In case you're interested, and for posterity's sake . . .
The following notes were taken during my "Observations," part of my FINAL assignment in college required to earn my Bachelor's degree in elementary education! This assignment involved spending 60 or more hours in different classrooms observing and interacting with the teacher and students to focus on such aspects as classroom management, planning and instructional design, differentiation and modifications for students with unique learning needs and styles, technology and its appropriate use in the classroom, and behavior modification techniques. The resulting physical work turned in 45 pages! For one assignment! One!
I had to turn it in two times. The first time I got it back with revisions required (I'd missed some stuff), but it was accepted the second time I submitted it. Phew!
I learned lots of dos and don'ts, cans and can'ts, wills and won'ts. The kids were, overall, delightful, and the teachers were certainly doing their best to provide an effective education with what they had to work with. I hope you enjoy reading about my time gettin' schooled.
Enjoy!
***
Perceptions and Reflections - My
time gettin' schooled . . . Episode 1
November 11,
2015
v Observed language
arts lessons
v 2nd
day back “on track” (this is a year-round school)
v Clear routines
in place for entering classrooms, completing morning tasks, and readying selves
for learning
v Used positive
language to guide behavior
v Used extensive
team-based planning including weekly scope & sequence by subject area and a
detailed weekly plan
v The teacher
communicates regularly with parents through a Monday newsletter, which is sent
home with a packet of homework for the week, vocabulary/spelling words, and
other important paperwork.
v All students were
studying the same clusters (thr-, spr-, str-, scr-) and worksheets were
differentiated for students based on spelling inventory results into three
levels. Leveled worksheets varied in content, quantity, and difficulty.
v Whole-group
lessons included explicit vocabulary instruction, discussion of opinion
writing, the difference between Patriot’s Day, Veterans Day, and Memorial Day,
the difference between tenses, keyboarding, cursive writing, and ‘shared
reading’.
v Independent
lessons included students completing daily ‘jobs’ (in lieu of centers)
including a spelling sort, vocabulary map, verb worksheet, and fluency.
v Guided
instruction took place during independent reading, as the teacher rotated
through the room and listened to individual students, noting appropriateness of
book choice, areas of challenge, and areas of growth.
v Music was
integrated into the day with a morning ‘class song’ following announcements;
the teacher using a bongo drum, and a piano in the room.
v Differentiation
took place via modifications, providing students with leveled worksheets and
reading materials, and individually, as the teacher accommodated a
lower-leveled student through two different assignments he was struggling with.
v Informal
assessments took place as the teacher rotated throughout the room as the
students were completing their jobs and she noticed one particular area that
many students were having difficulty with. The teacher adjusted her approach
and did that portion of the worksheet with the whole class to ensure understanding.
v Scaffolding was
used effectively as the teacher transitioned the students from a pre-writing
form that they had been used to doing to a blank sheet of paper. The teacher
discussed what was included on the form, and how the students now had that information
inside their brains and could refer to it as they filled out the same
information on a blank page. This was an effective way of building on prior
knowledge and skills in preparation for the students’ first computerized
writing assessment during an upcoming spring standardized test.
v Technology was
used appropriately when the mobile computer lab was brought into the classroom
and each student learned basic keyboarding skills. This was the first of
several planned keyboarding lessons in preparation for the students’ first
computerized writing assessment during an upcoming spring standardized test.
v I was able to
work with a small group of readers, discussing a book after they read it
independently, and reviewing the vocabulary words, personal connections, and
favorite parts, which the students read aloud.
Perceptions and Reflections - My
time gettin' schooled . . . Episode 2
November 23,
2015
v Kids assembled in
the gym and were then escorted to class by the teacher
v Students wore
uniforms but teachers were allowed to ‘dress down’, which one student labeled
as ‘not fair’
v No observable
routine for entry, calendar, homework, attendance, lunch count
v Classroom was a
mess, desks unaligned, piles of paperwork everywhere, no identifiable ‘homes’
for anything, homework bin, no-name papers
v Took 20 minutes
for the class to get into the room and seated
v Students
misbehaved continually – shouting out, interrupting, talking back, physical
noise like stomping feet, rocking chairs off the legs
v There were jobs
posted but none were utilized
v Positive
language was used to motivate good behavior, but it was ineffective
v First activity
was a Thanksgiving-themed alphabetizing activity that was ungraded – seemed
like busy work. The teacher effectively engaged background knowledge asking
kids what they remembered about alphabetizing and going through an example on
the board. She gave directions, asked for questions, and passed out the worksheet
which kids then did on their own. She did not check for accuracy, but just told
them to put it in their backpacks when they were done.
v The kids then
gathered for a ‘catch of the week’ – one student being highlighted, who had
made a poster about herself, answered a questionnaire about favorite color,
favorite food, etc., and brought a story for the teacher to read aloud, which
she did.
v One student was
allowed to read a book that he had been writing at home.
v The students
talked about Thanksgiving traditions, and then the teacher read Bear Says Thanks (Wilson, 2012). The
story was quite challenging and the teacher read it very quickly. I would have
taken more time reading, showing the pictures, and explaining the difficult
vocabulary and the many homonyms that were in the book.
v When the
students did the calendar, the two at the front made up calendar-related math
problems for the rest of the class to solve, and used below-grade verbiage
which I would have gently corrected by repeating the question using proper
grammar. For example, they asked ‘how much days ago was November 15’. I would
have repeated something like, ‘Okay, class, Leo’s question is “How many days
ago was November 15.’
v One student
completed a weather graph, which was lost behind rolling carts and stacks of
papers and books, coloring in a line on the ‘partly cloudy column’ but nothing
was done with it.
v After the
calendar, one student at the front was supposed to choose from a stack of 4 x 6
laminated cards with calendar- and money-related questions or word problems. He
wasn’t choosing and the class was loud and boisterous, so the teacher said,
‘We’re done because everyone is just talking.’ The student who was choosing the
cards argued back with the teacher, and then picked another student to do the
task, who came up to the front and asked the question. It was too hard, so the
teacher just sent everyone back to their seats.
v The teacher had
difficulty locating numerous things throughout the morning. At one point, a
student told her she was ‘so unorganized.’
v When the kids
were particularly loud, the teacher decided to give them a Brain Break by
playing a GoNoodle activity. She walked out of the room after getting it going,
but it didn’t play, and all the students just wandered up to the front and
began playing around. She came back in just as I was getting ready to send them
all back to their seats and give them an alternate activity.
v After the kids
had snack and recess, they continued working on a biography that they had been
creating. They broke into two groups, one small group with the teacher working
on the biography’s glossary and table of contents, and everyone else writing a
letter to the ‘catch of the week’. Two students individually came and read with
me. Afterward, one student who was behind on the biography came and worked with
me on coming up with two questions each for who, what, where, when, why, and
how. As I worked with him, I was observing the teacher working with the small
group and did not see much interaction.
v At the end of
the morning, three students gave presentations they had been creating as
homework during the prior week about humans’ effect on the environment. The
teacher explained the rubric she would be using to grade them, explaining the
criteria and the point scale. One student presented a poster, and two students
presented PowerPoint slide shows.
Perceptions and Reflections - My
time gettin' schooled . . . Episode 3
December 21,
2015 – A.M.
v Observed an activity-filled
day based around community service and social studies.
v When I arrived,
the teacher and her in-laws were preparing pieces of fabric for the students to
cut and tie the edges of to create blankets, which were to be picked up by the
fire department 2 hours into the day.
v The room was in
upheaval, as everything had been pushed out of the way to make room for the
blanket project. Otherwise, the room was well organized and decorated in a cute
pirate theme, which I think the kids would like.
v There were 28
students in the class, predominantly boys.
v As the students
arrived, they were seated in the ‘kiva’, a central area in the wing of the
school where the classroom was located. Very general directions were given for
the blanket construction and students were arranged in groups of four or five
to work collectively on a blanket. This
process would have benefited from more forethought.
- It was clear the students’ measuring, cutting and tying skills varied
significantly, and that they had not been given the opportunity to practice
these skills prior to the activity. There were students who could not cut
through the fabric at all and had to resort to only tying. Others were not able
to understand the instruction of ‘tie it like your shoes, only twice,’ which I
did not feel was sufficient for them to understand. Following the activity,
volunteers and I had to retie many of the blankets. This activity could have
been improved, and been made less frustrating for the students, if they had
practice sessions on scrap fabric, and if students had been assigned specific
roles based on their individual skills. However, the students did manage to get
10 or more blankets made before the firemen came. The blankets were to be
donated to the United Fire Authority Blanket Drive, in its 40th
year, and, in turn, given to homeless people in Salt Lake City as well as
patients at Primary Children’s Hospital.
v While the kids
were finishing their blankets, the teacher asked me to assemble graham crackers
on foil lined boards for each student. I was very impressed with the planning
that the teacher did prior to the activity by having the supplies (graham
crackers, foil-lined boards, and pre-measured frosting) ready ahead of time. Following
the blanket activity, the students re-aligned their desks, which had been moved
to the perimeter of the room to allow ample floor space, and began assembling
gingerbread houses. I also like the teacher’s method for instructing the
students. She would complete one step at the front of the room, and then the
students would work on that step on their own house. There was one volunteer at
each table group to help the kids. Decoration of the houses was to take place
in the afternoon.
- Once
the houses were constructed, the kids moved right into another activity, the
culmination of a Holidays Around the
World unit. The students had learned about 10 countries, gathering
information about winter holidays and traditions to complete a written
‘passport’, and making a ‘souvenir’ from each country that represented the holiday
or tradition. All of their artifacts were collected in a ‘suitcase’ that the
kids made out of cereal boxes. The class reviewed the first nine countries. The
final country was the U.S., and the souvenir was a snowman made from socks and
cotton balls. Again, the teacher was very well prepared, with all of the
materials for each student in an individual baggie. Parents and other
volunteers helped with stuffing, tying, and gluing. Unfortunately, there was
only 25 minutes available for this activity, which was not enough time given
the students’ varied small motor skill levels. I loved this unit. It is one I’d
like to do in my classroom.
v The kids
remained engaged throughout the day.
v There were nine
volunteers, more than could be useful, and many times it felt like we were all
just getting in each other’s and the way of the teacher.
v Time management
was a struggle, and I felt the teacher was too ambitious trying to fit this
much into a 4 hour block of time. However, the teacher explained that her class
had just come back “on track” (this is a year-round school) for two weeks
before and she had to fit the entire curriculum of winter-themed units into
those two weeks, whereas the other grade-level teachers had been on track 8
weeks or more and could spread the activities out over that period of time.
v The teacher
seemed frazzled the entire time, and didn’t seem like she was having very much
fun. The kids noticed this, and were very high energy, trying to work quickly
and get everything finished in the time allotted.
v I would also
have started the day with the kids’ normal morning routines, and then
transitioned them into the first activity, maybe splitting the class in half
and having one half do each activity, then switching. The teacher realized
several hours into the morning that she hadn’t taken attendance or a lunch
count.
Perceptions and Reflections - My
time gettin' schooled . . . Episode 4
December 21,
2015 – P.M.
v This class had
24 students, mostly high-level academically, and evenly split between boys and
girls. There was very little ethnic diversity.
v The afternoon of
this day was spent in a class which, contrary to the morning observation, had
been “on track” (this is a year-round school) for 11 weeks, and was just biding
its time until the Christmas break started, two days later.
v I joined this
class just after lunch. The kids came in and seemed to know exactly what to do.
They put their coats away and sat down on a large throw rug tucked neatly in one
corner. The teacher joined them there, sitting in a rocking chair, and read
several stories aloud to them.
v She had a
casual, friendly manner, and seemed very happy, as did her students.
v As this class
was also finishing up their Holidays
Around the World unit, the stories they read were related to that. One
story about Christmas in New Zealand (Morrison, 2006) contained a number of
unfamiliar terms for familiar objects, and the teacher had the kids guess what
‘chilly bin’, ‘squabble’, and ‘cricket’ might mean, and then compare their
guesses after reading more of the story and looking at the pictures. The story could
be sung and the teacher played a CD after reading and they all sang along. It
was very engaging and the kids loved it. I think the only thing I would have
done differently would be to discuss why Christmas in New Zealand is in the
summer. However, that may have been done during the lessons on that country.
v While the kids
were still all seated on the rug, the teacher explained what was going to
happen next – the kids were going to play math games, some of which were games
they had played before and some that were new. She instructed the kids to
return to their desks, and put everything away except for a pencil. She gave
them three minutes. When the time was up, she quietly rang a xylophone and the
kids all immediately quieted down. This was an effective and efficient
transition.
v The teacher went
to a small, tall desk she had in one corner of the room and asked her ‘media
tech’ to pull down the screen. She turned on a document camera and showed the
kids each of the math games, new and familiar, explaining the rules and
activating prior knowledge by asking them questions about the ones they had
played before. The kids were to complete two games with a partner and then, if
they chose, they could play one of the other familiar games independently or
continue to play the new games with their partner. After 20 minutes, the
teacher rang the xylophone again, and then told the kids that, for the next 20
minutes, they could choose any math game they wanted.
v While the
students worked, the teacher responded to questions, and worked on organizing
the previous theme’s materials back into buckets. We discussed her organization
methods.
v For the last part
of the day, all of the 3rd grade classes gathered in one teacher’s
room and began watching the movie, The
Polar Express (Zemeckis, 2004). The teacher I had been observing left her
students in the charge of another teacher, so I stayed and watched how the kids
behaved and how the teacher in charge interacted with them for the last 25
minutes of my observation. I really liked the way that this second teacher had
her room organized. The posters on the walls were positioned low so the
students could see, and the room had minimal décor, it appeared to be just what
necessary for what they were learning at the time.
Perceptions and Reflections - My
time gettin' schooled . . . Episode 5
January 5, 2016
v Highly organized
room decorated in a Dr. Seuss theme; Bright, not cluttered, fun and
interesting.
v When I arrived
the class was at P.E. This gave me the opportunity to learn about the class
demographics, and many of the routines the teacher has implemented.
- 26
students, fairly even between girls and boys; 4 challenging boys:
§ 1 who is mildly
autistic – partners differently, sometimes modifies the assignment but
sometimes gives a different assignment if it isn’t something critical to his
learning
§ 1 who is a
talker
§ 1 who is a slow
finisher
§ 1 who is a
talker and a slow finisher and
§ 1 girl who can ‘quietly bully’ (a.k.a. bossy), so teacher is careful to partner
appropriately and stay aware during group activities
- Uses
HappyClassApps.com to organize her table groups (Cole, 2012)
- Teams
plan together on Fridays after school, follow a scope and sequence, team lead
orchestrates meetings; Team decides what they are teaching for that week,
shares lesson plans and ideas, and then teachers adapt the lessons to their
individual classroom
- Classroom
rewards came in the form of coupons that they could use to buy things in the
class store; primarily passes for activities like Hamster time, electronics, and
lunch with the teacher, along with some candy and other prizes.
- A
poster on the wall indicated if the kids should be using ‘Silent Solo,’ ‘Spy
Voices,’ Group Voice, ‘Loud Crowd.’
- Kids
get two bathroom passes each day. If they ask to be excused to use the restroom
while the teacher is involved in a lesson, it costs both passes. If they ask to
be excused while there is no active teaching going on, it costs only one. There
are also free times they can use the restroom such as lunch, recess, and snack
time. I liked this process.
§ One of the
passes that the kids could buy in the class store was Show ‘n Tell, and 5
students had passes on this day. The student stood at the front of the rug and
the kids made 5 guesses before the student shared what they brought. Then the
student told about it, and the kids could ask 3 questions. I think it would be
good for the student to give hints after each incorrect guess, and to extend
the language lesson by asking the students to describe the item using
adjectives or adverbs.
- To
transition the kids, the teacher counted backward from 10. The kids responded
well to this and were quiet at their desks every time she hit zero.
v When the
students arrived back, they lined up outside the classroom where the teacher
gave instructions for what was going to happen next. They got a squirt of hand
sanitizer and came in one at a time. This was very well organized and the kids
knew exactly what to do. It was clearly well practiced.
v On this day,
their assignments were to finish their Password Journals, which they had
started before P.E., make birthday cards for one student celebrating that day,
and then ‘sit on the carpet’ (a large throw rug) to read until the next
activity.
v The kids were
transitioned by ringing a bell and the teacher used positive reinforcement by
saying things like, ‘I’m looking for table groups that have everything cleaned
off their desks.’
v The teacher
conducted a lesson about adverbs involving one student acting out a phrase made
up by two cards selected by the teacher, one with a verb and one with an adverb
(e.g., painting slowly, driving angrily, yelling happily), and the class trying
to guess. The teacher then explained adverbs, and gave a clue about how to
remember whether adjectives or adverbs described verbs versus nouns (adverb
contains the word ‘verb’). The teacher then drew a chart on the board with
columns labeled How, When, Where, Why. When she said an adverb, the kids
guessed which category it belonged in based on the description it gave a verb –
for example, ‘driving angrily.’ The lesson was culminated when the teacher
asked the kids why we use adjectives and adverbs in our writing. The kids were
totally engaged throughout the lesson. It was an appropriate amount of time,
was active, and involved all of the students. The only things I would add would
be to ask the kids if ‘slowly painting’ and ‘painting slowly’ meant the same
thing, and if it was okay to switch the verb and adverb around in our writing.
v The students
were excused for recess by table groups, then came back in and did Daily 5.
Since they had just come back from a 2-week break, they were building their
stamina back up to 20 minute segments, and were all working on the activity
instructed by the teacher. This was a good way to remind students about the
‘rules’ of daily 5, what their materials were for each activity, and what jobs they
had to complete.
v She engaged the
kids in the conversation, used academic language to gently correct the kids –
when they said, ‘get a paper,’ she said, ‘yes, get a writing prompt’ and held
up the paper for them to see. She told them they needed to be the best writer
they could be, and that she couldn’t wait to read when they had written. Their
jobs were to:
- 1)
Get their materials;
- 2)
Pick a spot to work; and
- 3)
Get started right away.
v She explained
what she looks for when she grades the papers:
- 1)
Capital letters in the right places;
- 2)
Good handwriting;
- 3)
Punctuation; and
- 4)
A story – fill the space.
I
would add ‘complete sentences’ and have them include adjectives and adverbs
since they were learning about those. When the first Daily 5 activity time was
over, the teacher rang her bell and the kids cleaned up and returned to the rug
to repeat the process for the second activity, and then a third. As she waited
at the carpet for everyone to join her, she sang a song and the class sang along.
The other two activities on this day were Word Work and Read to Someone.
v While the kids
worked on the Daily 5, the teacher pulled individuals to do Dibels testing. She would invite a student to ‘come read with me’
and then read the instructions to them. This was a great, non-threatening
approach. The kids would likely feel much more comfortable than they would if
she said she was going to be testing them.
v The final
activity for this observation was read-aloud. All of the students got to lie on
the floor or sit with a friend in a comfortable spot and the teacher read from Friendship According to Humphrey
asking comprehension questions along the way.
Perceptions and Reflections - My
time gettin' schooled . . . Episode 6
January 12, 2016
v This school
started out very interestingly. I received the signed copy of the permissions
slip in a relatively quick timeframe. But, I could not get in touch with the
principal if my life depended on it! He did not respond to any of four emails
that I sent confirming dates and times, and I finally called the school and
left a message for the secretary, who never returned my call. I finally just
showed up at the school on my requested date. All of the staff was in a
meeting, so I joined and listened in, which was very interesting. At the end,
the secretary asked the fourth grade teachers to hang out after the meeting and
asked for a volunteer to let me observe for the morning. This was definitely
the most unorganized school!
v During the staff
meeting, which I attended the last 30 minutes of, the teachers discussed recess
rules, indoor recess on snow days, PLCs (professional learning community),
computer encryption, planning for 2016-17 class assignments, license renewal,
substitute assignments, reimbursement procedures, and fundraising activities. I
was glad that I was there for this part.
v This class had
28 kids, 26 of whom were in attendance on this day – 14 girls and 12 boys.
v The classroom
was so sparse and boring. There were very few posters on the walls and no décor
of any kind. It honestly looked like the teacher just moved in. I can’t imagine
being interested or excited in going there every day as a kid or as a teacher!
It was very cold and clinical, and not inviting at all.
v The kids knew
their morning procedures, which included picking their lunch choice as they
entered, putting backpacks and coats away, and getting out their planners.
v The teacher
stood at a podium in the front of the room, or sat at her desk in the back. She
did very little moving around the room at any point during the day.
v The kids
corrected their math homework as a class, with the teacher explaining the
process for solving each problem. I felt this was ineffective, as the kids
could have just filled in the answers as they were read, and it was not
interactive. I would ask students to share their strategy, and call individual
students to the board to do the work so
that
the kids could visualize it. If the kids had an error in process, I would have
them write in red pen to correct the work.
v As the kids left
on the previous day, they left the work they didn’t complete on their desk,
which they completed after correcting their math homework. If they had finished
all of their work, they read silently. I liked this process, as it reduces
homework, and the kids can ask questions as they do the work. However, because
there was so little interaction from the teacher, a lot of the students were
just sitting doing nothing.
v While the
students read silently and completed the prior day’s assignments, the teacher
conducted testing with one student who was being evaluated for resource
services and to see if she responded to intervention. In front of the student,
the teacher volunteered to me that the student did not seem to be responding
and rolled her eyes. The student read a passage and then answered comprehension
questions, graphed the words-per-minute, number missed, total words, and total
time. The student figured out how many words she got correct using subtraction,
and then graphed the total. It was an interesting process because they student
could see her progress on the graph. However, it seemed that the teacher used a
new graph paper each time, instead of keeping a record over time, which I thing
would be more beneficial and meaningful. The student also took a spelling test,
writing the words as the teacher read them out loud, and then correcting the
test herself using a key, telling the teacher what she did wrong, and then
re-writing the word correctly.
v Students were
beginning the process of writing opinion papers. The previous week the teacher
had read aloud Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive
the Bus, and students had written a list of reasons why
pigeons shouldn’t be allowed to drive. On this day, the teacher reminded them
of what they had done previously, and asked them to review their list and
choose the three most important reasons, which they would be using to write a 5-sentence
opinion paragraph. The students told their neighbor their three reasons. The
teacher asked if their reasons were the same as their neighbor, and explained
that everyone had their own opinion, and it didn’t have to be the same as
anyone else’s. The class reviewed the structure of a 5-sentence paragraph, and
discussed transition words and phrases. The teacher gave examples of openings,
transitions, and conclusions written by other fourth graders. She read full
paragraphs and asked if the kids heard the opening, opinions, transitions, and
conclusion. I would have asked them to tell me what they heard instead of just
soliciting a yes or no. I would also read some examples that were missing
elements and have the kids figure out what was missing. The students only had
10 minutes to write.
v After recess,
kids talked about fossils during science. The teacher showed an interactive
state map on the overhead that had stars where fossils had been found
throughout Utah. When she clicked on a star, a graphic showing the fossil, the
animal it came from, and facts about it came up. The kids copied the
information down onto a paper version of the map. This wasn’t engaging or
effective, and I felt like the teacher was just checking the proverbial box.
v Next, the kids
had math time. They did Rocket Math, working with partners to review
single-digit multiplication problems, with one student calling out the answers
and the other checking an answer key. This was not very effective. Many of the
kids just talked, and others were not listening to their partner and checking
the key. The teacher was at her desk entering grades while the kids “worked.”
v Then the class
did Arithmetic Developed Daily. The students had a booklet with each day’s
worksheets in it, which they tore off after each was completed. The teacher
showed the worksheet on the overhead, and they discussed how to do each
problem. She used clues like, ‘If it were me . . .’ and ‘Hint, this is a
multi-step problem.’ The teacher said the kids had 8 minutes to complete it,
but she gave them 15. Then they corrected it as a class and the kids put it
away and took out their math notebooks. She basically gave them the answers and
didn’t ‘teach’ them anything.
v The class had a
lesson on perimeter and area in which the teacher drew quadrilaterals on the
overhead and explained how to find the perimeter and area. She used an analogy
of a yard, where the fence was the perimeter and the grass was the area. I
liked that. The class did several together, then the kids tried to solve them
on their own and then they did them as a class. Finally they received a
worksheet that they did and then corrected.
v Finally, the
class saw the homework worksheet they would be receiving and the teacher
reviewed how to do each problem. I would have passed out the worksheet so they
could write notes on them to help them solve the problems later.
v There were
several things about this teacher that I didn’t care for. She was not engaging
at all. She hardly ever smiled and, although her voice sounded animated, if you
looked at her face it was frowning and not excited at all. She phrased almost
all of her questions so that the answer was ‘no.’ She would ask, ‘would you do
it this way? No.’
She
seemed to give the kids the solutions or strategies, instead of engaging them
in the conversation and helping them figure it out on their own. She did not
use academic language at all. For example, she referred to the sides of the
quadrilaterals as ‘the long one going down and the short one going across’
instead of saying ‘length’ and ‘width’.
v There were quite
a few ways that I would have changed the lessons, as well.
- During
the writing lesson, I would have let the kids choose whether to write about why
pigeons should be allowed to drive
the bus or why they should not. The
seemed forced into one viewpoint, and were just finding reasons for the viewpoint,
instead of having a true opinion of their own.
- During
science, I would have displayed a timeline of the different periods of time so
that the kids could relate one time period to another. The teacher just said
that one animal lived ‘way, way, way, way, way before/after’ another animal. I
would also have discussed what some of the bigger words in their text meant,
like paleontologist, carnivore, beast-breasted, etc. It would also have been
interesting for them to see other places in the world that may have had the
same fossils as those found in Utah. The teacher explained that the marine life
fossils were found in the west, ice-age fossils in the middle, and dinosaurs in
the east of the state. She chalked it up to the writers just choosing to use
those fossils in those areas. I would have found out if there was actually a
correlation to the terrain.
- During
math, I would have used examples other than quadrilaterals for finding
perimeter because their homework had triangles and other shapes. She also told
them that the strategy for finding perimeter was adding, but then she taught
them how to use multiplication, which could have been confusing.
v There were some
processes and routines that I liked in this classroom.
- If
the kids left the class for any reason, they signed in and out.
- I
liked that the teacher told about homework as they were discussing that
subject, rather than waiting for the end of the day when the kids may have
forgotten about it.
v There were also
some processes and routines lacking or that I would change in this classroom.
- I
couldn’t identify any transitions.
- The
teacher interacted negatively with the students. One student lost his place and
the teacher said, ‘It’s right there on the board. If you would just look you
can see it.’ I didn’t feel this was an appropriate response.
- I
would have had the kids write their homework in their planners.
- I
would have asked the kids for their ideas and opinions more.
- There
was no system for interruptions. The teacher was constantly being interrupted
by kids who needed to sharpen a pencil, get a drink, or go to the bathroom.
- Kids
didn’t have the supplies they needed at their table groups, so they were constantly
getting up to get colored pencils, glue, scissors, etc.
- Lots
of kids were blowing their noses, and there was no hand-washing or
hand-sanitizer protocol.
- Many
kids were tapping, wiggling, chatting.
- Someone
was ALWAYS at the pencil sharpener, and it was very distracting. I would have a
big cup full of sharpened pencils available for them to take.
- The
classroom door was open all day and there was a VERY loud teacher across the
hall. I can’t imagine how the students didn’t get distracted.
Perceptions and Reflections - My
time gettin' schooled . . . Episode 7
January 25, 2016
v 27 students; 21
are boys. 26 in attendance on day of observation.
v Sports themed
classroom
v Reading level
ranges from C through X
v Student who
reads at a C level excels at math
v 4th
year teaching; First year taught 2nd grade then looped to 3rd
during second year. Moved to Blackridge when it opened 2014-15 school year
v Teacher had
music playing while the students entered. Greeted each at the door with a ‘Good
morning,’ calling each by name.
v Teacher assigned
weekly jobs, then lunch helper read off names for students to go to the back
wall, get their lunch stick off the ‘team roster’ and move it to the proper
lunch bucket.
v Team meeting
- Kids
joined teacher at the carpet and listened to school-wide announcements, talked about
their weekends, reviewed classroom goals and told what they had done over the
weekend to work toward accomplishing them
§ Academic goal –
Sight Words
§ 7-Habits goal –
Put first things first
§ Behavior goal –
What can I do to act differently?
- As
each student told their story, the class celebrated the accomplishment with
‘one big hand clap.’ I loved this. It gave the recognition of applause, but
saved from drawn out exaggerated clapping.
- Students
were excused to go back to their desks and were instructed to compliment three
people and tell them good morning on their way there.
v I worked with
individuals and small groups re-teaching the concept of elapsed time.
- They
had plastic clocks to help them visually and kinesthetically.
- Students
completed a worksheet with questions requiring they figure out how many minutes
had elapsed or would elapse between events.
- They
were also given times on the clock and had to identify both the number of
minutes before the next hour, and the number of minutes after the previous
hour. For example, 2:40 could be
two-forty or twenty minutes before three.
- Conceptually
the kids had difficulty distinguishing between the two and I had to try various
methods to help them understand which, I believe, they were starting to in the
end.
v While I was
working with the small group, the teacher conducted a read-aloud with the
class, reading The Great Fuzz Frenzy
(Stevens, 2005). She was animated and articulate. She would stop and ask the
students, ‘What is a question you have right now as a reader?’ and would write
the questions on the board to see if they could be answered by the text.
v The students
spent time in the library learning how to look up books by genre, or determine
which genre a book was by the database information. They could check out two
books at a time.
v I really liked
how this teacher did spelling.
- She
used a Fry word list (Fry, 1996) as a pre-test at the beginning of the year to
level the kids. Then she worked her way down the list from easiest to hardest
and added the next sequential five words as individual sight words for the
students.
- In
addition, there were 10 words that she assigned based on the next pattern in
her scope and sequence.
- Finally,
students brainstormed 10-15 other words that fit the pattern and the teacher
would randomly pick five of them.
- This
gave the kids a total of 20 words each week.
- The
pattern on this day was the ‘ah’ sound made by o, au, aw, and al. I was really impressed with the words that
the kids brainstormed, such as maul, awesome, and caught. This system gave the
kids some investment in the process, and differentiated for each student’s
needs.
- As
the kids reviewed each word, they clapped out syllables, identified the
pattern, and used the words in sentences. If kids misunderstood a word, she
would kindly clarify, and used these as teachable moments to remind the
students about the meanings of homonyms, synonyms, comparative and superlative.
She was very alert to the kids thinking, and used it to ‘beef up’ the lesson on
the spot.
v Mrs. L. had some
great ways to keep the kids engaged.
- She
silently awarded marbles into a glass fishbowl praising kids for good behavior.
When they reached a certain level in the bowl, they earned a class party.
- If
a student was going to speak, she would announce, ‘Eyes and ears tracking to .
. .’ and give the students name.
- She
used various chants, parrots, and songs throughout the day to reward behaviors,
praise correct answers, and regain attention.
- Every
transition was conducted with a song.
- As
kids worked silently at their desks throughout the day, she would rotate around
the room giving smiley faces on their best work. She encouraged kids to
self-reflect and give themselves smiley faces or stars on the work they were
most proud of.
v Students had
cursive practice next. She displayed the letter of the day on the projector and
had the kids trace it with their fingers in the air. She used terms like
over-curve, under-curve, slant, etc. that made it very easy for the kids to
decipher the shapes of the letters. Then she did two examples on the overhead,
and the kids tried the rest on their own.
v Finally, I had
the pleasure of watching Dragon Slayer Math (Fay, n.d.). This innovative
program created by one of the school’s teachers, encouraged and motivated kids
to learn their multiplication facts. Before beginning, kids worked their way
through a series of skip-counting songs to refresh their memories about their
math facts. Then, students worked at their own pace, getting the worksheet they
last left off with (single-digit through 9s), and then being timed for one
minute. They did as many of the problems as they could. If they got all but one
or two, they could move on to the next level. If they were unable to complete that
many, they tried that level again next time. After they completed all of the
0-9 tables, they were ‘knighted’ by the principal in a special ceremony.
Perceptions and Reflections - My
time gettin' schooled . . . Episode 8
February 8, 2016
v Since the first
observation, this teacher’s class reduced to 25 students, all Caucasian; 22 in
attendance, nearly evenly split boys and girls.
v When I arrived,
students were cutting out and sorting spelling words. They had 21 words following ‘ar’, ‘or’, and ‘Ər’.
v After they had
the allotted time to sort the words, she told them that she was interested to
know how the students chose to sort the words. They easily identified the ‘ar’
and ‘or’ patterns, but could not easily identify the third pattern, using a
schwa. She read all of the words in that
sort, and asked what sound each of the words had in common. The students agreed
it was the ‘er’ sound. She did not explain how that sound could be created in a
number of ways, using the spelling words as examples, which I would have done.
The teacher gave a brief introduction to the schwa-r pattern, but didn’t
actually teach about the schwa. I would have done a pre-lesson about the schwa
if I knew it was coming up in our patterns. After explaining it, the kids had
an opportunity to ‘fix their sort.’ Then they did the sort together on the
board, and recited one sound pattern at a time saying each word then ‘chunking
it out’, breaking the word into blends.
For example, the word ‘worst’ became ‘wuh-er-st’. Finally, one student used the word in a
sentence and earned a sticker. After
working on the words as a class, the kids wrote their sort in their spelling
notebooks. A baggie was attached to the inside of their notebook to contain the
cut out words for that week. This was a brilliant idea.
v Kids then began
Writers Workshop. The teacher explained a week long Valentine’s Day project
they would be doing, which involved writing notes to each other. It was a cute
system that I will probably mimic for my classroom. It ensured that all
students would receive the same number of Valentines. All students’ names were
placed into a container labeled ‘Need a Valentine.’ As kids had spare time
during the week, they would randomly draw one student’s name, write him or her
a Valentine, and then put the student’s name in to the container labeled ‘Has a
Valentine.’ Once all kids had one, the names would be put back into the ‘Need’
container and it would start all over.
They could do it as many times as they were able during the week.
v Next, the
students had a coloring activity by parts of speech. The teacher reviewed what
nouns, verbs, and adjectives were. When it was time for recess, the kids put
the paper in their ‘Working On’ folder. I liked this idea and will use it in my
classroom.
v During Guided
Reading, three groups were pulled. One was working on fluency, and she tested
two of the four students using Dibels. The second group was working on
comprehension, and she asked them questions about what they had read and had
them share the answer to a pre-assigned question about the text with the group.
The last group was working on phonics using Fry word list words and phrases.
The last two groups used whisper phones. While the small groups worked with the
teacher, other students worked on Daily 5.
v One student was
chosen as ‘Thing of the Week,’ and was able to make a poster and tell about
herself. Then the kids did Calendar,
which included time, money, and dates. It was much more effective than I had
seen in the other teacher’s class at this school.
v After lunch,
students had a math lesson about ‘ungrouping’ to the hundreds place. The kids
did four problems together on the board, and then completed the balance of the
pages in their workbook themselves. The teacher rotated around the room and
answered individual questions.
v Next kids got a
‘brain break’ and danced along with a computerized figure on the screen.
v Since they were
practicing for an upcoming performance for their parents, ‘Grammarosaurus’
(Heath, 2008), the students joined another second grade class to go through
songs and written parts. It was absolutely adorable. I was impressed with the
memorization of the kids. I wondered, though, how much teaching is coordinated
with the play. I would probably be singing the songs in class, and would give
students with speaking parts a highlighted script to practice from, perhaps
letting them read or write their part during Daily 5.
v Science was
short and kind of pointless. Kids took
out an animal atlas that they have been working on and copied the coloring of a
map on the overhead to identify the habitats in Australia. There was absolutely no instruction, and this
seemed like a waste of time just to check that box for the day.
v The final
activity of the day was Spanish. While the regular classroom teacher left to
attend an IEP conference, a specials teacher came into the class to teach them
Spanish. Unfortunately, she had such
broken English herself that it was difficult for the kids to understand her,
let alone understand the Spanish. They
sang a song they had memorized, listened to a story about Valentine’s Day that
contained some Spanish words, and had only four minutes to complete a color-by-numero
worksheet. I felt this teacher was unnecessarily gruff with the kids, and lost
her patience easily. I would not want to leave my students in the hands of this
particular specials teacher.
v Transitions were
not as smooth this time as they were the previous observation in this class.
The kids were much louder overall, and had to repeat a couple of transitions
because they were so out of control. As I mentioned in the previous observation
of this teacher, each time kids were preparing to start a new activity they
were ushered to ‘the carpet’ to get instructions. This seemed to be an
effective method, but the teacher was quite distracted on this day, so I think
that’s why the kids got a little boisterous.
v The teacher
seemed kind of frustrated with the kids on this day, but that could very well
be because she was about 2 weeks from delivering a baby, and had been
experiencing the symptoms of pre-eclampsia.
v I noticed that
early finishers didn’t know what to do with themselves and were often
distracting to other students. I plan to provide a week-long early finishers
project so that kids knew exactly what to do when they were done with an
assignment.
v Many of the
things in this room were very tall for the small kids. I would buy low and wide
bookshelves that even the tiniest second grader could reach the top of. Problems on the whiteboard were even written
at a height that the smallest student could not reach.
Perceptions and Reflections - My
time gettin' schooled . . . Episode 9
February 29,
2016
v Class of 25 made
up of 11 girls and 14 boys
v 24 students were
present on the day of observation
v 3 students had
culturally diverse backgrounds
v Reading levels
span from O – Y
v The class was
sparsely decorated and, frankly, not very welcoming. Desks were arranged in
groups of 5 or 6, but not lined up to anything and appearing somewhat
haphazard. There were very few anchor charts or posters in the room. The areas
for students’ personal things were numbered, and only a small number had their
names on their desks, so there didn’t seem to be a sense of personalization or belonging.
This made me wonder if students had ownership of the room and a sense of
accountability and responsibility for it and its care.
v As the class
entered, the teacher greeted them with a happy good morning and reminded them
of their jobs – doing the lunch count and working on the tasks listed on the
board:
- Mountain
Language #1-5
- Vocabulary
Square
- Spelling
written in planner
- Utah
Compose
v Students came
right in and got to work quickly.
v The teacher took individual students out of the room for Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark
Assessment System testing, while I stayed in the classroom and
guided the students through their lessons.
v The class graded
the Mountain Language worksheets together. Many struggled with finding the
proper state abbreviation for Alaska, and it made me wonder what kind of lesson
had come before making this request of them.
v Next, the
students were instructed to get a Journeys
for Kids book, which were stored in a central location and
numbered by student.
- Although
the teacher interaction is scripted within this text, the teacher did a great
job of making it very natural and collaborative, asking the students
comprehension questions throughout, encouraging them to preview, contemplate,
make predictions about the text, and then to discuss their predictions with
their ‘elbow partners.’
- Students
took turns reading the assigned text out-loud, one paragraph at a time, using a
microphone that was passed through the room. Before they began reading, the teacher told them the order they would read in, so there was no time wasted
figuring out whom to pass the microphone to next.
v The students’
next activity, after a short recess, was Math.
Again, the students entered the room to see their tasks written on the
board. They seemed to know exactly what to do, beginning work on their
Arithmetic Developed Daily book, then playing math fact games
with partners.
- The
ADD worksheet was corrected together. The teacher asked individual students to
share their answers, but I would have added a step of asking them to also share
their strategy for solving the problem so as to expand the knowledge of other
students who may have solved it a different way.
v Students then
had a direct instruction lesson about understanding fractions, specifically
adding unit fractions. The teacher worked along with the students using an
overhead camera, and asked the students to write down their objective, the
definition of a unit fraction, and several drawings of like-sized but
differently divided rectangles representing whole, one-half, one-fourth,
one-third, one-fifth, and one-twelfth. As she moved on to each new
representation, she would say ‘one-half plus one-half equals one whole’. I
would have added the information that ½ + ½ = 2/2, which
equals a whole because anytime the numerator and denominator are the same, it
equals one. There wasn’t any identification made of the numerator and
denominator, and I’m not sure how much background knowledge the kids had, so I
would have introduced/reinforced those definitions as well. Even though the
concept is more advanced, I would have also shown that the denominator doubles
when the fractions are made smaller. Since this is a difficult concept to
grasp, giving the kids multiple exposures will help to build the necessary
background knowledge as they move to more complex areas of working with fractions.
v Next the kids
moved on to adding unit fractions. the teacher explained to the students that
only the numerators were added, and the denominator stayed the same. But, she
didn’t offer an explanation of why. I feel that students learn much better if
they grasp the concept, rather than just knowing how to complete the steps. In
order to practice the task of adding unit fractions, students were asked to get
a whiteboard (large, placemat sized, laminated sheets), which were kept in a
drawer in the back of the room. This resulted in 24 students getting out of
their desks and congregating near the cabinet. This was terribly inefficient
and took a longer than necessary amount of time. I would have asked one or two
students to pass the whiteboards out to their classmates. The teacher led the
kids in a game of ‘show me.’ She wrote a unit fraction addition problem on the
board, the kids wrote their answers and then, on the count of three, they held
them up for her to see. This was a great
formative assessment, allowing the teacher to instantly see who was grasping
the concept, except there was no re-teaching or reinforcement, so I’m not sure
it was being used this way. Next, individual students were able to go to the
board and write a problem. Some went a little crazy and tried to write way to
many 1/100 + 1/100 + . . . but the teacher stopped them politely. Finally, the teacher gave the students an answer and asked them to write the unit-fraction
addition problem they would have to use to get that answer.
v The students
completed a 2-page worksheet about sums of unit fractions with a partner. If
not complete, this was homework due the next morning, but the teacher encouraged the students to use their time wisely and try to get it completed in
the time allowed.
v I particularly
liked two of the teacher’s routines: The kids gave her a thumbs-up when they
had completed transition instructions and were ready to begin working on the
new task; and students placed a ‘hall pass’ on their desk when they left the
room to use the restroom or run an errand, telling her at a quick glance who
was missing and why. I will incorporate both of these routines into my
classroom.
v There were also
several things I appreciated about the teacher’s teaching style. She was
constantly moving through the classroom, engaging students, encouraging
participation, and allowing appropriate think time. When discipline was required, it was done
quietly either with individual students (moving a desk to a new spot) or as a
group (put your heads down and think about how you should be acting). However,
the students clearly needed a brief ‘brain break’ by this point in the morning,
which I would have done between correcting the Mountain Language and beginning
the Journeys for Kids assignment. A quick physical activity can do wonders for
a tired group of fourth graders.
Perceptions and Reflections - My
time gettin' schooled . . . Episode 10
March 7, 2016
v 27 students; 12
boys and 15 girls
v 2 special needs
students; 1 high-functioning autistic, 1 academically low
v Western themed
classroom was very well organized, relevant posters & anchor charts,
current work displayed. Posters, etc., were hung at child height, which I
haven’t seen before and loved the idea of.
v As the students
arrived, the teacher was in a brief conference in the office, so I greeted the
kids and encouraged them to get their morning jobs done. They knew exactly what
to do; took their chairs down, moved their lunch sticks to the appropriate
choice, and got their planners out. Then they started working immediately on
Cowboy Comprehension. When the students finished that assignment, they began to
read silently.
- Cowboy
Comprehension is a weekly reading comprehension assignment at their reading
level with set daily activities for each day.
v As the students
worked, the teacher rotated through the room to check if planners were signed
by parents. If so, she stamped the planner and gave the student a sticker,
which they could spend in a raffle on Fridays.
v The teacher
reviewed the scheduled for the day, detailing specific learning in each
subject, and then answered questions about the day.
v The morning
consisted of their language block. The first order of business was Fluency
Folders. Mrs. F. asked the students to
explain these to me, and tell me what it means to be a fluent reader.
- Fluency
Folders are individual by student. They work with a partner to read a leveled
passage, while the partner times, tracks accuracy, and gives constructive
criticism, scoring their fluency with a score of 1 through 5. Students then
graph their progress, which helps provide informal assessment to guide the
teacher as to when to move the students up or down. There is a formal, cold-read assessment for
each level to confirm her decision.
- There
are 6 reading assignments for each level, and a volunteer comes in every
Thursday to switch the old assignment for the new one each week.
v Mrs. F. reviewed
the types of questions that readers ask which students had previously learned.
She had a hand motion for each one – Right there (the answer is right there in
the text); Think & Search (the answer may be hidden in various places and
the reader has to search for them and then think about the connection); Author
& Me (answer is inferred by the text, but not explicitly given). Today the
kids were working on Inference.
- The
teacher used a great example. She told them that they were going on a trip to
Alaska, and that they should pack their suitcase. She then solicited
suggestions from the kids as to what they would pack. Mrs. F. explained that
she didn’t tell them to pack a coat, gloves, boots and a hat. All she did was
give them the clue that they were going to Alaska, and they used their
background knowledge to figure out the answer of what to pack. The kids really
got it.
- They
had also been working on identifying and using text elements, so she showed a
story on the document camera, which each student had a copy of, and asked them
to use the pictures, title, and captions to figure out what the story might be
about. Then she read the story out loud and asked the kids to make inferences
about the text.
- After
completing the assignment, Mrs. F. wrote: “Make inferences when I read” to the
‘Today I Can’ section of the white board.
v Then the kids
transitioned into the Work Board, which Mrs. F. uses instead of Daily 5. There
are multiple stations that the kids rotate through in 20-minute blocks during
the week.
- ABC
Page – Each day the kids get a new letter of the alphabet. They pick something
that begins with that letter that describes them, and write about and
illustrate it. They were on ‘U’, and will begin the alphabet again after going
all the way through. At the end of the year, all of their pages will be bound
into a book about them to give to the parents. Mrs. F. explained that other
teachers use the ABC pages to have the kids write about animals. I loved this
idea and will definitely use it in my classroom.
- Writing
Station – The kids reinforce the language arts skill they learned during the
previous week using wipe-off boards, paper, wiki-stix, and other tools.
- Listening
Center – Kids listened to an audio book reinforcing a skill they learned during
the current or previous week.
- Game
– Kids played a game related to skill reinforcement.
- Reading
Group – In leveled groups, the kids worked with me on their inferring skill,
using background knowledge questions, reading a passage, and answering
questions about the text.
- During
this time, the teacher would pull small groups to re-teach or reinforce
concepts, and some students were pulled for additional academic enhancement or
challenge.
v Next I conducted
a read-aloud with the students about Prairie Dogs, reinforcing the ideas of
inferring and using text elements. Mrs. F. explained to me that inferring was a
skill required on the Sage test. I started by telling my own story about
personal experiences with prairie dogs. Then we reviewed the different text
elements. As I read, the students followed along on their own copy of the
non-fiction text. I would stop periodically and ask comprehension questions or
ask the kids to make inferences. At the end, I solicited questions from the
kids, and asked the other students to find text clues to help answer them.
v Grammar Minute
came next. The kids were learning about commas, and the teacher used many
different interactions to help the kids understand commas and their use. They
made the comma in the air with their fingers, brainstormed placed that commas
might be used and why (including in math), and discussed with ‘elbow partners’ about
how using commas makes us better writers and readers. The teacher rotated
through the classroom to listen to the conversations and ensure the students
understood the concept.
As
a class, the students voted on whether the pause caused by a comma is longer or
shorter than the pause created by a period, and the students all practiced
writing commas. Finally, the teacher put a worksheet on the board and called
students up to find where commas should have been placed. The class did the
first two together, then the kids tried one on their own and discussed it as a
class, and finally the class did the remaining sentences individually.
v As the students
prepared to go to P.E., they put their cursive books and pencils so they would
be ready for the next activity when they returned.
- The
gym was occupied when we went to P.E., so we spent time outside doing exercises
from a set of Superman-themed flash cards, in which one student model an
exercise and the class followed along for 10 reps. Then they played Star Wars
using foam pool noodles cut in half to have ‘light saber’ battles. The teacher gave a criterion for each round,
such as green versus orange, boys versus girls, etc. Finally the kids used Chinese jump ropes.
This time with the teacher was invaluable. I really enjoyed talking to her and
getting ideas about student teaching, differentiation, and keeping kids engaged
throughout the day. She was very complimentary of my time spent with the
students, so that was nice, too.
v When the kids
came back in, the teacher modeled and the students practiced writing the cursive
letter N, then the kids brainstormed words that started with N, which the
teacher wrote on the board. Finally the kids practiced writing the brainstormed
words in their cursive notebook.
v The last
activity before lunch was the teacher introducing the students’ new science
unit, Heat and Light, which they would be doing in the afternoon. She showed
them a traditional thermometer, and a Galileo thermometer, and explained how
each works. The Galileo thermometer she
has was a gift from her uncle who had a very large floor model when Mrs. F. was
growing up. She shared the story that, when she got her own classroom, her
uncle gave her the one she had as a gift. I liked how she made it personal to
the kids, and used that as a teaching moment about safety and being careful.
v There were many
routines this teacher had that I will use in my classroom.
- The
kids earned “money” in the form of a dollar amount written on the board that
was modified throughout the day based on behavior. We didn’t discuss it, but I
assume the kids earned something when they reached a certain amount.
- She
was always previewing what would be coming next for the kids, such as detailing
the schedule for the day, getting their materials prepped for the next
activity, and sharing the thermometers. This allowed the kids to begin thinking
– consciously or subconsciously – about that next activity and to get excited
about it.
- I
liked the communication she used with parents, in the form of a daily planner
check and a monthly newsletter. This seemed like it was enough to keep parents
informed, but not enough to overwhelm her or them.
- She
was very organized when it came to volunteers. There was one drawer in her
cabinets that had a binder for each volunteer. She would put the materials she
wanted that person working on in the binder and, when they arrived, the
volunteer would know exactly what to do and have all of their materials without
having to interrupt or disrupt the class. One volunteer worked with reading
groups, one worked on re-teaching, and one worked on classroom organization and
prep.
- To
regain the kids’ attention, the teacher would say ‘Back with me in 3, 2, and
1’. This worked nearly without fail. If anyone was still talking, she would
silently walk over and reduce the dollar amount on the board by $1 or $2,
depending on the number of disrupters or add money if they responded
appropriately.
- Sticking
with the theme of her classroom, there was a branding iron with a G and one
with a B. If a student needed to use the restroom, he or she got the
appropriate brand and put it on their desk. If the G brand was gone, other
girls had to wait to take a turn using the restroom.
- I
liked the teacher’s “Today I Can . . .” on the board, and how she identified
things that the kids mastered. I think this would give them a sense of pride
and motivation.
- For
students who were absent, a red folder was placed on their desk. As the day
went on, one student was in charge of putting a copy of each worksheet or
assignment in the folder so the student had everything they needed when they
returned.
This
was one of my favorite observation experiences. I hope to be as effective,
efficient, and engaging as a teacher with my own class as Mrs. F. was with
hers.
Perceptions and Reflections - My
time gettin' schooled . . . Episode 11
March 21, 2016
v 25 students; 15
boys, 10 girls; 23 present
v Huge span of
reading levels from E-W
v 3 students
require adaptations and modifications, which she offers partially in the form
of higher students helping lower students, reading math word problems out loud
to lower readers, headphones with white noise for distracted learners, stickers
to encourage participation, and student/parent/teacher contracts.
v The classroom
was busy and unorganized, with students’ names written with sharpie on their
desks, and no rhyme or reason as to where things were placed or stored. It was
basically a disaster. Being a Monday, I was surprised that some care to clean
up wasn’t taken before class started. The
teacher did not have a desk, so her things were haphazardly placed throughout
the room.
v To enter the
classroom, the teacher asked the kids Brain Quest questions. This process took nearly 12 minutes. Many of
the students were not able to answer, so she gave them the correct answer and
let them in. I felt this was appropriate because the kids may have felt
pressure being put on the spot, and it was a still learning experience to give
them the answer. Overall, I thought this was an adequate entry ticket, but not
ideal. It took a long time, and didn’t really serve a purpose. I would probably
choose to quiz them on spelling words, give them a math problem to answer, or
something else related to their curriculum.
v As the kids
entered, they hung up their backpacks, took their chairs down, and began
working on their Password Journal, which included work around a word and number
written on the board. The words were taken from their spelling or grammar
lessons. During this time, the teacher rotated around the room, reminding them
to turn in library books, answering questions, and listening to stories. Kids
brought their password journals to her to check when they were done.
v At one point,
the teacher instructed that they would be entering a ‘noise-free’ zone and
began a count down. Many students were
still talking and making other noises after she reached zero, but there was no
enforcement and, within a matter of minutes, the decibels shot up again.
v One method of
behavior management this teacher used was to award table points. She used
positive reinforcement, saying, ‘I like the way table one is . .’
v 30 minutes or so
into their day, the kids gathered at ‘the rug’, which was actually just an area
of the room, for calendar time. This was student led, very unorganized, and
generally ineffective. The teacher did
not have any engagement with the kids during this time. I feel that calendar
time is a very important ‘life-skill’ type of lesson and should not be taken
lightly. It should be teacher-led, and developed into a routine.
v Next the kids
shared about their weekends in an ‘inside-out circle’, where one half of the
kids (numbered off 1, 2, 1, 2) stood in a circle surrounding a cluster of desks
and faced out, while the other half paired up with them and faced in. The idea
was that they rotated in opposite directions while music played and, when the
music stopped, they shared about their weekend with the student they ‘landed’
in front of. However, the kids moved at different speeds, tripped, bunched up,
and sometimes even switched circles. The result was some kids not participating
at all, and others arguing over which person landed in front of whom. Again,
unorganized and ineffective, but a nice thought. I would have drawn Popsicle
sticks and let selected students share while they were still on ‘the rug.’
v The teacher then
had all of the students sit back down on the rug and she reviewed the features
and elements of a fairy tale, and talked about what strategies the students
could use when they came across a word they didn’t know in their reading,
writing each strategy on poster board.
She then read Rapunzel: A Groovy
Fairy Tale, by Lynn Roberts, out loud, stopping for words they may not know
and writing them down, then analyzing them with the students using the
strategies they wrote down. When students got them right, she tossed them a
Skittle. She was a great reader, and kept most the kids entertained and
engaged. Others were engaged in side conversations, and there was a lot of fidgeting. Unfortunately they did not have time to
finish the story before snack and recess. To dismiss the kids to recess, she
asked the questions recapping the strategies they had discussed. The ‘secret’
Skittle color was green, so anyone who got a green Skittle (which seemed to be
the entire class) got to pick something out of the prize bucket. Kids were then
given a squirt of hand sanitizer and excused to get their coats. The hand
sanitizer ended up being a game, though, and many were throwing it and splashing
each other, which went unnoticed.
v When the kids
returned, they began a literacy block, and I worked with four different small
groups on using text elements to define unknown words. This was, of course, very fun and gratifying,
but I was a little surprised that the teacher asked me to do an activity that
she had just purchased, was unfamiliar with, and the kids had not done before.
I had to immediately gauge the students’ abilities in each group and modify the
activity accordingly.
v As with my other
observations at this school, I was, once again, struck by how noisy this school
was, and this class was no exception. It was downstairs, and the foot-stomping,
chair dragging, door closing noises from the second level were very
distracting.
Perceptions and Reflections - My
time gettin' schooled . . . Episode 12
April 4, 2016
v Since my first
observation in this class, the student body has grown and is now composed of 11
girls and 15 boys
v 25 students were
present on the day of observation
v 3 students had
culturally diverse backgrounds
v Reading levels
span from O – Y
v I had previously
observed for a half-day in this class and not much had changed in the five
weeks between. There were a few examples
of student work on the wall from a recent weather unit.
v As during the
last observation, the teacher greeted them with a happy good morning and
reminded them of their jobs – doing the lunch count and working on the tasks
listed on the board.
v Since some of
the worksheets they were using were formatted differently from what they were
used to, the teacher took time to review the differences. She noted to me that,
anytime a worksheet was new or different, she didn’t place them on the
students’ desks but held them out to give an opportunity to explain them. I
thought this was a great idea and will implement it in my classroom. Again, students came right in and got to work
quickly. Attention and skill varied
greatly. Some kids were done in 15 minutes, and some took all 45 and still
didn’t finish. The Mountain Language was corrected as a class.
- During
this time, I worked with individual students who needed to practice their multiplication
facts just outside the classroom playing War using cards, with each of us
drawing a card and the student multiplying the two drawn numbers together.
v The next
activity was shared reading, in which the class took turns reading out loud
from their Journeys for Kids book. The teacher explained to me before class began that she
realized in the middle of the night that her kids needed more practice reading
out loud. So, she came up with several innovative ways to have them read this text,
including boys and then girls, pulling Popsicle sticks, by table groups, and a
group of two boys who weren’t paying attention. There was not much emphasis on
fluency traits, but she recognized that they needed to get more experience
reading before trying to add in tone, emphasis, and excitement in their voices.
v Students then
began their math work, using their Arithmetic Developed Daily book, then playing math fact games with partners. This worksheet was also
corrected as a class.
- Following
ADD, the teacher directly instructed the students about relating fractions to
decimals. They wrote several things in their math journals together including
the objective, and then some examples. The lesson was totally ineffective. The
students may have ended up understanding the steps, but certainly didn’t
understand the concept. Decimals were an entirely new concept and the teacher
wasn’t confident in her approach. In fact, later in the lunch room, she asked
another teacher on her team how she approached it. Knowing this is such a
complex concept, I would have put a lot more thought into the lesson strategy.
v While students
got a head start on their homework, the teacher read out loud from a novel.
v Next, the kids
switched classrooms, a process that took a significant amount of time. The
class that came into this classroom worked on practicing using the computer
tools available during an upcoming state-based test, which Ms. S’s class worked
on web-based visual math instruction software called ST Math, by MIND Research
Institute. I was a little confused as to why the kids had to switch classes for
this, but recognized it may have been a nice break in the day for them and a
chance to be in a new environment for a period of time.
v During social
studies, students began reviewing informational binders that had been created
for a particular county in the state of Utah that they were doing a report on.
The binders included the history, language, monuments, origin of the name,
facts & figures such as area, elevation and population, geographic
information, historical populations such as Native Americans and trappers,
fossils and minerals, agriculture, and highways. On this day, students created
a cover page for their report and one worksheet that contained demographic
information about their county.
v Students were
given the choice of five novels to read in literary circles. They would spend
one week reading the novels as a group, and each had a job to complete during
the reading. The teacher read a synopsis of each book, and then drew Popsicle
sticks to determine an order for the students to choose. Unfortunately, some
kids took longer to decide than others, so some of them lost their chance to
pick a particular book because others whose names were drawn later chose more
quickly. I would have had the kids line up in the order called and wait their
turn.
v For science, the
kids were working on review activities as they had completed their units for
the year. Today’s activity began a two-week review of weather. This would be
accomplished by making an A, B, C book about weather, choosing one
weather-related term for each letter of the alphabet and creating a page
containing the letter, the word, a definition, a sentence using the word, and
an illustration of the word. These would be shared with the students’ first-grade
buddies at the end of the two weeks.
v I was reminded
of the many things I liked about Ms. S’s classroom, including the system of
putting their thumbs up when students were ready to transition, and the way she
was constantly interacting with the kids and rotating around the room. Overall,
her classroom was managed well and the kids stayed engaged all day.
Perceptions and Reflections - My
time gettin' schooled . . . Episode 13
April 13, 2016
v 27 students; 21
are boys. 26 in attendance on day of observation.
v Sports themed classroom
v Reading level
ranges from C through X
v As I arrived,
the teacher was setting up for a special breakfast that the kids were going to
have to celebrate finishing their unit on biographies of famous leaders. The
classroom was absolutely adorable, with table cloths, center pieces, and doily
placemats. Many of the students arrived in suits or fancy dresses, prepared to
give an oral presentation and show their 3-D portrait, created using a 2-litre
bottle as the base for construction. The format for the oral presentations,
which they had practiced in class, was to go to the front of the class with
their portrait, and share three facts and answer two questions about their
leader of choice.
- The
information shared in each presentation varied differently, so many of the
questions were around what day they were born or died, and who they were or
what they did. Some students even forgot to introduce their leader (i.e., the
student who presented about Michelle Obama forgot to say that she was the First
Lady.) For this reason, the only thing I
would have changed would be to give specific criteria in an outline format,
such as,
§ “My report is
about . . . “
§ “He is an
influential leader because . . .”
§ “He was born on
_____, and died on _____”
§ “Three important/interesting
facts about _____ are . . .”
This
was a great project and a fun unit which I would like to incorporate into my
curriculum.
v When the teacher
had to leave in the morning to attend a PTA meeting, the mom of one student
came into the class to lead them in a writing assignment and in a cursive
lesson. The class was very disrespectful
and disruptive. I had to stop the class three different times and ask them to change
their behavior. The mom shared this
experience with the teacher when she returned.
v As a result, the
teacher held a class meeting to discuss what happened, and to tell them that,
since she had received negative reports from substitutes and aides in the past,
there would now be a consequence if it happened again, explaining that the class
would lose their afternoon recess. I thought that this was a respectful and
professional way to handle the situation. She addressed the issue immediately,
explained why their behavior was unacceptable, and told them what the
consequence would be if they made that choice again.
v The next
activity involved continuing the writing process for an opinion paper about
whether or not John Glenn was an American hero. This was very well done and
planned out, breaking the assignment into chunks for each step in the writing
process. The teacher used appropriate academic language, and the assignment was
very interactive. She frequently worked along with the kids using an overhead
projector. After completing a paper organizer outlining their introductory and
concluding paragraphs and three interesting facts based on a written passage,
the students drafted a complete paragraph, which I typed into the Utah Compose
program, intentionally making several errors for the students to find and
correct. The class then worked together to complete the revising and editing
steps. This simulated the writing portion of an upcoming standardized test they
would be taking and gave them practice navigating the writing process on the
computer. The following week, students
would be given a new writing passage and would go through the same steps on
their own to write an opinion paper based on that prompt.
v Students then
worked on Dragon Slayer math, which is thoroughly described in the notes from
my previous observation with this teacher.
v I conducted a
read-aloud with the students, reading from a novel they had been listening to
called The Power of Un.
v During math, the
teacher was beginning to work with the students on fractions. She did an
amazing job, and was much more effective than the other teachers I have
observed. During the time, the class discussed the grading percentages for a
test that the teacher handed back and how they related to fractions, graphed
their results, worked through a guided instruction math worksheet together,
completing each problem as a group, and then worked on an independent
instruction worksheet with similar problems on their own. When providing direct
instruction, the teacher described visual examples such as dividing a
watermelon between friends, used circles with dots to represent the division of
the whole, pointed out ‘clue words’ like sum,
and discussed patterns and various strategies. She really diversified the
instruction so that each student could understand. With each problem they did
together, she asked the class to share the strategies they used, offered lots
of praise, and encouraged the students to celebrate each other. When
correcting, kids used a red pen, which would be an effective way to make sure
that they weren’t filling in the answers as they were given instead of figuring
them out for themselves. As the students came across a problem asking them to
shade 3/3 of a box, she exclaimed that they were about to make a big discovery
and was very animated when they figured out that it represented one whole.
v For science, the
students experimented with dropping marbles of different sizes into a flat
container of flour to create craters like those on the moon, and also discussed
the orbit of the moon around the earth and the earth around the sun. They
completed several pages from their Moon Journals, answering in complete
sentences things like ‘where does the
moon get its light from’, and ‘what
causes day and night.’ The kids began working on a paper model of the moon,
earth, and sun that would show the orbits and which would be completed the
following day.
v As during the
last observation, the teacher used a number of ways to keep the kids engaged
such as songs, chants, and constant interaction. Other than working
independently with a couple of students who were struggling with fractions, she
didn’t sit down once, and was involved with the kids all day. I also noticed a
couple of new things on this day:
- Kids
talked to ‘eyeball buddies’ (the person across from them) or ‘elbow buddies’
(the person next to them) to share strategies, provide ‘coaching’, and explain
concepts.
- When
students were done with a task, they put their hands on their heads. This not
only notified the teacher they were ready to move on, but also kept them from
getting distracted by something else on their or their neighbor’s desks.
***
So, that was my Observation experience, totalling about 64 hours in classrooms and learning what I want to do (and don't want to do) when I'm in my own class. In season 2, I'll detail my experiences as a Student Teacher, when I will be Marge in Charge of my own little group of tiny humans for 12 full weeks - eeek! I'm waiting for hear what grade and school I'll be assigned to, but hoping to be placed at a local elementary school, Blackridge, which was my favorite to conduct observations in and the place I felt I connected with the most. And, it has the added bonus of a 3-minute commute from home. :) I could go for that.
Stay tuned . . .
