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.