![]() Everyday in the classroom with first graders is anything but dull. I honestly cannot predict what will happen or what story a child would have to tell me since there is always something interesting happening in the life of a six year old. Although I am not a rookie in the area of discipline in a classroom setting, today I had my first experience of utilizing my CT's behavioral system. First let me give you a quick overview of her behavioral system. Everyone starts on the color green at the beginning of the day with the opportunities to move up or the possibility of moving down. When a student answers a challenging question or is seen doing something generous for one of their peers, my CT will move their clip up on the chart. On the other hand if they have been spoken to numerous times throughout the day for not staying on task, excessive talking or not being kind, their clip is lowered. After a few weeks of being in the classroom, my CT decided to modify her system and rather than moving clips down, she removes them from the chart hanging on the closet door and places it on her key chain that is around her neck. I believe this is more effective and less harsh because students are constantly reminded since they can see their name clips clearly and if she does not have to say their names anymore she will place it back on green. So there was a student who wanted to complete a worksheet during centers but they were none left. I am fully aware that the teacher does not enjoy being interrupted while she is working in guided reading groups so I instructed him to continue playing the game with his peers until I found a solution. Surprisingly, he told me, "No." After advising him that it would be best to resume the game instead of not doing anything, he still rejected my suggestion and decided to sit on the table. I felt as though I had to show him how important it is to follow instructions given by adults by removing his clip from the chart and giving it to my CT. At a later time I conversed with her to ensure that I had not crossed any boundaries and whether she felt that my reason was valid. She did not find a problem with me doing what I did and encouraged me to do what I felt was necessary. Although discipline is not on the list of Task Performances, I think it could be tied into #18: Help students resolve a conflict. I have witnessed my CT give students the chance to solve their own problems before she stepped in, whether it was personal or between another peer. She exemplifies patience and that is what I mirrored when faced with this particular student. As I look back on the situation, I feel as though I handled it pretty well rather than becoming angered quickly and raising my voice. In future instances I believe that patience and trying to reach a mutual understanding between the students and teacher is very effective. During center time, I was given four students, that included my focus student, to work with rather than my usual routine of walking around the classroom, monitoring the students to ensure that they were on task. The activity included a worksheet that was titled, "4 In A Row". It was a game similar to Bingo but the catch was rather than hoping that your number would be called, the student had the luxury of choosing the word of their choice but in order to mark that word they had to use it in a sentence correctly. They all were more than excited to play and could hardly wait until it was their turn to tell me the sentence. After a few rounds of the game, I began to make it more challenging by giving them limits such as:
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Due to the hurricane that decided to grace Florida with its presence, schools in Hillsborough County were cancelled last Friday and Monday was a Non-Student Day which granted teachers and students a four day weekend! As much as everyone enjoyed their unexpected time off from school, it set things back. It was noticeable that my CT was very overwhelmed when I walked into the classroom Tuesday morning as I watched her transition from one task to the next as she gathered papers, checked her email, and searched for items in preparation for the student's arrival. However she did not let the impact of the four day weekend show as students walked in and greeted her. I have always said that teachers are in indeed superheroes in disguise. In the end, they realize that they have a job to do and they will accomplish it by any means necessary without a complaint or display of fatigue. They will push their personal feelings to the side to ensure that everything is in place for their class and that the students are taught properly.
The lesson that stood out to me today required the students to develop a passage based on their individual notes that they wrote while reading a story about elephants. My CT realized that producing a topic sentence was very complicated for the first graders as they continued to tell her statements that would serve as details rather than a general statement. For instance, students would raise their hand and say, "Elephants walk on four legs" or "Elephants have wrinkly skin." I commended them for trying to come up with their own sentence although they couldn't really differentiate between what would be considered a detail and what could bring it all together. As a result, she created three topic sentences that they could use to begin their paragraphs. Almost every Tuesday, I am granted the opportunity to work one on on one or in a small group that includes my focus student Jennifer (pseudonym). Today during this activity of producing a paragraph based on personal notes taken after reading a story, I noticed that she was struggling with spelling. She frequently confuses b and d while writing and misspells words even if they are provided in the text. I encouraged her to always refer back to the story that she read to see if the word that she wants to use is in the book. As I observed her writing, I reflected on a moment that I witnessed her reading independently. I discovered that she uses a personal tactic that includes the aid of the picture that is provided on the page to figure out an unfamiliar word rather than using context clues from the text that she read or morphemic knowledge (prefixes, suffixes and root words). For instance, while she was reading independently during center time, I asked her to read the story aloud. When she encountered a word that she did not know, she would mumble lowly or bypass it completely. I proceeded to stop her and ask her to repeat the word. I then noticed her personal tactic; the particular word was shirt but when she glanced at the photograph, she was under the impression that it was a sweater so that is what she plugged into the sentence. I decided to make that a learning moment by helping her stretch out every unfamiliar word that she came across and encouraged her to re-read the sentence multiple times before moving on to the next so when she came across the word again (which she did) she would know it. ![]() This week I had the opportunity to teach an English Language Arts lesson to a small group of first graders and amazing is an understatement to describe the experience. I was actually very confident about the lesson due to the ample amount of support I received my collaborating teacher and the assurance from my supervisor. I believe that my CT and I were matched perfectly. Although I did not see myself teaching first grade, she is constantly teaching me the ins and outs of managing a classroom full of six and seven year old students and how she instructional places and paces the class with students who are at different levels. The lesson was centered on the short vowel sounds of a, e and o. I incorporated index cards, flashcards and dry erase boards and markers into the lesson to make the learning more interesting rather than having them listen to me talk the entire twenty minutes. I had no doubt that the students would behave during the lesson but I was surprised at how engaged, attentive and responsive which made teaching the lesson enjoyable. I believe that this may have been a result of it being a small group setting rather than the entire class. They did not have any time to get distracted or talk to someone since I was sitting directly in front of them. One particular moment that caught my attention was when one of my students couldn’t decide whether he thought the sound was “short a” or “long a”. I encouraged him to be confident in his answers and I feel as though that was such a critical moment within the lesson. Often times students are discouraged when they say the wrong answer aloud which may lead them to participate less during class and that is not the environment that I want to create in my future classroom. I want my students to know that this is a learning process, and yes there will be times that they will make a mistake but it will not dictate their capabilities. One thing that I could take away from the video was how I need to work on making eye contact with all of the students. I noticed that I did not look at the student to my left as much as the two that were sitting in front and on the right. The objective of the lesson was, “Given sample single-syllable words orally, the student will be able to identify short a, e and o sounds as well as spell words with those vowel sounds correctly.” Students grasped the concept of those vowel sounds based on their individual activity at the end that required them to create their own word family independently, without the help of another peer or myself. They were able to do this based on the repetition of reviewing the sounds in the beginning of the lesson as well as during the lesson as we viewed the picture cards. They were more than willing to create their own word families and did not want to only do one. I believe that a child’s excitement to do more as well as proficiency can determine whether they understood a lesson, which is what I witnessed toward the ending of the lesson. The formal observation taught me a few thing:
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