Positive Classrooms

I love being able to be in the classroom.  I am so impressed  with how easy they seem to keep things flowing.  The thing that is also so impressive to me is how they can show so much love and caring but also to show the students what they expect as far as routine and expectations for behavior are concerned.

I am in a class room where the teacher feels that in order for her students to feel loved and not overlooked as well as safe.  She expects a lot from the first graders.  She does not let them know that they are too young to follow instructions.  She has started from day one with an everyday routine. They know exactly what needs to be done and when each day.  So, if there is a problem in the classroom she calls them out to make sure they know what isn't being done and then she lets them know that she cares.  One part of her routine that I think encourages a positive community is that when they come in each morning that put there stuff in their cubbies and then they each must answer a graph question of the day.  It may be "what is your pet?"  and then it will say, "dog, cat, fish, or bird".  They love seeing what everyone marks on the chart and where theirs fit in.

In the fifth grade class, I feel like she is really great at recognizing the students skills.  I feel like this is easier to do in older classes.  The way she does this is by doing a lot of independent study and activities in class.  She allows the students to work together and work at their pace.  I feel this shows that if someone understands they are able to help others and teach them.  And, in return someone else may be able to teach a different thing later on.

Learning Theories

I am so excited for the opportunity to get into the classroom.  I love the hands on teaching experience from the beginning of my schooling.  I am very lucky to get to see two classrooms and how they are run.  I am observing Mrs. Beck's first grade class at Thunder Ridge Elementary and Mrs. Whipple's fifth grade class at Meadow Elementary.  I had a chance to observe a little at both places this week and saw a lot of these theories in affect.

Mrs. Whipple's class was working on a project this week which had them working on their own most of the time.  I was able to observe Mrs. Whipple use the theory of behaviorism.  After she explained the instructions and answered questions for the assignment, she let the kids know that she would be playing music and they could visit as long as they could hear the music.  If it got loud and she had to give them three strikes they would have to work silently.  For the most part the kids were compliant.  They did get a couple strikes over time but never lost the privilege.

I noticed that with the older grades the use of behaviorism and other theories are harder to observe as the kids can work more freely on their own.  But, in the first grade classroom there was much more use of all three theories.  In order to keep the kids attention and behavior in check she would use many types of behaviorism and cognitivism.  The things I observed regarding behaviorism were that she had Beck dollars which were given for good behavior and taken if there were distractions like kids asking to go to the bathroom multiple times.  I saw her use a timer to say that the had five minutes to finish a project.  Mrs. Beck is great with structure and consistency and this I feel is done through great use of behaviorism in her class.  She uses cognitivism as she teaches the days of the week and the months of the year through music but also teaches them to read a calendar and say the day and date also.  I was also able to see her use constructivism as she has a morning routine where they sing a song and introduce themselves to others in the class.  In the song they sing, they have to shake hands and look people in the eye and say there name and move on to the next person.

I was so glad to see two teachers who are very involved with their class and making sure they are not just learning information but skills for life.