Blog Entry 8

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

The most important thing I learned was that I really do want to be a teacher. I took a risk switching from a Computer Engineering major to an Elementary Education major. I knew that I really wanted to change majors, and I was thinking all summer about what I want to be when I grow up. I've changed a lot as a person in the last year and a half, and I kept realizing more and more how much I don't like computer engineering. It was making me miserable. I was thinking about changing my major to either Physics or Math. I really like those subjects, but I really don't want to become a physicist or a mathematician.  

About a month and a half before school started, my best friend threw out the idea that maybe I should become an elementary school teacher. That had never occurred to me. I thought about it for a long time, and it seemed like teaching would be something I really would love doing. I talked to my family about it and I was surprised about how supportive they were. They thought it was a good choice for me and that I would make a good teacher too. Still not completely sure, I went to the Elementary Education adviser and changed my major just a few weeks before school started. 

I loved going to the elementary school every week. I also am taking the Exceptional Students class where I have to do 10 hours of field work in the resource room, so most weeks I went to the school twice a week. Those were always my favorite parts of the week. I love being around kids and I get along with them really well. I always thought about putting myself in the teacher's shoes. I can't think of anything I'd like to do more than be a teacher. Without the fieldwork, I probably still wouldn't be sure if I chose the right major. Because of the fieldwork, I learned what I want to be for the rest of my life.

Blog 7 11/8/2012

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

When I come into the class every Thursday morning, things generally go the same way. The teacher gives the students a quiz on math. The kid's know the procedure. Work silently on your own work in pencil, and when it comes time to grade your own paper, you put your pencil away and take out a red pen. After the teacher walks through the quiz questions on the overhead and the students put the quiz away, the teacher teaches some new math or continues to review things the students have already learned. They then always have a worksheet or two to do on their own that I grade during recess. If the kids finish their work early, they always have something else to work on or read. The procedure is the same every Thursday that I come in. The procedure is simple and effective and everyone knows what is going on so there isn't any confusion.

After recess, the subject is always English, usually the students work on writing a story or work on a graphic organizer to brainstorm a story (today they were working on autobiographies). The procedures are all known then too. When a student has a rough draft done, the know to ask the class if anyone is willing to do a peer review. If a student is ready, they can write their name on the board in the back to get on the list of students waiting for a teacher review. It might be a little less structured because every student is in a different place in their writing and reviews, but it works. Everyone knows the procedures and stay on task.

Blog Entry 6

What Strategies does the Teacher use to Actively Engage Students? How Effective are These?

Sometimes the teacher I observe plays simple games. One game was where students sat on their desks and each student said the next number in a skip counting sequence. If a student said the wrong number, he or she had to sit down. The person who won the game got a prize of $10 in classroom dollars that can be traded in for prizes. I think that's a helpful way to encourage students to memorize skip counting sequences, and skip counting is a good way of solving multiplication problems.

The teacher also has the class sing skip counting songs. For example, counting by fours goes along with the tune from Row, Row, Row your Boat. 

I've seen the teacher do small group activities where the students have to come up with story problems as a group. Creating story problems instead of just solving them helps reinforce mathematical concepts. It also takes creativity to come up with good story problems.

October 25, 2012

Blog Entry #5

What do I Think the Most Important Role a Teacher Plays is?

I think the most important role of a teacher is to be someone who inspires the love of learning in children. When I was in elementary school, it was thoroughly uncool to be smart and to like school. That's very wrong. I think that being able to learn and also be able to enjoy it at the same time is the most important life skill, but a child will never love learning if all he knows learning to be is reading dull textbooks and memorizing seemingly meaningless facts. It's crucially important for the teacher to make the material relevant and engaging.

I guess you could say that I think the most important role of a teacher is to simply be a good teacher. That's how you inspire kids to love learning. Lessons should be interesting and the teacher should be approachable and compassionate to the students. Teachers should always be able to answer when a student asks "Why?" If the child doesn't know why she's learning something, she has no motivation to learn it. This is especially important in crucial subjects like math that are generally the most boring and disliked by the students when it really shouldn't be. Being someone who gets the students to love learning all subjects is the most important role of a teacher.

October 18, 2012

What clerical and preparation responsibilities have you participated in?

Almost every time I go into the classroom, the teacher teaches math. I always grade the students' math work during recess. Most of the students do really really well. There are about two students who really don't get it. The teacher always gives the students who struggle extra attention at the end of the school day (maybe in flex time?). Several of the students get the problems right, but are never able to complete the whole assignment in the time they have. I let the teacher grade them how she thinks is appropriate. I don't think the teacher docks them points for being slower at doing math problems than the rest of the class. They obviously understand the material.

Once I had to cut out leaves for the students to use as stencils for an art project. That was time consuming, but I was still able to listen to the class while I was doing it.

September 30, 2012

Tell About an Opportunity You Had to Work One on One With a Student

While the students were working on a subtraction assignment, they could go to the teacher in the back of the room for some feedback and she would circle the problems they had done incorrectly. A student raised his hand and I came over to help. He had almost all of his problems circled. I could see that he understood the concept of regrouping (borrowing), but he was doing very poorly on simple arithmetic. I remember asking him, "what's seven minus four?" He would think for a few seconds and say pretty confidently "four." I asked him if he was sure and then held up seven fingers and counted backwards four times. He could see now that the answer was three.

We tried this a few more times and almost every time he tried to subtract in his head he would come up with the wrong answer, but every single time he counted on his fingers he came up with the right one. I told him to always count on his fingers when he wasn't sure and that I do it all the time. I left him to work alone and wandered around the class for a few minutes. When I came back, I could see the he was finally getting the right answers consistently.

Everyone learns differently. Some students can do subtraction from memorization or in their heads, and others need visual cues, like counting on fingers, or some other method. I don't think any one method is better than the other. This particular student I was working with seemed to possibly be a kinestetic or visual learner. Physically doing the action of counting down on his fingers every time allowed him to succeed.

September 13, 2012 - What Does a Teacher do all Day?

September 13, 2012

What Does a Teacher do all Day?

Today was my first day of fieldwork. It was at Vineyard Elementary with Miss Barber's third grade class. At this school, half the class comes in early and leaves early (AM students) and the other half comes in later and leaves later (PM students). This how this school deals with large class sizes. The teacher has the AM students by themselves in the morning to give them more individual attention and the PM students by themselves in the afternoon.

When I came into the class at 9:00 only the AM students were there. Miss Barber was at a table with about 6 students in a reading group and the other 6 or so were at their desks reading on their own. At 9:15 the PM students came and joined the rest of the class. The class then went to a computer lab to finish some computerized tests they are required to do. About half the class was already done with the testing and read their books while the rest of the class finished. I wandered around observing students taking the test. It was a language test and I was surprised about the difficulty of some of the questions.

After the testing on the computers was done, we went back to the classroom and the teacher starting teaching about subtracting and borrowing from 0s and three digit numbers. She did some examples and passed out a worksheet of 15 problems. I went around the class and helped a few students with their questions while they did the assignment. About the time they finished their assignment the bell rang for recess. I graded the subtraction worksheet during recess and chatted with Miss Barber a little bit. Most of the students did really well on the assignment, with the exception of one or two.

When the kids came back from recess, they worked on writing stories and I left while they were working. It was a great experience and am looking forward to next week.