Blog Entry #8

I think the most important thing I have learned doing my fieldwork experience is that classrooms are as diverse as people are. No two teachers teach the same way, and even the same teacher will not teach the same lesson the same way every year. Teaching is a constantly changing field of work. People who like routines and traditions probably aren't the best sort for teaching careers. Fortunately, I am not such a person. I love learning new ways to do things and I look forward to the adventure of creating new ideas to teach old concepts. Part of the reason teaching is subject to so much change is that students are constantly changing. They come from immensely diverse backgrounds opening up an exciting challenge to teachers to develop their understanding, tolerance, and utilization of differences. Along with background diversity, students, especially in elementary school, are extremely adaptable. Little of their knowledge is set in stone and, likewise, their behavioral characteristics are adapting. Teachers are responsible to guide students education in a positive direction, encouraging behaviors that will lead to success in the future while appropriately discouraging inappropriate behavior.

Blog Entry #7

I didn't notice the teacher having any difficulties with discipline in her classroom. I think the biggest reason for that was that most of the students had been in the class long enough to be aware of the rules and know what the teacher expected of them. Also, the teacher explained to the students what the schedule for the day was going to be, so they knew what they were expected to do at what time. Especially during their rotation time, the students were responsible for making sure they were in the right place doing the right activity. I feel like giving the students a little bit of responsibility reduces the stress on the teacher and helps students learn to organize their time. Most of the time, school rules are displayed in classrooms. I admit, I did not look for them, so I don't know exactly what they were for the 1st grade class. In my classroom at work, though, we have our rules posted on the wall. When we first posted them, I wondered why we did it because I work in a special needs classroom and only two of my students know how to read, making a poster kind of obsolete. My boss explained later that it's important, not only for students, but for parents and visitors to be aware of what the school expects from students so they can promote appropriate behavior. Also, the rules we have in our classroom are more specific to our students than the ones usually created by regular education schools. Things like "turn off cell phones in class" or "no talking over the teacher" don't really work with my students because they don't use cell phones and we can't force them to not make noise while we're talking because the noises they make are part of their disability. The point is, though, that every classroom will have specific problems. Rules need to be established early and both students and parents need to be aware of the expectations in a class.

Blog Entry #6

I noticed the teacher I worked with using a lot of visual aids. I am a huge fan of visuals because they make it easier for me to remember things, especially if I make the visual aid myself. One day, the teacher discussed different sounds like the "th" and the "wh" sounds. She read the students a story with those sounds in it. After she read the story, she asked the students to come up with words that have those sounds. She wrote the words that the students came up with on a poster. Most of the time, visual aids help students remember concepts longer, especially students who are visual learners. However, sometimes visual aids can be distracting, especially to students with disabilities. Teachers need to be aware of the needs of the students in the classroom and make sure not to over stimulate them. I also noticed that the teacher did not assign projects that took a lot of time, and she didn't spend much time sitting in front of the class lecturing. The class flowed fairly quickly from one activity to the next, making it easier for students to maintain interest. This wasn't always effective because some students were left behind because they couldn't finish projects as quickly as their classmates. I think I would like to schedule make-up time into the day so that those students don't have to stress about being behind all the time and students who finish their work early can be rewarded with quiet free time.

Blog Entry #5

It's hard to choose on role as the most challenging role teachers play because the expectations placed upon teachers are so diverse. I suppose, that, in itself could be the most challenging role, that is, being an adapter and a learner. Teachers to teach only one way will not reach many students. Out dated methods are as ineffective as out dated material. Teachers need to be willing to change the way they teach to fit the needs of the students rather than sticking to a pre-determined agenda. Developing this skill requires a lot of experimentation and observation. For example, I work at a school for special education. Recently, a new student moved into our class. Since we didn't know what the student was able to do or liked to do, I spent a whole day trying different tasks and documenting how he reacted to each task. A teacher needs to be able to recognize when a method is not working and be able and willing to make adjustments. At work, we spend a lot of time adapting curriculum and projects to fit the needs of each student. In a regular education classroom, it's harder to adapt for every student because there are no IEP's or aids making it possible for consistent one-on-one attention. Still, even regular-ed students need teachers who are aware of their areas of struggle and success. Teachers need to be humble enough to recognize the ideas of their students. A student more often than not knows which teaching methods they understand the best. Communicating options to students can be productive for both the student and teacher. Sometimes, it's more effective for a teacher to ask a student, "How would you like to do this?" than for the teacher to try several different methods of teaching material because it can save time and give the student a personal connection to the project.

Blog Entry #4

The teacher I did my fieldwork with had a lot of clerical and preparation tasks for me to do. Every morning I she asked me to start by taking all the pencils to the teacher's workroom and sharpen them since the first graders had a hard time doing it themselves and the classroom pencil sharpener was broken. The teacher also asked me to do a lot of artistic preparation like making posters. I am really looking forward to this part of teaching. I am not a fabulous artist, but I do enjoy it a lot. The most boring job I was given was grading papers. Math tests were not too bad, but homework assignments were harder. I struggled with understanding the teacher's system. She told me to give the students points for right answers, but a lot of the time the students would have all the right answers, but they added in some wrong answers. It was confusing and a little frustrating. When I am a teacher, it will be easier because I will be able to set my own standards and I will know what I expect from my students' homework. What I noticed the most was how grateful the teacher was when I finished a preparation or clerical task. Although they are not usually difficult, they are very time-consuming. Having no classroom aids can make it really hard for teachers to finish all the prep and clerical tasks they need to teach the next lesson. It's important to look ahead and start preparing early for lessons.

Blog Entry #3

For part of my hours I worked with some resource students. Most of them, but not all, were ESL students. The students were given private testing areas and had me verbally read the instructions on all their tests. Some of the things I helped test them on were spelling, math, and English. The teacher also tried several activities to help them learn English sounds. The teacher had me work individually with them on practicing letter sounds. One student particularly stood out to me because he kept getting really frustrated when he didn't know an answer. I tried to stay upbeat, smile at him, and encourage him a lot. At my regular job I work with special needs students as a classroom aid. My boss told us that we should give students positive reinforcement every five to ten minutes to let them know that they are doing well. I tried to implicate that idea while working at Cherry Creek Elementary because I feel like all students, no matter what their level, need to know when they are improving.

Blog Entry #1

I noticed the teacher in the classroom I did fieldwork for was always busy. She had no down time ever. I was quite amazed that she was able to keep track so well of what needed to be done and in what order. For the most part, the teacher gave me the prep jobs she needed done while she worked with the children. She read to them a lot, which was interesting for me to watch because I'm currently taking Children's Literature and we often talk about how to use books in our classroom lessons. Today, for example, she used a cute story to help the students recognize the "ch" sound. She read the story out loud and had the students raise their hands whenever they heard her say the "ch" sound. It was a creative way to implicate literature into the lesson and to keep the students engaged in the story. The teacher made the students to a lot by themselves. They were put into groups and expected to work out problems as a group instead of asking the teacher every little question they had, which was a brilliant idea because, I noticed, they had a lot of questions. I noticed specifically that she made them guess how to spell words before she would tell them the correct spelling. I think that it's really important for students to at least put effort into doing work on their own because problem solving skills are probably more important for us to teach than whatever specific fact they're trying to learn. The teacher didn't spend a whole lot of time standing in front of the class teaching lessons. She spent, at most, a half hour on a lesson and then moved onto the activities and assignments. I think it's important for teachers to be aware of the attention span of their students. It took only a few minutes for the students to get distracted and lose interest in what the teacher was saying unless she was doing something exceptionally interesting.