Diversity

As I have been doing my observations I have not ran in to very many diversity issues in the classroom.  The two classes that I observe do not have many children in the class that are different from others  These to classes are both in fairly well off school areas as well as being mostly Caucasian.

I do want to talk about diversity in behavior as part of this.  I was in a class the other day that was a very well run class as well as being very structured.  For the most part this class had no behavioral issues but did have a couple of students that she monitored a little closer.  The first student I felt was just ambivalent to school in general.  I could see that she would monitor to keep him on track and then he was so great to get things done and done well.  The second child was monitored because he was more active in class and not able to sit and get his work done as well. I did feel that as I observed it was an attention thing.  He wanted her to know where he was and what he was doing at all times.  I have not seen how teachers deal with issues in the class very much and hope that as I go along in the program I can get more training in this area as it is a concern for me.  I want to learn how behavior issues could and should be handled as I know there are students with issues that cause it to be really hard for them but I also can see that some behavior is just for show and attention and I would love to learn how to deal with this to not make it a bigger issue.

I love the idea of exceptional and gifted children in a classroom together.  I believe that sometimes pairing them up could be a help to both. I also feel that sometimes you need to have activities that you can have gifted students work on together at their own pace so as to have time with the exceptional students as one on one with the teacher.

Historical Events and Laws in school

I have noticed a lot regarding the laws and historical events regarding schools especially as I have been a substitute in schools.  I have the opportunity to see different classes in many schools in our area.  As far as the events in the past that shape our schools now a days The launch of Sputnik I feel made big strides in teaching our students more science and technology and we build on it now as STEM is such an important way of teaching in this day and age.  I was in a STEM classroom and had the best experience watching as they explored how to make roller coasters with marbles and pool noodles.  They worked in groups to figure out what they could make the noodles do to make the marble keep going.  Sometimes they would make them go too high and it would stop momentum.  It was such a great lesson.

I have been in different schools that have different cultural diversity in each classroom.  I have also seen how cultural diversity and how it varies in different areas around our county.  I do believe that the opportunity to learn English is so important in this area.  I have noticed that even though there are different groups of students the language barrier does not seem to be as prevalent as it has been in the past.  Sadly, I have not had any experience learning how our schools teach English as a second language but I would be very interested in knowing how this is accomplished.

Engaging Learners in Meaningful Ways

I love the idea of engaged learning.  I have never been a person that could learn very much by just sitting and listening.  I am a visual learner.  I know that there is time that lecturing is needed but I have learned lately that the most important part when you do this is to have discussions and take time to make sure that people understand.

This week I had the best opportunity to see good engaged learning at work.  I attended Mrs. Whipple's 5th grade class as they were having a day to make sure that they understood how to do the box method for 2 digit multiplication.  The lesson started with 2 problems that she put on the overhead for them to figure out.  She called this Hot Math.  The questions had multiple answers so they could discuss how they figured out their answers.  They did these problems with their partner on white boards.  They had a great discussion in the class with white boards as they practiced a few problems of the 2 digit multiplication and the teacher answered any questions they had.  Once, they did their review she told them to take their marker, eraser, and white board with them and they were going to do an activity outside.  She then told the students that she was separating them into two teams (early birds and later gators) and they were going to go out and each take a turn doing a problem on the 4 square court and see which team could do it the fastest without talking.  She let them know that this was a new idea and may not work exactly as she imagined.  There were a couple issues but it was a great idea.  The students had to work together without speaking.  There were enough students on a team that one person could take charge and help get people where they should be.  Each student either had to be part of the problem itself, or an answer in a box, or  5 students were the answers being added together to get the final answer.  I love thinking out of the box and this teacher definitely does this.

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.

Service Learning

I have been attending a couple of schools as a substitute teacher.  I love the feel of these schools and have decided to make them both places to do my service learning experiences.  I am grateful for the opportunities to know these schools before I go work there.  The two schools that I have chosen are Meadow Elementary in Lehi. Utah and Thunder Ridge Elementary in Saratoga Springs, Utah.  I have a soft spot in my heart for Meadow, as my children attended every year of all four of their years in elementary school in this school.

Meadow is a great school.  The parental support is amazing at this school.  They work in classrooms, as a strong PTA presence, and in what the school calls houses.  Meadow has a great program that helps teach great values and helps every student in the school to feel included in a group of other students.  This helps to keep bullying down and kindness up.  Meadow tries to have options to bring in more art options as after school programs.  This is very important to me.  Their test scores are usually always above average.  This is a strong middle-class school.  There is a very small amount of low income in the school, but they do very well in there testing scores.  The average of missing days of school is low.

Thunder Ridge is another great school.  The faculty and staff are beyond great.  There does not seem to be quite the re pore between staff and families.  I noticed that the classes really stay working on their own and there is a lot less school wide interaction.  They do have a great PTA which seems to help a lot.  Thunder Ridge is larger in student percentage.  I love that for after school programs they have a great theater program.  There tests scores are also above average.

I am so excited for the opportunity to do service learning.  I love being able to learn things in a classroom, but I feel like there is so much more learning that can be done by seeing what you are learning being implemented in the classroom.  I feel like the teachers in both schools will help me to learn things I could never learn by just reading a book.