First Day in My New Kindergarten Classroom at Spann

This week Marisa and I started our first week at Spann. There is one last thing I will say about my experience at SES before putting it aside and moving forward. I learned that in my classroom, I am always going to acknowledge and make visitors feel welcome, whether it is a new student, a faculty member, or a parent. I recently was reading a book that a professor I am working with gave to me, "The Essential 55". One of the 55 rules discusses this. Children are very perceptive and can pick up on hostility and stress that a teacher is projecting. I want to make sure that I am creating a warm, nurturing, and inviting classroom for all that come in.

I got this immediate feeling when I went into my new Kindergarten classroom at Spann. My teacher walked over and welcomed us with smiles and excitement to have us in the classroom this semester. She also had the children wrap up early what they were doing and meet on the floor so that she could introduce us, explain what we would be doing in the classroom over the next few weeks, and so that they could introduce themselves and say one thing they have learned so far in Kindergarten. There is a lot of pressure for teachers to stay on schedule and to get everything covered that they have planned for the day. The reality when your teaching five and six year olds is that things don't always go according to plan and that you have to learn to "roll with the punches" or you will get so stressed out. Our teacher was explaining to us that they had had a fire drill in the morning which had thrown their schedule off, so rather than doing what they usually do after special area, they were continuing differentiated reading groups in the afternoon and that they would make up what they had planned to do within the next few days. I think this is an important lesson to learn as someone that is going to be a first year teacher next year. We want to make sure that all the standards are covered and the children learn what they are expected to, and the path getting their might take a few turns.

I was lucky to be able sit with our cooperating teacher as she worked with her low group of students in guided reading groups. She even felt comfortable with me working individually with a couple of the students, which made me feel confident that she trusted my ability. Two of the students in this low group are ESL students. Building these children's' vocabulary is very important. The students were reading a very predictable book that concentrated on the word "the" and taught the skill of looking at pictures to help decode what they are reading. After reading the book several times as a group, broken apart so that each student reads a page, and individually, Mrs. Patterson used the stretch it strategy. The book was written from the point of view of a little boy getting ready for school. Mrs. Patterson asked what other characters were in the story. The kids first looked confused, but after giving them a little bit of time the students soon realized that the boy's cat and mother were in each of the pictures of the book. She also asked where is the boy going. When a student said "school" she asked him how he know that and he said because their was a school bus in the picture. I thought this was a great way to get the children to think on a higher level. She also was able to integrate other content areas into the lesson by asking such questions as "what color is the school bus", "what shape is his lunchbox"...

This morning I watched the president speak on the state of education in this country on the Today Show with Matt Lauer. There are many things I could talk about from this conversation, but there is one that I will mention. A comment from a viewer mentioned the responsibility of parents. There is so much talk now about bad teachers and failing schools, but rarely do you hear about the parents part in this equation. Like may of the parents in the Weiss book, parents work really hard, often long and stressful hours. However, I feel that if your going to make the conscious choice to have children, part of your job, whether you are getting "paid" for it or not, is to take the time and help educate your children. Families talk so much less now then they used to. Simple conversations whether its at the dinner table or in bed settling down at the end of the day are opportunities for children to learn. I saw some of the children in the new class I'm in not know their colors or shapes, and honestly, I was quite shocked. These are simple things to reference throughout the time you are with your child starting very early on. Perhaps the parents don't know what their child should know at various stages of the early childhood? Who is responsible for educating them on that? The idea of having longer school years was another topic that interested me.

Day 2 in the field...

 

This week the lead teacher was in the class after having been out with a sick child.  The experience I had with her this week was very uncomfortable and disappointing.  Despite this, there was a lot of valuable “lessons: I learned.   Our teacher spoke to us a little about the format of the EDI lesson plan.  She told us that there was research saying that it was very effective, but it required a lot of work for her and the other teachers. When I received a copy of the document, I visually could see how much time and effort goes into it.  I love the idea of this type of plan where you access prior knowledge, teach a mini lesson, guide the students in practice, and allow them to try it independently. The flow of this type of lesson makes so much sense.  But seeing this document that is put together weekly, the daily schedule that is adjusted every day to state the specific standards being taught on that particular day, and the daily forms that the teachers have to fill out or send home reminds me of how much bureaucracy there is public school.  I feel that so much effort is put towards a “specific process” when a lot of it could be spent on really good teaching instruction.

 

Back to the EDI lesson plan…our teacher explained that each kindergarten teacher writes a specific section of the plan for the week.  So someone always writes all the phonics lessons, another writes all the social studies lessons, etc.  I think this is wonderful.  It breaks up the workload and forces all the teachers to really work as a grade team and be accountable.  However, I also saw the negative effects of this.  During a phonics lesson our teacher was reading off of the EDI lesson plan that had been put together for the week.  She got to a section in the plan that she did not understand and proceeded to tell the children that she didn’t know what she was supposed to do for that particular section and that she was going to have to contact the teacher that had written it.  I find this not only a waste of time, but also unprofessional.  I don’t feel a teacher should give her students the impression that she is unprepared or clueless of what is going on.  We’re supposed to be role models and leaders and this is not showing that.  If you are given a lesson plan before the week that you are teaching it, it is your responsibility to look it over and ask questions any questions you have.

 

On a more positive note, I saw what is so far my favorite Lemov technique work effectively in the classroom… Cold Call.  I saw it being used during a phonics lesson on blending initial sounds of words with the rest of the word and during a math lesson on ABB patterns. The teacher alternated by calling on students individually by first name, by the color row that they were sitting in, by their math group (pigs, fish, cow, horse), and as a whole class (mixing it with the call and response technique).  I saw that this helped to keep the students engaged in what she was doing, while at the same time kept the flow of the lesson moving a quick and effective pace.  The questions she would ask were required short, one or two word answers.  I am definitely going to use this technique in the lessons that I teach.    

 

Our teacher misunderstood the family assignment we have.  Instead, she would like for us to go to certain students’ homes and tutor them.  The students that she selected our ones that are very low academically, but also do not have a strong support system at home.  A particular student was being asked by the aid that she lived with (mama, grandma, great grandma) and the students could really answer her, which was really sad.  The aid was explaining to the student that she needed to contact someone at home, but this poor child couldn’t come up a person that she feels is her “real” guardian. I did not read the case study on Dionte, but his situation reminds me of how difficult it can be to work with a child or get that child the appropriate help he or she needs when the communication between the teacher and guardian is either minimal or non existent.  The other problem is when there is not a sole person, but multiple (mother, social worker, grandmother, etc) and not knowing to whom the channel of communication should go through to be effective. 

This week we are moving to a new Kindergarten class at Spann and I’m really excited!!

 

 

First time at Summerville Elementary

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.

First Post!

I'm really looking forward to going to Summerville Elementary this thursday.  The field classes always excite me because what we learn and experience in them is the closest thing to what we actually will be doing once we graduate from the program and get a job teaching in a school.  Of all the fields, this one is the one I have been most excited about.  Often I feel we write this very elaborate, "cute" lesson plans.  In reality I don't think our teaching day will be made up of lessons like this.  I'm excited to teach what the actual teacher will be teaching and to get the opportunity to use some of the curriculum texts that the district is using.  I think this field will give us a better understanding of how the day flows at school versus the other fields where we primarily observed the morning meeting and the reading block.  Last semester I was at Drayton Hall and had a wonderful cooperating teacher who was anxious to share her knowledge with us.  I'm hoping for the same this semester!  I'm also interested in trying out some of the techniques that we are reading about in the Lemov text book.  

The technique I think will be most intuitive for me to implement in my classroom is format matters.  I am hoping to teach Kindergarten or first grade.  Children at this age are still at the very beginning stage of this writing.  Consistently correcting their format errors and re-teaching  skills that students are having difficulty with will hopefully get the students to a point where the correct format becomes automatic to them when they are writing.  I have also often seen children at this age mix up their tenses, omit words, etc. when they are speaking.  Requiring my students to answer and speak to me in complete sentences will help them with their "voice" and will give me opportunities to correct them and explain their errors (when appropriate).  No Opt Out may be the most difficult technique for me to implement in my early childhood classroom.  Not trying will not be an option for the students in my classroom. If they genuinely don't know the answer, I don't want to make them feel "stupid" or insecure about sharing their point of view in fear that what they have to say is not what the teacher wants to hear.  I like the idea that a student doesn't have the option to not answer or participate, but I think this technique might have to be slightly adjusted for early childhood.