As I am spending more time with the students and having in-depth conversations with my CT, I was able to point out about three students that would benefit more during the math and science lessons with my assistant. I am grateful that my CT is open and trusts me enough with the responsibility of working separately with those students while she teaches the lesson. This gives her the opportunity to teach an entire lesson without pausing every few minutes to ensure that one of those three students are on task or understands the content. I witnessed how challenging it could be when the majority of the class is grasping the concept quickly but she cannot continue because she does not want to leave the others behind. This leaves room for the other students to began talking and the focus is lost. I take this as an opportunity to show them several ways to solve the math problems, give them the chance to ask any questions they may have and give extra practice problems for them to solve independently so that I am confident that they understood what they learned.
Although this wasn't the first time, I spent more time partaking in Task #19 of the Classroom Management Tasks List which is "Write something on the board or a poster." While my CT walked around the room engaging the students in a lesson about words that belonged to the same family tree, I assisted by writing down all of the words that the students were calling out. It is personally one of my favorite things to do. I tend to write very small but I realized that I would have to change that in order for the students to be able to see clearly.
0 Comments
As we entered a new week, I sense that the students are becoming more comfortable with me being in the classroom as they are more open to calling me over to help them with their assignments or if they have a personal issue. It is still a bit strange when I hear their soft voices calling out "Ms. Watkins" rather than their teacher's name but its such a good feeling when they grasp the concept and we give each other a high five. My CT is doing a great job with including me in the learning environment by giving me the opportunity to work with small groups to review their work from the previous day, assist students one-on-one if they are not grasping the concepts in math and allowing me to discuss the areas where they can improve or make a few changes.
In Chapter One of Classrooms that Work which is a required book for the Emergent Literacies Strategies and Assessment course, we discovered that one of the characteristics of an effective classroom is when children do a lot of reading and writing. The classroom that I am interning in exhibits this traits ideally during the time that is designated for centers. While at the different centers, students are required to be engaging in one of the two, if not both. Students spend a certain amount of time at each spot so that they may partake in at least three throughout the day. The different centers consist of independent reading; listen to reading; writing; word work; reading with someone and guided reading groups that are led by the teacher. During centers I am able to implement the 8th task of the Classroom Management Tasks List: "Use nonverbal cues to keep a group of students on task." Rather than possibly disturbing students by calling out their names, I simply take a seat next to the individual student or in the middle of the group without saying a word. If my presence doesn't make a difference, then I will speak up. As a future educator, this shows me that you don't necessarily have to raise your voice or single out a child if they are not focused. A simple task such as joining them on the carpet while they are reading or sitting beside them while they are working at their desk is helpful. Being an intern in a first grade classroom is quite a challenge but these first two weeks have already granted me an insight of what it is to be responsible for the education of a younger generation. Although I observed the first week and wrote notes on things that caught my attention, the second week granted me the opportunity to do more. I took the initiative to write information on the board while my CT explained math problems; monitored the students while they were in different centers and even read aloud a story.
In the course RED 4312, we read an article that was entitled, "The Crayola Curriculum", which shed light on the lack of effective reading instruction that results in children not being able to understand what they are reading. It encouraged teachers to ensure that there is ample amount of time for students to read as well as write rather than engage in useless activities, such as coloring, that are not beneficial to their reading skills. As I sat and observed the first day I realized how much time these first graders actually spent time reading and it was very meaningful. They had a time allocated for shared reading, which is when the CT would read aloud a story. When she was finished, she would have the students participate in a “talk with partner” activity in which they would answer specific questions that relate to the story and the partner in turn would say if they disagreed or not. It did not end there. Once they returned to their seats, they would complete a worksheet that required them to draw a picture of the character and setting and state what the problem and solution of the story was. It was obvious that the students were engaged and understood the story. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
April 2017
Categories
All
|