Final Post

The thing that made the biggest impression on me was focusing on the individual.  One of my favorite video clips was of the teacher who met each of his students at the classroom door. He shook their hand and asked each of them a question about the material they were learning about in class.  I feel like the personal contact teachers have with their students makes a big difference in the learning environment.  I noticed, as I walked through the halls of the elementary school I volunteered at, that teachers stood at the door to say good bye to their students at the end of every day. They would shake hands with, give hugs to, and just spend a little time with each student.  I makes for a warm environment.  The principal opens the front doors every morning and says hello to all the children.  He has made it a point to get to know every child's name.

I enjoyed the section on classroom management and learning environments. In the classroom that I volunteered in, she uses 'bunny money' and a teacher's store in helping with classroom management.  The children love it.  the lowest priced item is 5 bunny money for a tootsie roll.  She keeps the item costs high, but also gives out the money regularly to encourage good behavior.  It seems to work well, and she gets the results she is looking for.

This was a great class for me.  I learned so much and had a wonderful time in the classroom.

Classroom Rules

I spend time each week in a Kindergarten class. The rules are pretty simple, I think in part due to the students age, and they are also new to the school environment.  I really like how the rules are presented to the class. About two or three weeks in to class they have "Mrs. Adam's Boot Camp". For a whole week she over-emphasizes the rules and tries to focus on the importance of keeping the rules. she play the role of drill sargent and just has a fun time with the students while teaching them some valuable lessons. At the end of the week they have a graduation ceremony and everyone gets dog tags and a shirt that says 'I Survived Mrs. Adams' Boot Camp'.  

At the beginning of this semester she had a student teacher while I was there.  The student teacher had a very difficult time keeping the students in line and controlled.  After the student teacher left the class went through boot camp again.  That was her way of reminding the children of the rules.

 

Teacher Strategies

This week the children started a writing assignment.  I wasn't there for the first part of the process, but from what I understand, they read about Paul Bunyon in class the previous day. They met together on the carpet the next day to recap what they had learned, by sharing facts from their reading. All the children were given the opportunity to share what they had learned about Paul Bunyon.  After the initial discussion, the children were asked ho w they felt about him. As they shared thoughts and feelings, the teacher would write down the different sentences they would come up with.  After that, all the children went back to their desks to write about Paul Bunyon.

I really liked this idea. I liked the idea of brainstorming as a group.  This gave the children to opportunity to remember what they had learned the day before.  It also gave them a starting point for their writing assignment.  They also had enough vocabulary words to make new sentences.  

A Teacher's Role...

I believe that a teacher's most important role is to be a facilitator. It's probably that hardest role also. I believe a facilitator is someone who provide the best possible environment for learning.  Teachers need to have a relationship with their students, they need to understand their student's needs. A teacher/facilitator gives students the opportunity to learn based on their needs and abilities.

When you have 25 students who all have different needs, different backgrounds and different abilities, it is very hard to individualize each learning experience. Facilitating is more than just sharing information, you have to empathize with and truly care for the students your are teaching.  I have been very lucky to work with a teacher that tries her very best to give her students this type of a learning experience.

Assessment Management

I spend a lot of time doing assessments on Fridays.  Each child is assessed for spelling and reading on Fridays.

Spelling Tests:  Through out the week the class focuses on three spelling words from their 'sight words' list. They recite them as a class, they write them out three times every day, they are asked to practice at home and these words are apart of the flash cards they should be studying.  On Friday, they have a spelling test with those three words, and a bonus word.  The bonus word is a phonetic word. After the spelling test all the scores are recorded and we also record the words or words that are missed.

Reading scores: The students have 'Share Sheets" on Fridays.  These sheets include sight words, letter sounds, phonetic words and a small story with questions to answer at the end.  Each child has to read through their sheet. If they don't know a word or sound it gets circled.  The child gets a score out of four for their story.  All these scores are recorded, words and sounds that are missed are also recorded.

All of this is done with the help of the teacher, a classroom aid that comes in for an hour or so, myself and a 'volunteer grandparent'. I help record all the scores.  They still need to be recorded in the school grading system. I was talking with the two Kindergarten teachers and they find this is the hardest task to keep up on.  They don't have time during the day, and it gets put off.  One of their goals is to continue to stay caught up on assessments and more importantly, record all their grades.

English Learners

There are five English Learners in the Kindergarten class I work with. I have worked with this teacher for two years now and I am impressed with her ability to include all the children. I think I will just list and comment on some of the many things she incorporates in to her class to support her English learners.

1. She teaches them the Pledge of Allegiance in English and Spanish. They sing the birthday song in English, Spanish and Sign Language.  I think this helps all the children. Those who don't speak Spanish can learn and understand that people are different, but that's a good thing. Those who don't speak English can also learn, but they can have that comfort of their first language. I also think this builds on common ground. Everyone celebrates birthdays and sings birthday songs.  The children can see commonalities.

2. Reading materials. There are different sections on each reading sheet that comes home each day. She gives each child the same reading sheet, but for two of out ESL students, she doesn't expect them to read all the sections like the other students.  They struggle more with English and she focuses more on the basics with them.  There is one girl that can read everything you but in front of her, but she can't answer any questions about what she read. She lacks comprehension. So, her reading involves more question and answer practice than some of the others.

3. She puts an ESL student next to a chatty english-speaking student. She says the quickest way for them to learn English is to sit by English speaking students. Of course, that makes sense, but I hadn't thought of that before.

4. She speaks Spanish.  What a huge help.  If you don't speak Spanish, and the parents don't either, how can you communicate? Often times the student becomes the translator. That is my biggest question right now...do I seek some type of Spanish classes, if not a degree in Spanish ? How much more effective could I be?

Blog Entry #2

I would like to share my experience with Katelyn this week.

Fridays all the children are tested on their progress in reading for the week. I was able to sit with five children, individually.  Katelyn was my last student of the day. Katelyn couldn't focus on the task of reading. She was looking all over the room and told me she didn't want to read.  I knew, from information given to me by the teacher, that Katelyn's parents didn't spend much time reading with her. I got the feeling, from the way she was acting, that if she told someone she didn't want to read, she didn't have to.

I started to feel like I wasn't going to be able to help her accomplish her reading assignment because she continued to fight against it. Then I had an idea. She was so distracted by the children doing various activities, I had to bring her attention back to me. I have been reading more about auditory learners since the little test we took a week or so ago. She seemed to display some of the same characteristics as one of my children has who is an auditory learner.  We went out into the hallway where there was a lot less noise. I started to ask her questions about herself and reading. Once I was able to get her attention I took a different approach to her reading. I would ask her what sound the letters made instead of having her look at the letter on the paper and telling me the sound. Once she felt more confident with her letter sounds she was able to read the phonetic words without any problems.

By the time we were done, she had made quite a bit of progress.  More important, she could see the progress she had made. It was a neat experience for me and I hope for her.  Unfortunately, when you are one teacher among 25 children, those types of experiences are few and far between.  I don't know how you can spend time like that with one child while 24 others are needing attention as well. It seems like such a challenge. I am curious, as the weeks go on, to see how the teacher I am working with does this.