade level) to find around the classroom and the students can work in pairs to find and write down the items or pictures of the items they found.

I found the engagement strategies used to be effective. Mostly all of the children I have observed have worked extremely well together and they all have been involved in the activities that the teacher uses to get them engaged. The students especially love anything that allows them to talk and get out of their seats. Overall these activities involve many students at a time, allow for feedback, and get the students out of their seats.

What do you think is the most challenging role a teacher plays? Why?

2/27/14

From what I have seen this semester, the most difficult part of being a teacher is teaching and engaging all students in learning and inspiring them to be better today than they were yesterday. This goes back to my discussion post on the role of a teacher. I used to think the prep work and planning part of being a teacher would be the most difficult but from what I have seen in the classroom this semester all the lesson plans are laid out well in advance and can be used year after year; assuming the curriculum stays the same there isn't much need to make major adjustments to the plans. So initially the planning may be difficult but if the intention is to make teaching a lifelong career those challenges will be short lived. The major challenge that exists on a daily basis is getting the students to learn; learning tends to occur when a patient, motivating, and inspirational teacher is involved in the process. I have seen a classroom with over 20 individuals and although similar in age each has unique talents, challenges, personalities, weaknesses, strengths, desires, likes, dislikes, etc. etc. The difficult part is getting all of those different agendas to mesh well together without majorly disrupting the flow of the class and most importantly getting them all to benefit from their time spent in the classroom. In order to be effective at getting students to learn, you have to care, be patient, be prepared for the unexpected, be approachable, be actively engaged in the learning process through wise and creative teaching practices and classroom management techniques and so much more.

P.S. I think this is the most important role of a teacher too :)

How does this teacher manage assessment?

2/27/14

This teacher is constantly assessing her students. She assesses them pre, during, and post learning. She will ask them questions before starting the lesson for a formative assessment, then she is constantly asking them questions during the lesson, and she will perform varies summative assessments to test what they have learned. The summative assessments sometimes are independent tests in a Q and A format but often they are group projects or individual projects that are more thought provoking. For instance, the students learned about parts of a story and so for a summative assessment they were writing their own mystery stories. This was a really fun way to see their understanding of plot, characters, setting, details, etc. I have noticed that this teacher and in other elementary classes I have observed the teacher does not lecture much (elementary students need to get their wiggles out vs secondary who have a much longer attention span) but instead the teacher incorporates lots of class discussions, demonstrations and group projects to get the students to engage in learning and assess their understanding. I feel like overall the teacher is having a conversation with her students...a very educational one.

What modifications for learners who are exceptional do you see?

February 27th 2014

From what I have seen, the students in Mrs. Gibson's class get along extremely well and all seem to have similar academic abilities; however, there was one student that I noticed on a previous visit that stood out to me. This particular student was disruptive, had a difficult time working with others, and often complained about the assignments; he portrayed some signs of a gifted and talented student. When I went to the classroom yesterday I noticed that he was not there so I asked the teacher if he was still in her class. She told me he had been sick all week and she proceeded to tell me that he is in the process of being tested for an accelerated academic school. I bring this up in my post because I did not see any modifications for him in the classroom. I know that I am an outsider looking in and I don't know what teachers have or have not have tried in the past. I also don't know if modifications or an IEP has been established for him. All I know is that I am slightly surprised that I have not see any modifications for him. I do know that his parents have recently been updated on his disruptive classroom behavior and according to Mrs. Gibson their involvement has tremendously helped his behavior in class. I don't have enough details to pass judgment on the situation I am just surprised that I haven't seen any assignment modifications or differentiated instruction for this student.  

Comparison of present day school and schools of earlier periods of U.S. history.

       
January 21, 2014
         During this observation Mrs. Gibson was working with her 3rd grade students on writing. She gathered the students on "the rug"which was a corner of the classroom with a big floor rug and an easel. She used the easel to review the some concepts and terminology with the students and then proceeded to explain what their next assignment would be.

          The students were instructed to work in groups on packets with various topics assigned by the teacher. Even though they were discussing the assignment as a group the students were required to each turn in their own paper with their own writing pertaining to things like title, details, one word story, and conclusion. The teacher would walk around to each of the groups and answer any questions that they had and ensure they were staying on task. When the class got too noisy the teacher would say "class" "class" "class" and the students would respond "yes" "yes" "yes" and she would redirect them to their assignments.

          One of the biggest differences between this classroom and classrooms of earlier U.S. history is that students in this classroom were working well together in groups with no regards to the different ethnicities.  Even though students are overall nice and supportive of different ethnicities I noticed they still find ways to segregate themselves.  During one of the group activities in the classroom I noticed an all boys table which made me think of how segregation still exists today but in a different context, in this case gender segregation. Additionally this occurred when students gathered themselves on the rug, some boys gathered themselves with other boys away from the girls, some girls grouped themselves away from the boys. One way this was overcome in the classroom was during one of the writing assignments, for this assignment the teacher pre-assigned groups which helped prevent the students from self-segregation.