I had a wonderful time during our first visit to Summerville Elementary School. Our cooperating teacher was not there, but we were able to meet her aid who was running the class just as well as I would imagine the lead teacher does. There are 20 studetns in the class, 9 boys and 11 girls. They were all very excited that hear that we would be in the classroom with them every thursday. I was also impressed that the majority of the class knew our names by the end of the day.
One of the first things that struck me about the school was how large the classrooms are. It's amazing! The classroom has large windows that let in a lot of natural light and the classroom felt calm and not cluttered. Last year I was in a first grade classroom that was a quarter of the size and had more students. I struggled with doing whole group lessons on the floor because there was little space and the students were on top of each other. The kindergarten classroom that I am in at SES has a large rug with plenty of room for all the students The classroom has four small desks so that the students can work in centers and cooperatively, which I think is really important in kindergarten becuase they are still developing their social skills. It also allows the teacher to circulate easily around the room to see how the students are doing on their work.There are also doors that provide the students with access to the "kindergarten only" playground. I thought it was nice that there was a playground dedicated to the grade where the students didn't have to worry about older,stronger students sharring the space with them.
The classroom schedule was chopped up into short increments, about 20 - 35 minutes each. Children at this age don't have a large span of attention. By changing things up rather frequently I could see that the students rarely lost attention to the aid. As a teacher, I like this schedule too as it keeps the day running smoothly. Something I found interested was science and social studies is at the end of the day. The aid told us that they only do it if there is time. As much as I think that reading/writing and math are important, I don't hink that science and social studies should be dismissed.
Looking at the student's work hung up on the walls and seeing what they are learning about (letter recognition and sounds, sorting) reminds me of how much there is to teach in Kindergarten. Some children have had no previous schooling and are starting from scratch. Having done my field in first grade last year, I can see how much is learned throughout the Kindergarten year. Being able to really establish a foundation for alphabet knowledge and beginning mathin your students is something that really excites me. I'm really looking forward to see how the children grow academically during the time we are there.
I saw some of the Lemov techniques in action by the aid. When the students were learning about sorting, she made a point for the students to use the vocabulary they had learned from a short video they watched... classifying, sorting, grouping. I also saw the use of right is right. When a student answered somethin incorrect or partially right, the aid used responses such as "that's close..." and "we said that one already, can anyone else help ___ identify...." One of the newer techiniques that we read about this week is "begin with the end". I remeber when I first started this program I was always coming up with "cute, elaborate" ideas for lesssons and then struggling to find a standard that corralated with the activity. I soon learned that the best way to plan a lesson is to start with an objective or standard that you want the students to acheive and then build the activity around that. The writing paper that some of the students in the class were using had lines to help guide them, but also a key at the bottom of the page with drawn pictures and words remiding them of what they need to include in their drawings and writing. Each item has a check box so tha the students can review what they've done to make sure they have included everything (I used at least 4 colors; My picture is tru e to color, size, and shape; I left spaces; I wrote my words; I started with an uppercase; I used punctuation). I find this to be a version of the "break it down" technique.
All of the students in my Kindergarten class either got picked up or took the bus at the end of the day. I was a little surprised that no one was staying for after school programs. I'm curious to learn whether there are any after school programs available. The case study about Cindy sparked my interest in findingout what programs are available for families where parent (s) work past the time that their children are out of school.
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