Blog Entry #8

• What is the most important thing you have learned during fieldwork observation? Why?

           It's hard to say what is most important! Because I learned so many things and got so many ideas for my future classroom. You can read and talk about what classroom life is like, but until you actually go into a classroom and experience it, you will never be prepared for when you have your own. It was good for me to just experience how a classroom is ran. So i guess the most important thing I learned was classroom management. I've always been pretty worried about keeping the attention of my students and making the classroom a routine place where learning is fun but challenging. I got to see a couple different teacher in action and learn from how they run their classrooms. 

           Something else that I've learned is what to say and what not to say to students. In my time in the classroom, there have been a few times where students ask questions about situations that are questionable. I wasn't quite sure how to address those questions, but after seeing how the teacher responds, I got a pretty good idea of what to say. There are roundabout ways to answer questions so the students feel like they have an answer to questions. Basically I learned how to redirect questions and go off on a tangent. It was great. 

           It was so good being in a classroom and getting to help out wherever help was needed. I learned that for most of the time, you have a general lesson plan but just kind of have to go with the flow, which is a quality of a good teacher. It made me so excited to get my schooling done and get out there in the action!!

Blog Entry #7

• What are the school rules/classroom rules and how are they enforced?

           School rules are things like don't run in the hallways, make sure you have a pass to go to the bathroom (doubles as a classroom rule, too), don't go outside without permission. These rules are enforced by having adults walking the hallways every once in a while, whether it's patrolling or going from one place to another. If a teacher notices that something is up, they will definitely ask the child what they're up to. I actually saw a teacher ask to see a child's hall pass the other day, which they did have. So that was good!

           Then for the classroom rules, there are some written and some unwritten. The teacher has the kids recite some every day. These are the ones they say:

-Listen to the teacher

-Keep your desk clean

-Open your ears

-Follow instructions

-Only say kind words

-Be ready to learn!

And she enforces them in a few different ways. She uses the clothespin strategy that I learned about in the Classroom Management section. That is really effective and the students respond to it really well. She has had a child sit out in the hallway who hit another student. She also has a good reward system for kids who are following the rules. They get to clip up and earn a prize at the end of the day. And when the whole class is behaving well, they are one point closer to having a pizza party!

• What are the procedures the teacher uses to make everything run smoothly in the class

           She just has a really good routine down. The kids start the same sections at the same time every day, so they know what to expect and what is coming next. She has a big schedule on the side of the white board with a magnetic arrow, so they move the arrow down and can look up there to see what is next. She also split up classroom jobs between the kids, so there is no arguing over who gets to do what. One kid is in charge of turning the lights off, one is in charge of going to the front office to get the snacks for the day, one is responsible for making sure the markers, crayons, and colored pencils are organized, etc. She rotates these probably once a month so that they get to do multiple jobs and it helps split up the small duties.