My experience at Tri-Central Elementary was one to remember. I learned a lot through doing it and I am so glad I had the opportunity to experience something like this. The first thing I learned was how open children are to new people. I work in a daycare and the children treat me like their sister but I thought it was because I have been there for so long. That is not the case though; the students at Tri-Central were so welcoming and asked me tons of questions about myself. I received hugs and they held my hand while walking to the bathroom. I was sad to leave. It is heartwarming to know that children are so innocent and sweet and they care so much. I also learned that there are a lot of children who have IEP’s (Individualized Education Program). …show more content…
Out of the fifteen students in my class, nine had an IEP. I was shocked when I heard this and kind of sad. Two thirds of the class were required to undergo some sort of special treatment for their education through their IEP’s. Some things they were limited to was shortened spelling lists, help with in-class assignments, and tests and homework had to be read to them. Extra teachers would come in and help the students who needed it and some children left the room to be helped in a separate classroom. The most satisfying aspect of the experience was absolutely the children.
The children were wonderful to me and I know now how a typical classroom runs. This experience confirmed my wanting to teach. After observing, I thought a lot about the classroom and the school and what I would do differently. The things I would do would be to have a more organized environment, less group work, more interactive experiences, less AR time, and more classroom management. If it were my classroom, I would have it brightened up in there; open the curtains, turn on all the lights instead of only two, and maybe change the theme of the classroom. The jungle theme was mainly animal fur everywhere and so it made it dark with only white, orange, and brown. I believe that how your classroom looks plays a huge role on how the kids will behave and react. The group work felt like the students were not learning as much as they could. The teacher would lecture and then put them into groups to do their assignments most of the day. I feel that the students need more interactive experiences with the teacher and the lesson instead of a worksheet. I would teach the lesson while engaging the students and then maybe have an experiment prepared or an activity that relates to the
lesson. Students would work on it as a class instead of groups or sometimes individually. I believe individual work is necessary as well. There were also a lot of AR time, for when a child was done with their assignment they were told to work on AR until everyone is done. I did not like this because what are they learning? During AR time, the student would get distracted a lot and want to mess with something or talk with someone rather than read. I feel that the teacher did this because of the testing they are required to do. The students are supposed to have a certain amount of AR points to succeed and they are tested on their reading skills with a test called STAR Reading. They were asked to keep track of their own scores with sheets they colored to determine if they passed or failed. On the sheet, they would put the date, the color of which they scored (red-failed, yellow-almost, green-passed), and their actual number score. This showed the children how to track data and see their improvement or if they needed improvement. On the same sheet was their AR data with dates of each midterm and the amount of AR points they received within that midterm. Written to the side of the points were ‘not met’ or ‘met’ indicating if they met their required AR points for that term. I could tell that the stress of getting the students to their level of reading was hard to do and I believe that is why there was so much AR time. Another thing that bothered me was classroom management. The teacher had control of the class, but the children was often doing assignments without the teacher’s help. So, what grades are they getting? Would they get better grades if there were more interactive lessons? I would like for them to try this out and see. Overall, this experience did not change my mind of wanting to be an elementary teacher. I am not sure my desired grade but I am thinking fourth, however it changes weekly. I definitely want to be a teacher.
Overall, I was very impressed with the infant room I observed. To start off the day, the teacher warmly welcomed all of the children and parents. The teacher asked the parent how their night was since they left the daycare the night before, when they ate last, had a diaper change, and when did they wake up. I made me feel like the teacher really cared about the children even when they where not in her care and waited to make sure everything went ok at home. All of the personal care routines where fallowed and the teacher where constantly washing their ha...
In conclusion, my first impression was wrong, the classroom was not some kind of battlefield of teacher and student casualties. The students were not a lost cause that I imagine them to be. The students were well mannered and just wanted to be treated with respect. The classroom management was impeccable and astounding. It goes to show that although you may think you know a group of students you can be very mistaken.
To begin, my observation was at Webster Elementary School, a school placed in the city surrounded by houses and other schools. The specific classroom I am observing is full of Kindergarten students who seem to very advanced than I had imagined. The classroom walls are brick and white, but the classroom teacher Mrs. O'Brien does an amazing job keeping the space use for both an upbeat and educational vibe, especially for environmental print. Everywhere you look there are educational posters, numbers, and mental state vocabulary words, as well as, students completed work. To add, students sit in medium sized tables with 4-6 other students when they aren’t having whole group instruction on either
I feel that this Coop experience was a great way for me to reflect on my abilities to be a quality educator. I feel that I would have gotten more out of this Coop experience if our school year would have ended a little later, but overall, I think I received a lot from this time. My Coop was at my work at Head Start PDPY in North Platte. The center is a newly renovated room, so it is nice and clean with lots of storage space. Overall, I really enjoy working in the space because it is convenient and although it is small, we are able to make it work well. I felt that I grew as a professional and educator during the time at my coop. There were some specific things that I really felt I grew on as I was co-teaching my preschool children. This quarter
Overall my time in this preschool classroom met all of my expectations based on best practices. I feel that on a typical day when it is the primary teacher or teachers, the room meets the expectations of best practice, NAEYC, ECERS and state standards. Once meeting the teacher, you are able to tell that she is up to date on her research and theories about children and early childhood education. The teacher truly cares about the children, their education and their future.
This class added to my knowledge of working with children such as I usually pay attention and have active listening when children talk to me that also help me to meet children’s needs. I also feel more confident to speak up at
The students were very well disciplined and very articulate when they were told to speak. Every student participated and had their full attention on the teacher as she taught the lesson. The teachers owned the classroom and were very high energy. There were two teachers in each classroom; the main teacher and a support teacher. The support teacher took care of all the paperwork a teacher would usually do on their own in a public school.
When moving through the hallways, the teachers, aides and staff were all very friendly and helpful, making sure that I not only belonged to be there, but that I was able to find my way to the appropriate locations. Art lined the halls, and the sounds from the classrooms indicated that the children were exicited and engaged in their activies. I would feel most comfortable having children attend this school. It was a warm, safe and nurturing environment, where the individual was celebrated, and the community created.
As soon as I entered I was greeted with wonderful staff. I was able to get a private tour the day of and talk to the chefs about what inspired them to start Culinary and why they wanted to teach. The school made me feels welcomed, like I was meant to be there. The instructors at the school wanted to know about me and were intruded to why I began cooking in the first place. It expressed how much they care and compassion they take into the students.
The school that I visited was new. It was the first year of the school opening. The school board had combined two schools into one, so the students had to adjust to their new environments and new individuals. They seemed to be getting along well with each other. Since the school is new the teacher has to adjust to new problems that araise. Times for the subjects and times for using the computer labs change. So the teacher must always be fixable for anything. In this observation of this classroom I learned about the enjoyment of teaching. How you have to adapt to each of the students.
This experience as a whole provided me with the opportunity to show my professional quality as an educator, a cooperative team member, and a lifelong learner. A few things that I continuously had to reflect on throughout this experience was my self-competence, my performance as well as the children’s, and of course my professional demeanor which directly impacted the effectiveness of my planning, teaching and...
After finishing the teaching part of the lesson, I realized that not everything goes according to plan. For example, in our lesson plan, we had the explain portion detailed and outlined to teach students the technical terms of what they were seeing in the stations and other activities and make it a collaborative effort within groups to work with the vocabulary words. However, the teaching of the plan was not well executed. Also, I learned that teaching a topic does not have to be boring or just full of worksheets. Fun, engaging lab stations and interactive activities can fulfill the standards and requirements just as well, if not better, than basic worksheets and PowerPoint lectures. Lastly, I realized that lesson planning and teaching require a great deal of effort and work, but it is all worth it when a light bulb goes off in a students’ head and they learn something new and are excited to be learning and extend their science
I have had many excellent teachers throughout my educational experience, some of these have been wonderful teachers that have set lessons to life. Others have been boring, overly strict, unapproachable, and at times unknowledgeable. I have learned valuable lessons from both. A positive and fun learning environment makes students want to be in the classroom. The first step in learning is that the children must want to be there.
Another example is that they take them to a nail salon where they get their nails done to show them grooming skills. Observing this classroom, helped me understand that you sometimes have to teach certain life skills instead of teaching actual content. It also showed me that each student has different abilities, different difficulties, and different ways of
I really enjoyed teaching the lesson; I tried to make sure that the students could relate to prior knowledge and real world situations. I tried to pick activities that were developmental sound for a second grader. I wanted to make sure that the students have an understanding of the standards in which they must master. During my Social Studies lesson I tried to ask the students opened ended questions to promote higher order thinking. I taught the students about map skills.