Reflection #1
There are many things that intrigue me about the teaching field. When I was a little girl, in elementary school I was always asked “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I always had the same response. I wanted to work with kids. Maybe at five years old I didn’t know what I wanted to do, I just had an idea. As I grew older, at about 8 I knew that I wanted to be a teacher. Through elementary school I was blessed with teachers that are still in my heart and it honestly mapped out my life all shaped my love of education. It was from handing in papers, to getting responses, our journals to share live events. These experiences made it click in my head. In ten years I see myself with my master’s degree in Early Childhood Education. I will be married to Gary Corson, with a baby on the way, hopefully a baby boy. Whose name will be Lohgahn Allen Corson. I will have put job applications around all over nearby towns of Delhi. Hopefully teaching at Delaware Academy, settled in my new house. That is my dream.
In the past 7 years I have had many experiences with young children from babysitting, to actually getting involved in my desired teaching area, shadowing an elementary school teacher every day to taking Early Childhood Education at DCMO BOCES. These experiences have brought me to my decision to be a teacher. I have a rare type of personality. I’m very patient; I have a huge heart with lots of love to give. I’m one of the most honest people in the whole entire world. I have a strong drive to do well in everything I do and to follow goals I set for myself. I’m reliable and I can take on more than one task at a time. I’m fair, thoughtful and understanding. These are all the traits I have observed in the teachers that have taught me. I believe that these traits qualify me to succeed in my career as a teacher.
In the teaching career there are good things and bad things, but like other jobs, more good than bad I believe. Cons to the career of teaching are that the materials are always changing. The state provides teachers with what they have to teach for the year and it could change drastically from one year to the next year. These could be easy changes or hard changes, which could throw teachers off. When you are a teacher you may have to make decisions on what to do for certain children or you might have to think about what would be better for the child. If a child has symptoms of any kind of abuse you have to report it to the right person. You could lose your job if you suspect but don’t report. Also when you are a teacher it’s very hard not to get attached to the children, and that could be very hard. That’s one thing; I feel I will struggle with. Pros of being a teacher are you actually get to watch the kids learn materials and grow throughout a whole school year. You create what you teach in guidelines though the state which you can make fun or blunt whichever you choose. You also can plan certain lessons with other teachers from the grade you teach, which can be very beneficial. The pros and cons stated above are what scare and excite me about teaching.
I feel that my understanding of the purpose of the observations is that it is to get a real feel of what is going to be expected of me when I get to the classroom down the road. I believe that it is to help me become better and assured of my career choice. The observation is to see if it is what I really want to do. I believe this is a big learning process because there are many things that I have to improve on and become better at. I am doing this to because I believe it is in me to become a great teacher. I will learn how to deal with children with certain disabilities, and be able to find methods to help them achieve what they need to. I will also learn how they grow from September to June. That is what I believe I will get from observing and reflecting.
Reflection #2
There are many different philosophies that a teacher can portray, they can choose to be student based or teacher based. During my observations at Delaware Academy, I have witnessed that my teacher, Tiffany Bennett is both. She has many different ways of approaching things. Her classroom is uniquely set up in a fashion to where it is easy to learn.
The teacher in the classroom, Mrs. Bennett is a young female, in her late 20’s. She is a pale skinned white Caucasian woman with great potential. She went to college in New York and lives in a town close to Delhi. When I’m in the classroom observing, there are no aides present until it is time to bring the children to the buses. The woman that comes in is quiet and waits in the back of the classroom by the cubbies. She doesn’t interact with the teacher unless the teacher asks a question. The aide isn’t very nice to the students; she treats them like animals that she doesn’t like. She yells at them for being out of line and isn’t very gentle with them when it comes to walking them to the bus.
The classroom is both student and teacher centered. Mrs. Bennett has a unique way of incorporating both philosophies into her teaching. Rules are made with the children during the first week of school and although the teacher already had her ideal rules, she went over them with the kids and they came to an agreement. She is Idealistic. She follows the idealistic philosophy by showing that all education is the same for all, even if the information is brought to one child differently then another. If one child doesn’t understand something she will spend one on one time with the child to explain it a little different. She is teacher centered in ways because when the children are doing art activities, she shows an example of what she wants it to look like on the board, but then student centered because she then allows them to make whatever of the project, within reason. She also shows parts of Existentialism which states that children have personal freedom and development. In the classroom this is visable through free choice time and gym class, every child can do what they want, with their freedom, within a certain set of boundaries.
My teacher is humanistic. Since all teachers have guidelines of what has to be taught, it causes teachers to be more teacher centered. When a teacher is teacher centered, one stands in front of the class and tells you what to do. When you have a humanistic philosophy, you reject a group oriented educational system and seek ways to enhance the individual development of the student. She focuses on the student more than what is better for the overall group. Individually she incorporates ways that she can get the point across but in different ways so each child understands the task. It’s a process of developing a free, self-actualizing person. In other words, you have to develop you before anyone else.
There are 9 girls and 9 boys in the classroom which means that it is evenly spread out sex wise. The ages of the children vary from 4 to almost 7. The almost 7 year olds either stayed home an extra year because they didn’t meet the requirements for kindergarten, or they were held back because they weren’t ready for first grade. Races vary from American to Japanese. There is only one Japanese boy, and his family owns Tuna 3. Most of the kids in Mrs. Bennett’s class are in middle class families, with some falling below and above as well. The students that are below poverty level and or middle class most days don’t have a snack are always tired and have attention problems in class. During free choice or any play time there is never really any child left out they are usually always playing together in groups or individual play. My teacher treats all her students as fairly as she possibly can, within reason and to an extent. Many factors play a role in her reactions and actions.
There isn’t really a dominate student culture in the classroom. A few ways that I would incorporate culture into the classroom is by playing games from all over the world, simple easy games that the children would grasp the topic from. Another way that I could include other cultures is by singing songs in other languages or teaching simple words of other languages to the children in small chunks, simple words like hello, goodbye, colors, and numbers. Most children know a little bit of another language from outside of the classroom, so I could also incorporate the languages by asking the children if they speak other than English languages at home and they could say some words during circle time.
In the classroom the culture that stands out is English American. All the textbooks are in English, and the spoken language is American English. In some of the play areas other cultures are introduced. In the iPad station children can click aps that allow them to do basically anything at the touch of their fingers. It is also possible that there is an app for that, an app for other cultures, different games from around the world because we have access to basically anything through the internet. In music class different types of music’s are introduced. Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, English. Also different types of arts are introduced in art. Face masks, crowns, all sorts of things like Indian feathers, symbols from the Indians.
Delaware Academy has a character education program that is called CARES. CARES is when all the grade levels get together in the gym every month. They have a song that tells what it is about, they talk about the birthdays of the month, events that went on and that are going to go on. It’s also a time when they share how many links their class got for the chain for Rachels Challenge. It’s an anti-bulling program where you get a link to the chain when you do something positive. Doing something positive shows them with a link just how special they are.
In general there are different ways on incorporating material to fit a philosophy. While I observe I witness many different aspects of the students, their cultural backgrounds, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, age, gender and programs the school offers.
Reflection #3
The sketch of the room arrangement provided shows how the classroom is broken up. I believe it is an effective way because the children are in the middle of the classroom and they are the center of attention. Around them lie the centers and activities. Some of the centers are the big rug area where the students meet in the morning and talk about what they are going to do for the day. Next to the rug center, is the block center, in the block center there is a shelf of blocks along the wall, and there is one long self lining the area of blocks from the area of morning meeting. On the shelf there are table toys in bins so that the children can get a bucket, and take it back to their seats. The next area in the classroom is dramatic play. In that area there is a pretend kitchen and dolls. Those are the basic centers in the classroom. I wouldn’t make any changes to the classroom because I believe that the students should be the main focus, and with them in the center of the classroom, they are the main focus. During center play they can either be at their seats, or anywhere around them. Whether it’s blocks, iPads, reading, leapsters, Smart board, computers, drawing, dramatic play, sand, eraser board, they can all easily be accessed.
The sketch of the layout of the school was too big to draw so I included a picture of the outside, but I will describe the inside. When you walk into the building, to your right is the office, you can either go straight, or to the left. If you go straight, as you walk the gym is to the left, and then follows the art room. On the left side the nurse’s office is there and then the library. If you keep going there are classroom for second and third graders, and on the right is the computer lab. At the end of the hallway there is a big open space for indoor recess, and on the right is the quiet play room, for people who want to draw and for people who want to play dramatic play style. When you walk into the building and go left, you go up a hallway and on the left there are classrooms for counseling and reading and speech classes. If you look to your right, there is another entrance to the gym and following that is the music room. When you get to the top of the hill, you can go left, or you can go straight. If you go left, it is the kindergarten and first grade wing, and on the left is the cafeteria. On the right are all classrooms. If you go back to the end of the hallway and go straight, it is the fourth and fifth grade wing. The setup of this school enforces safety by grade levels; they keep them grouped in age/grade.
Reflection #4
There are many things that influence education. Some things that influence education are Curriculum, Instruction, Technology, Assessment, Multiple Intelligence’s, and Classroom Management. Without established tools as stated, schools wouldn’t pass regulations and wouldn’t get funding because they wouldn’t meet the states expectations.
The Curriculum that I observed in Mrs. Bennett’s classroom was writing standards. Mrs. Bennett made her writing curriculum correspond with NYS standards by having the children use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single event or several loosely linked events, tell about the events in the order which they occurred, and provide a reaction to what happened. For example Mrs. Bennett would read the children a story, and then Mrs. Bennett would ask the children to go back to their seats and incorporate what they just heard and make their own stories with pictures, and then when she came around they had to tell the story and what happened afterwards. It differs from when I was at that age because there wasn’t so many standards that teacher’s had to follow, and my teacher didn’t make us have six items in a picture, or have certain colors used. I think it is very appropriate at that grade level to expect what NYS expects.
There were many types of instruction used in the classroom. Mrs. Bennett has the room set up so that group work is easier to incorporate and so students can get with a partner and start doing an activity. The students really enjoy group work. Some types of group work are BINGO and reading together, sharing pages. Other types of instruction used were direct instruction where she would be at the Smart Board teaching them how to write letter and then the students would have a white board in front of them and would have to write the letter or word she had asked. She also would play Mrs. Bennett vs. the class and with that game she would sit by the blue card holder and the children would be on the square rug and she would have a sticker and she would hide it behind a word and the children would have to close their eyes while she hid it and when she was done, they could open their eyes and they got three chances to guess which word it was behind, and that was the trick, they had to know the word to guess it. It got them to recognize words, and taught them new words. I have no advice to give because she really knew how to teach, honestly.
Technology played a huge role in the classroom. Something’s in the classroom that played a role were iPad’s, Vtech, Smart Board, Smart table, Clickers, and the T.V. Technology was used to get children to think. There were many games on the iPad’s that the children would play that required them to think. The Smart board was used for the teacher to teach on, basically replacing the blackboard. It had all sorts of graphics and you could do many things on there, like games, and activities for groups. All sorts of learning activities can be done. Some advice I would give to the teacher would be that the iPad’s should be more evenly distributed throughout the students, the same kids shouldn’t be on them every day and more children should be playing with toys not technology, because we are too dependent on technology.
Assessment was used in a few different ways. The teacher would individually call students over to a table and they would sit down and she would ask them shapes, numbers, letters, words, and things of that sort while the rest of the class was doing a different activity. Another way that the students were being assessed was Mrs. Bennett created a packet of one hundreds grid, and every day the students would have to take it out and would have a minute to write down all the numbers they could until the timer went off, she also made name cards that you could write on and erase so that the children could practice writing their names because most children don’t know how to write their names because they don’t get enough practice.
The teacher incorporated the multiple intelligences by making the children think critically about situations, for example if they had a problem with a friend, she would ask them to work it out and come to a conclusion why what happened, happened. She also made them physically do things with their bodies, for example they would be in a circle on the carpet and they would sing a song that had dance moves that taught them new words by what they had to physically do. She also encouraged the children to always have six details in their photos. There would be a timer on and they would have to draw for a specific amount of time before they could doodle on the back. She also incorporated intrapersonal by taking field trips. We went to Mr. Chytalo’s pumpkin patch and got a photo with it.
The teacher had a way of controlling classroom management. The way that she did so was by having a chart that had sections of red, green, and yellow. If you had your popsicle stick in the green section it meant that you were being well behaved. When you had your Popsicle stick in the yellow it meant that you weren’t making good choices and that we have to sit for five minutes during free choice time. If your Popsicle stick was in red, it meant you got a phone call home and you had to fill out a form of why you were acting like you were and it went home so your parents could read it. Some pros for that were that the children would have anxiety and would want to be good so that they got a good note. Another thing is that they would be chosen first for the iPad’s or main attractions in the room before the children who were in the yellow or red. Some bad things about that is sometimes the children get into red easier and the student that is always in the red won’t care because they like the individual attention. Another bad thing is that the children won’t write the letter home, or parents might get upset that they were separated from the class like that.
Reflection #5
There are many occupations in the world, teaching is the one that intrigues me. I have been involved with young children my whole entire life. Whether it was helping my mom babysit, or actually babysitting myself, shadowing a teacher or going to school for it. I knew I wanted to be a teacher since I was a little girl, and as of right now, I’m fulfilling that dream.
I have learned this semester that I have what it takes to become a teacher. I never gave up on my dream, even when assignments piled up, or when teachers discouraged me, I pulled through and I believe that is the best thing any person could do. Taking the negatives, and drowning them out with positives. The experience that I had at Delaware Academy Elementary School at Delhi made me come to realization that being a teacher isn't “an easy job” like the world thinks it is, or parents think it is. It is a lot of work, grading papers, dealing with discipline, teaching new skills, helping children cope. There is so much more to it then what an average person would think. It made me realize that I need to work hard, and accomplish my goals. I saw how hard it is to deal with a child that is having rough times at home. I learned that if the kids like you, that you are doing something right. It has brought me to the conclusion that I need to be able to deal with a lot and still be able to brush things off that don’t matter. Some time down my career path I know I need to attend many conferences to learn how to deal with difficult children like I saw in the classroom. At the beginning of the semester I didn’t really think of anything different then what I saw because it wasn't my first experience in the classroom. I have been shadowing since 2011. Although there were new children, it was basically the same experience that I had within previous times of observing.
There were many events that happened when I was observing at school, some good, and some bad. Some things that I learned at my observation is that you should never raise your voice because then the child knows that he/she is getting to you and it doesn't end well. Another thing that I learned is that you cannot let something small get to you, whether it be a comment that a teacher made to you or someone asking you to leave their classroom, or whether it be a child who does something rotten. I learned that you cannot discriminate even when a child does something wrong, you have to involve them too. You have to encourage children to do things, whether they are scared or upset, or mean, or sad. They have to be included like you would everyone else. I also learned that children love to be creative and you should never take that away from them regardless of the assignment. Children like to be creative in artwork and should not be judged on where they place things, or where they went off the page. They like to do what they believe, and that should be fine with everyone. One even that happened while I was observing that stood out to me and I learned from was when a child was being “bad” and wasn’t listening to what Mrs. Bennett had asked him to do, so she ignored him. The child didn’t like that he was being ignored so he went over to the book shelf with games in it and threw them out on the floor, and Mrs. Bennett said “_____ can you pick those up and put them on the shelf?” The child said no. The child continued to go around the classroom, and he picked up a wooden block and was going to throw it at me. I said “____ you need to put that down, that isn’t being safe at school.” The child refused to put the block down, so Mrs. Bennett picked him up, and sat him in a chair. When the child was ready to talk Mrs. Bennett went over and said “____ do you know why you are sitting down?” and the child said no. She explained to him that we couldn’t do that kind of stuff in school because it puts other children in danger and we are supposed to be nice to our friends. The child agreed that that was right and he was not right, he apologized and gave us both a hug. I learned that that child had issues outside of school, that influenced his decisions in school and that he couldn’t help it. It also gave me experience dealing with problematic children. It was significant to me because it was a learning experience. My future behavior towards children who aren’t making good choices will be different because of this event. It will be different because I will somewhat know how to deal with things that are out of my control. I will know how to respond, and I will know what to do, and because of Mrs. Bennetts actions I can use them when something swings my way again like the incident above.
Dilemma’s happen on a daily basis, especially in the teaching career. A dilemma that I experienced was during free choice time and three boys made guns out of toys in the classroom. I didn’t know how to respond to this because it hadn’t ever happened to me before. The teacher was putting together the Christmas Tree with a few children. One of the girls came over and told me that ____ was shooting a pretend gun. What I thought of to say at first was “Oh my gosh we don’t ever do that!!!!” Three other actions I could take would be to take the toys away, and have the boys sit or I could tell the boys that we don’t have guns at school and we don’t shoot our friends/classmates. Another thing I could have said was boys why are you playing with guns in school? Is that a good choice? I would say no and then explain why we don’t have them in schools. The best response that I could have said would have been to say boys why are you playing with guns in school? I would wait for their response and then I would tell them why we don’t have them in school. I believe that is the best way because then I could understand why they are doing what they are doing/playing and then I could teach them why what they were doing wasn’t appropriate for the classroom. It is called a teachable moment.
There weren’t many issues in school that I witnessed. There were no major encounters with people that the school deals with or people that the teacher deals with. Other than when I went to observe and I went to go into the art classroom and Mrs. Tucker asked Mrs. Bennett to take me back to her classroom. Mrs. Bennett talked to me about how Mrs. Tucker had made other faculty cry and how she can be really mean. That was my only encounter with issues in school.
There are many things that I learned from my observation at Delhi. I learned that there are many tests out there to get teachers that aren’t teaching correctly out of the teaching profession. I learned that there are people who are always going to try to get you to switch your career or pull you back but you just have to ignore them and do what you believe is right for you. I learned that children need positives in their lives, not always negative, always compliment them on what they do right, and never doubt them because that is when children give up on themselves. I also learned that there are many things that can influence the way you teach and you should always stay true to your beliefs, and always have a plan b is something doesn’t go the way that you thought it would go. I also learned that it is hard to have someone in the classroom watching your every move and that have a student helper could cause the teacher to be stressed out, not in my situation but in reality.
Many things influence the way that teachers teach and many times there are obstacles that get in your way, and people who will try to bring you down, but all that matters is if you are doing what you love, and if you love it, stay with it because no job is good unless you love what you do.
There are many things that intrigue me about the teaching field. When I was a little girl, in elementary school I was always asked “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I always had the same response. I wanted to work with kids. Maybe at five years old I didn’t know what I wanted to do, I just had an idea. As I grew older, at about 8 I knew that I wanted to be a teacher. Through elementary school I was blessed with teachers that are still in my heart and it honestly mapped out my life all shaped my love of education. It was from handing in papers, to getting responses, our journals to share live events. These experiences made it click in my head. In ten years I see myself with my master’s degree in Early Childhood Education. I will be married to Gary Corson, with a baby on the way, hopefully a baby boy. Whose name will be Lohgahn Allen Corson. I will have put job applications around all over nearby towns of Delhi. Hopefully teaching at Delaware Academy, settled in my new house. That is my dream.
In the past 7 years I have had many experiences with young children from babysitting, to actually getting involved in my desired teaching area, shadowing an elementary school teacher every day to taking Early Childhood Education at DCMO BOCES. These experiences have brought me to my decision to be a teacher. I have a rare type of personality. I’m very patient; I have a huge heart with lots of love to give. I’m one of the most honest people in the whole entire world. I have a strong drive to do well in everything I do and to follow goals I set for myself. I’m reliable and I can take on more than one task at a time. I’m fair, thoughtful and understanding. These are all the traits I have observed in the teachers that have taught me. I believe that these traits qualify me to succeed in my career as a teacher.
In the teaching career there are good things and bad things, but like other jobs, more good than bad I believe. Cons to the career of teaching are that the materials are always changing. The state provides teachers with what they have to teach for the year and it could change drastically from one year to the next year. These could be easy changes or hard changes, which could throw teachers off. When you are a teacher you may have to make decisions on what to do for certain children or you might have to think about what would be better for the child. If a child has symptoms of any kind of abuse you have to report it to the right person. You could lose your job if you suspect but don’t report. Also when you are a teacher it’s very hard not to get attached to the children, and that could be very hard. That’s one thing; I feel I will struggle with. Pros of being a teacher are you actually get to watch the kids learn materials and grow throughout a whole school year. You create what you teach in guidelines though the state which you can make fun or blunt whichever you choose. You also can plan certain lessons with other teachers from the grade you teach, which can be very beneficial. The pros and cons stated above are what scare and excite me about teaching.
I feel that my understanding of the purpose of the observations is that it is to get a real feel of what is going to be expected of me when I get to the classroom down the road. I believe that it is to help me become better and assured of my career choice. The observation is to see if it is what I really want to do. I believe this is a big learning process because there are many things that I have to improve on and become better at. I am doing this to because I believe it is in me to become a great teacher. I will learn how to deal with children with certain disabilities, and be able to find methods to help them achieve what they need to. I will also learn how they grow from September to June. That is what I believe I will get from observing and reflecting.
Reflection #2
There are many different philosophies that a teacher can portray, they can choose to be student based or teacher based. During my observations at Delaware Academy, I have witnessed that my teacher, Tiffany Bennett is both. She has many different ways of approaching things. Her classroom is uniquely set up in a fashion to where it is easy to learn.
The teacher in the classroom, Mrs. Bennett is a young female, in her late 20’s. She is a pale skinned white Caucasian woman with great potential. She went to college in New York and lives in a town close to Delhi. When I’m in the classroom observing, there are no aides present until it is time to bring the children to the buses. The woman that comes in is quiet and waits in the back of the classroom by the cubbies. She doesn’t interact with the teacher unless the teacher asks a question. The aide isn’t very nice to the students; she treats them like animals that she doesn’t like. She yells at them for being out of line and isn’t very gentle with them when it comes to walking them to the bus.
The classroom is both student and teacher centered. Mrs. Bennett has a unique way of incorporating both philosophies into her teaching. Rules are made with the children during the first week of school and although the teacher already had her ideal rules, she went over them with the kids and they came to an agreement. She is Idealistic. She follows the idealistic philosophy by showing that all education is the same for all, even if the information is brought to one child differently then another. If one child doesn’t understand something she will spend one on one time with the child to explain it a little different. She is teacher centered in ways because when the children are doing art activities, she shows an example of what she wants it to look like on the board, but then student centered because she then allows them to make whatever of the project, within reason. She also shows parts of Existentialism which states that children have personal freedom and development. In the classroom this is visable through free choice time and gym class, every child can do what they want, with their freedom, within a certain set of boundaries.
My teacher is humanistic. Since all teachers have guidelines of what has to be taught, it causes teachers to be more teacher centered. When a teacher is teacher centered, one stands in front of the class and tells you what to do. When you have a humanistic philosophy, you reject a group oriented educational system and seek ways to enhance the individual development of the student. She focuses on the student more than what is better for the overall group. Individually she incorporates ways that she can get the point across but in different ways so each child understands the task. It’s a process of developing a free, self-actualizing person. In other words, you have to develop you before anyone else.
There are 9 girls and 9 boys in the classroom which means that it is evenly spread out sex wise. The ages of the children vary from 4 to almost 7. The almost 7 year olds either stayed home an extra year because they didn’t meet the requirements for kindergarten, or they were held back because they weren’t ready for first grade. Races vary from American to Japanese. There is only one Japanese boy, and his family owns Tuna 3. Most of the kids in Mrs. Bennett’s class are in middle class families, with some falling below and above as well. The students that are below poverty level and or middle class most days don’t have a snack are always tired and have attention problems in class. During free choice or any play time there is never really any child left out they are usually always playing together in groups or individual play. My teacher treats all her students as fairly as she possibly can, within reason and to an extent. Many factors play a role in her reactions and actions.
There isn’t really a dominate student culture in the classroom. A few ways that I would incorporate culture into the classroom is by playing games from all over the world, simple easy games that the children would grasp the topic from. Another way that I could include other cultures is by singing songs in other languages or teaching simple words of other languages to the children in small chunks, simple words like hello, goodbye, colors, and numbers. Most children know a little bit of another language from outside of the classroom, so I could also incorporate the languages by asking the children if they speak other than English languages at home and they could say some words during circle time.
In the classroom the culture that stands out is English American. All the textbooks are in English, and the spoken language is American English. In some of the play areas other cultures are introduced. In the iPad station children can click aps that allow them to do basically anything at the touch of their fingers. It is also possible that there is an app for that, an app for other cultures, different games from around the world because we have access to basically anything through the internet. In music class different types of music’s are introduced. Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, English. Also different types of arts are introduced in art. Face masks, crowns, all sorts of things like Indian feathers, symbols from the Indians.
Delaware Academy has a character education program that is called CARES. CARES is when all the grade levels get together in the gym every month. They have a song that tells what it is about, they talk about the birthdays of the month, events that went on and that are going to go on. It’s also a time when they share how many links their class got for the chain for Rachels Challenge. It’s an anti-bulling program where you get a link to the chain when you do something positive. Doing something positive shows them with a link just how special they are.
In general there are different ways on incorporating material to fit a philosophy. While I observe I witness many different aspects of the students, their cultural backgrounds, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, age, gender and programs the school offers.
Reflection #3
The sketch of the room arrangement provided shows how the classroom is broken up. I believe it is an effective way because the children are in the middle of the classroom and they are the center of attention. Around them lie the centers and activities. Some of the centers are the big rug area where the students meet in the morning and talk about what they are going to do for the day. Next to the rug center, is the block center, in the block center there is a shelf of blocks along the wall, and there is one long self lining the area of blocks from the area of morning meeting. On the shelf there are table toys in bins so that the children can get a bucket, and take it back to their seats. The next area in the classroom is dramatic play. In that area there is a pretend kitchen and dolls. Those are the basic centers in the classroom. I wouldn’t make any changes to the classroom because I believe that the students should be the main focus, and with them in the center of the classroom, they are the main focus. During center play they can either be at their seats, or anywhere around them. Whether it’s blocks, iPads, reading, leapsters, Smart board, computers, drawing, dramatic play, sand, eraser board, they can all easily be accessed.
The sketch of the layout of the school was too big to draw so I included a picture of the outside, but I will describe the inside. When you walk into the building, to your right is the office, you can either go straight, or to the left. If you go straight, as you walk the gym is to the left, and then follows the art room. On the left side the nurse’s office is there and then the library. If you keep going there are classroom for second and third graders, and on the right is the computer lab. At the end of the hallway there is a big open space for indoor recess, and on the right is the quiet play room, for people who want to draw and for people who want to play dramatic play style. When you walk into the building and go left, you go up a hallway and on the left there are classrooms for counseling and reading and speech classes. If you look to your right, there is another entrance to the gym and following that is the music room. When you get to the top of the hill, you can go left, or you can go straight. If you go left, it is the kindergarten and first grade wing, and on the left is the cafeteria. On the right are all classrooms. If you go back to the end of the hallway and go straight, it is the fourth and fifth grade wing. The setup of this school enforces safety by grade levels; they keep them grouped in age/grade.
Reflection #4
There are many things that influence education. Some things that influence education are Curriculum, Instruction, Technology, Assessment, Multiple Intelligence’s, and Classroom Management. Without established tools as stated, schools wouldn’t pass regulations and wouldn’t get funding because they wouldn’t meet the states expectations.
The Curriculum that I observed in Mrs. Bennett’s classroom was writing standards. Mrs. Bennett made her writing curriculum correspond with NYS standards by having the children use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single event or several loosely linked events, tell about the events in the order which they occurred, and provide a reaction to what happened. For example Mrs. Bennett would read the children a story, and then Mrs. Bennett would ask the children to go back to their seats and incorporate what they just heard and make their own stories with pictures, and then when she came around they had to tell the story and what happened afterwards. It differs from when I was at that age because there wasn’t so many standards that teacher’s had to follow, and my teacher didn’t make us have six items in a picture, or have certain colors used. I think it is very appropriate at that grade level to expect what NYS expects.
There were many types of instruction used in the classroom. Mrs. Bennett has the room set up so that group work is easier to incorporate and so students can get with a partner and start doing an activity. The students really enjoy group work. Some types of group work are BINGO and reading together, sharing pages. Other types of instruction used were direct instruction where she would be at the Smart Board teaching them how to write letter and then the students would have a white board in front of them and would have to write the letter or word she had asked. She also would play Mrs. Bennett vs. the class and with that game she would sit by the blue card holder and the children would be on the square rug and she would have a sticker and she would hide it behind a word and the children would have to close their eyes while she hid it and when she was done, they could open their eyes and they got three chances to guess which word it was behind, and that was the trick, they had to know the word to guess it. It got them to recognize words, and taught them new words. I have no advice to give because she really knew how to teach, honestly.
Technology played a huge role in the classroom. Something’s in the classroom that played a role were iPad’s, Vtech, Smart Board, Smart table, Clickers, and the T.V. Technology was used to get children to think. There were many games on the iPad’s that the children would play that required them to think. The Smart board was used for the teacher to teach on, basically replacing the blackboard. It had all sorts of graphics and you could do many things on there, like games, and activities for groups. All sorts of learning activities can be done. Some advice I would give to the teacher would be that the iPad’s should be more evenly distributed throughout the students, the same kids shouldn’t be on them every day and more children should be playing with toys not technology, because we are too dependent on technology.
Assessment was used in a few different ways. The teacher would individually call students over to a table and they would sit down and she would ask them shapes, numbers, letters, words, and things of that sort while the rest of the class was doing a different activity. Another way that the students were being assessed was Mrs. Bennett created a packet of one hundreds grid, and every day the students would have to take it out and would have a minute to write down all the numbers they could until the timer went off, she also made name cards that you could write on and erase so that the children could practice writing their names because most children don’t know how to write their names because they don’t get enough practice.
The teacher incorporated the multiple intelligences by making the children think critically about situations, for example if they had a problem with a friend, she would ask them to work it out and come to a conclusion why what happened, happened. She also made them physically do things with their bodies, for example they would be in a circle on the carpet and they would sing a song that had dance moves that taught them new words by what they had to physically do. She also encouraged the children to always have six details in their photos. There would be a timer on and they would have to draw for a specific amount of time before they could doodle on the back. She also incorporated intrapersonal by taking field trips. We went to Mr. Chytalo’s pumpkin patch and got a photo with it.
The teacher had a way of controlling classroom management. The way that she did so was by having a chart that had sections of red, green, and yellow. If you had your popsicle stick in the green section it meant that you were being well behaved. When you had your Popsicle stick in the yellow it meant that you weren’t making good choices and that we have to sit for five minutes during free choice time. If your Popsicle stick was in red, it meant you got a phone call home and you had to fill out a form of why you were acting like you were and it went home so your parents could read it. Some pros for that were that the children would have anxiety and would want to be good so that they got a good note. Another thing is that they would be chosen first for the iPad’s or main attractions in the room before the children who were in the yellow or red. Some bad things about that is sometimes the children get into red easier and the student that is always in the red won’t care because they like the individual attention. Another bad thing is that the children won’t write the letter home, or parents might get upset that they were separated from the class like that.
Reflection #5
There are many occupations in the world, teaching is the one that intrigues me. I have been involved with young children my whole entire life. Whether it was helping my mom babysit, or actually babysitting myself, shadowing a teacher or going to school for it. I knew I wanted to be a teacher since I was a little girl, and as of right now, I’m fulfilling that dream.
I have learned this semester that I have what it takes to become a teacher. I never gave up on my dream, even when assignments piled up, or when teachers discouraged me, I pulled through and I believe that is the best thing any person could do. Taking the negatives, and drowning them out with positives. The experience that I had at Delaware Academy Elementary School at Delhi made me come to realization that being a teacher isn't “an easy job” like the world thinks it is, or parents think it is. It is a lot of work, grading papers, dealing with discipline, teaching new skills, helping children cope. There is so much more to it then what an average person would think. It made me realize that I need to work hard, and accomplish my goals. I saw how hard it is to deal with a child that is having rough times at home. I learned that if the kids like you, that you are doing something right. It has brought me to the conclusion that I need to be able to deal with a lot and still be able to brush things off that don’t matter. Some time down my career path I know I need to attend many conferences to learn how to deal with difficult children like I saw in the classroom. At the beginning of the semester I didn’t really think of anything different then what I saw because it wasn't my first experience in the classroom. I have been shadowing since 2011. Although there were new children, it was basically the same experience that I had within previous times of observing.
There were many events that happened when I was observing at school, some good, and some bad. Some things that I learned at my observation is that you should never raise your voice because then the child knows that he/she is getting to you and it doesn't end well. Another thing that I learned is that you cannot let something small get to you, whether it be a comment that a teacher made to you or someone asking you to leave their classroom, or whether it be a child who does something rotten. I learned that you cannot discriminate even when a child does something wrong, you have to involve them too. You have to encourage children to do things, whether they are scared or upset, or mean, or sad. They have to be included like you would everyone else. I also learned that children love to be creative and you should never take that away from them regardless of the assignment. Children like to be creative in artwork and should not be judged on where they place things, or where they went off the page. They like to do what they believe, and that should be fine with everyone. One even that happened while I was observing that stood out to me and I learned from was when a child was being “bad” and wasn’t listening to what Mrs. Bennett had asked him to do, so she ignored him. The child didn’t like that he was being ignored so he went over to the book shelf with games in it and threw them out on the floor, and Mrs. Bennett said “_____ can you pick those up and put them on the shelf?” The child said no. The child continued to go around the classroom, and he picked up a wooden block and was going to throw it at me. I said “____ you need to put that down, that isn’t being safe at school.” The child refused to put the block down, so Mrs. Bennett picked him up, and sat him in a chair. When the child was ready to talk Mrs. Bennett went over and said “____ do you know why you are sitting down?” and the child said no. She explained to him that we couldn’t do that kind of stuff in school because it puts other children in danger and we are supposed to be nice to our friends. The child agreed that that was right and he was not right, he apologized and gave us both a hug. I learned that that child had issues outside of school, that influenced his decisions in school and that he couldn’t help it. It also gave me experience dealing with problematic children. It was significant to me because it was a learning experience. My future behavior towards children who aren’t making good choices will be different because of this event. It will be different because I will somewhat know how to deal with things that are out of my control. I will know how to respond, and I will know what to do, and because of Mrs. Bennetts actions I can use them when something swings my way again like the incident above.
Dilemma’s happen on a daily basis, especially in the teaching career. A dilemma that I experienced was during free choice time and three boys made guns out of toys in the classroom. I didn’t know how to respond to this because it hadn’t ever happened to me before. The teacher was putting together the Christmas Tree with a few children. One of the girls came over and told me that ____ was shooting a pretend gun. What I thought of to say at first was “Oh my gosh we don’t ever do that!!!!” Three other actions I could take would be to take the toys away, and have the boys sit or I could tell the boys that we don’t have guns at school and we don’t shoot our friends/classmates. Another thing I could have said was boys why are you playing with guns in school? Is that a good choice? I would say no and then explain why we don’t have them in schools. The best response that I could have said would have been to say boys why are you playing with guns in school? I would wait for their response and then I would tell them why we don’t have them in school. I believe that is the best way because then I could understand why they are doing what they are doing/playing and then I could teach them why what they were doing wasn’t appropriate for the classroom. It is called a teachable moment.
There weren’t many issues in school that I witnessed. There were no major encounters with people that the school deals with or people that the teacher deals with. Other than when I went to observe and I went to go into the art classroom and Mrs. Tucker asked Mrs. Bennett to take me back to her classroom. Mrs. Bennett talked to me about how Mrs. Tucker had made other faculty cry and how she can be really mean. That was my only encounter with issues in school.
There are many things that I learned from my observation at Delhi. I learned that there are many tests out there to get teachers that aren’t teaching correctly out of the teaching profession. I learned that there are people who are always going to try to get you to switch your career or pull you back but you just have to ignore them and do what you believe is right for you. I learned that children need positives in their lives, not always negative, always compliment them on what they do right, and never doubt them because that is when children give up on themselves. I also learned that there are many things that can influence the way you teach and you should always stay true to your beliefs, and always have a plan b is something doesn’t go the way that you thought it would go. I also learned that it is hard to have someone in the classroom watching your every move and that have a student helper could cause the teacher to be stressed out, not in my situation but in reality.
Many things influence the way that teachers teach and many times there are obstacles that get in your way, and people who will try to bring you down, but all that matters is if you are doing what you love, and if you love it, stay with it because no job is good unless you love what you do.