Lesson observing

Hello lovely people,
Here I am writing a blog about someone other than my own teachers' lessons, all since my teacher left early this week for a reason I never found out. All I know is that she'll be getting home on Saturday! Anyway...
So a teacher came in on Tuesday and talked about safety, but also the big idea: personal space.

She first got the students' attention by sitting them all down on the rug. Then, she introduced them to the topic by asking them what they remember from the most recent assembly. Even when the children got the answer wrong, she was very patient and gave them the proper encouragement so that they still felt as if they had a good answer. She then keyed into the main point of it all, which was personal space.

She then read a story to the children about a boy who had a "personal space problem" and was sent to a personal space camp. During the middle of this story, she paused and had a volunteer to stand inside of a hoola hoop. She then asked how he felt about his "personal space bubble" and he was content. She then let about three more students join him inside the hoola hoop, but they were all still content and giggling about their situation. Finally, she let in about three more and the mood somewhat changed in the hoola hoop: the children began to feel less comfortable.

She then explained how personal space is something important to make sure that everyone is happy and feeling comfortable with their situation as she finished the story.

Overall, the kids remained engaged and then went to do a worksheet on it. It was also interesting because of how well the students pay attention to "guest teachers". At one point last week, I got the opportunity to read two books to the students. The entire time, all their focus was on me. I also had this same experience when I taught a lesson to a classroom last year in high school. The children are always very attentive. This really makes me wonder what it's like to have my own classroom: do the children at first respect you? When is it that they become more rowdy?

I think that this is why it's important to have your students really care about you: they never want to disappoint. I know for a fact that the children in my classroom care about me which is why they were so on task when I read to them.

Anyway, student aiding is going awesomely and I'm sad it's already halfway over!

Classroom Management

Hello all you lovely people!

Today I observed as my teacher conducted a usual class, in order to find out what she does to maintain classroom control with her management skills.

Surprisingly, the class was very in control with themselves today and their focus level was better than any other day. This probably just had to do with the fact that it was a quiet day in their minds, but it was definitely nice. When they did their birthday books (where the students write individual notes to a birthday kid, later to be binded in a book), all the students wrote a longer amount that usual. This very likely could have to do with what my teacher did before setting them off to complete the task: modelling. She showed the students on the SmartBoard exactly what a good letter would say.

Another tool she used to keep the students engaged and thinking was when she told the students to turn to the person next to them and discuss what they might say in their birthday book. This way, they all prepared to do their books before even picking up a pencil to do so.

My teacher maintains her classroom very well. Some of the random things that I've noted from today, and have seen in the past, are as follows:

*) Congratulating the kids who are quiet right off the bat. Whenever all the kids sit on the carpet in front of my teacher, she points out the students who are acting in a proper manner without being told to. This way, the other kids look to be like them and act in higher standards in hopes of being praised

*) As a class, every morning after reading groups my teacher has the students read the daily schedule together. This way, everyone knows what the agenda for the day is in advance. This is helpful to avoid wasted time throughout the day when students are confused as to what their task is.

*) Having helpers pass out papers: this saves time for her, plus gives kids the moment of leadership. This also keeps the classroom running on more of a timely schedule and has things happen crisply.

*) Using a counting system: when she wants the kids to hurry and pack up their stuff, she has everyone count down/uptogether. So, sometimes it will be counting down from 10 to 1, and at one everyone is required to be in their seats or on the carpet. What's cool though is that she mixes it up. An example of this was counting to a dollar, by quarters. So, the kids all together said 25 cents, 50 cents, 75 cents, and then when they hit one dollar they all were seated. I found this very neat and engaging, as well as a great classroom management skill.

*) Another thing that happened today was my teacher having me read outloud the spelling words. This way, the students became not only used to another person teaching them, but she also got the time to look around the class and see who was on task, as well as being able to get a drink of water for her throat. I think that she really is good at utilizing her resources as a teacher, which is something that is VERY important for classroom management.

Anyway, my biggest questions mainly revolve around how it happens. Is there any way that one can train themselves to know the answers to questions. Also, how is it that my teacher avoids so much chit chat between the students? She manages her classroom so well that it looks easy...which is great for her, but doesn't really help me. Haha.

Hope everyone had a good time observing :)

PHILOSOPHY!

How interesting to find out the mind of a teacher!

My interview with the amazing teacher I am aiding for went very well! It was in the midst of the children coloring a map of the world with greens and browns and showed one of the most important parts of teaching: keeping your mind on the task while making sure that the students are behaving behind your back. This also showed how well my teacher multitasks! Anyway, as it turns out, she is all about having structure: you put out for the children a set of high expectations and help them to reach those.

She has a very good handle on her classroom and it is impressive to see how well the kids respect her. At the same time, you can tell that they do like her and how much she teaches on a daily basis. A phrase she often uses is "You all have been making very good choices today", or the flip side being approximately "Please move your magnet into the yellow zone. I would like to see you make better choices than you have been". The magnet idea -- I don't know if your teachers do it -- is definitely cool! Each of the children have a little magnet person of themselves sitting on a whiteboard with different zones. It's a great visual aid instead of "drop a card" types of things.

Anyway, my teacher and I had a rather big conversation about teaching in general and here are some of the major points that she brought up:
*) It's important to build save learning environments in school.
*) School is a community and we should be building the connections in that way.
*) Set forth high expectations.
*) Grab the students' attention and be engaging. Use different types of questions for different children and help to scaffold on what they already know.

I also asked about other various things, such as her past. She has been a teacher for the past ten years and she has stayed with schools at the same SES level. We talked for a while about how SES effects children, and there were a few things: lower SES leads to limited social/academic schools, therefore it is necessary to push the children toward their growth; when children do not have their basic needs taken care of, it is harder for them to learn; it is harder for them to focus in general.

Another thing I asked about were morals. My teacher replied that social skills and morals are necessary to teach in school. I believe that this is a large debate and falls under the philosophy of a teacher.

Overall, I love my classroom, students, teacher, and entire situation. There is no way that I could have fallen into better hands!

One thing of controversy, as it has come up already: if a child grabs your hand to hold it, what should you do? When walking to recess, there's a little girl who always wants to hold my hand. Is this acceptable? I feel like it is, but there could be definite arguments against it. It's especially hard to tell her "no". How do you do this without hurting the child? It's the same as when I've made the mistake of going "shhh, listen to the teacher!". I realized how much it hurt one of the boys when I wouldn't listen to his story and told him to pay attention to my teacher up in the front of the classroom. Any suggestions to any of this?

My apologizes for being late.

Glad to see you all are having a good time in your classrooms :)

Off to a Good Start

This is my inaugural post for my second grade classroom!

Just so you know, my SSN is...

Kidding.

I really do enjoy blogging, or at least just typing out about all the fun things that go on in my life -- although they are often not that exciting to read about. However, I still do enjoy reaching out to somewhere about my little joys and mishaps. I am excited to share them all with YOU! Haha.

I am looking forward to beginning with my classroom. I love being in that environment so much, but it's scary how quickly it will actually be my own class. Either way, I will enjoy the time that I have working in a classroom now :)

-Miss Cole