Thursday, February 22: Second Observation

Today I was able to observe Ms. S in her morning routine. The students quickly ran through the morning checklist for attendance, lunch, and library checkin. As usual Ms. S had an activity ready for them when they arrived at their desk. I have found that this is so important for students of this age. It is so hard to get young children to remain in their seats, they have to have something to occupy their time. Throughout my observations, Ms. S has always provided an activity during a down time which was relavent to the topic being studied. Sometimes, students can engage in a new ideas with familiar instructions, while other times they are finishing work they were not able to the day before. She always makes the best use of every spare minute they have. These things do not just magically plan themselves and appear on their desks. Each time I have visited the classroom, I see that every activity has been well thoughtout. During school hours, she is constantly thinking about what will come next and how she needs to set it up to make the best use of their time, while keeping in mind things that will be a distraction to her students. I really feel like this will be my biggest obstacle to overcome. But, I know it is a matter of getting to know your students and yourself. It will come with time and a lot of practice.

After all the students were accounted for, they joined Ms. S on the rug for calendar and math. The students have really come quite a long way since my teaching partner and I were last here to observe. The students were able to count up seven days on the calendar and make a suggetion as to what day it would be. The students were correct in saying the 29th, but what I was really impressed by was a girl who knew that February did not have 29 days, so it would actually be March 1st. Most of the children did not understand this, but after some explaining by Ms. S, the students understood that while they were right about the 29th on most months, this month is special, so it would actually be March 1st. During math time, the students use straws to count how many days they have attended school. This is a great way to develop an understanding for place value. Ms. S has a pocket chart set up to collect ones, tens, and hundreds. She bundles the ones into tens with a rubber band, and the tens into ten groups of tens for the one hundreds. The students have really gained an understanding for this concept. As I have been exposed to a first grade classroom at a private school (for Lang. Bloc), I am beginning to see that this is a difficult concept for young students to understand. Especially, when students begin to explore addition. As private school have different methods of teaching, its a great way for me to compare the two strategies. Although there are postives and negatives with both, I feel that Ms. S's way to explore place value has a better effect on the students. Ms. S is now teaching students to skip count by 2's, a concept that is very important for students to learn before moving on to addition. It is easy to see how she has planned her school year to have lessons that gradually build on each other. It seems to all be coming together now! The students then moved onto a language arts lesson that involved sequencing. They were sequencing a story that they were very familiar with. The students all had pictures with words to represent each action. They sequenced this individually and after they had a chance to arrange them, Ms. S did it on the board with the class. They all checked their work and glued it into their notebooks. Sequencing is such an important skill for students to learn. Not only does it help with story development, but it is a math skill that they have to develop and understand.

After the students left for library that day, Ms. S, my partner, and I had a chance to talk about how some students were very advanced while others were not. In public school systems, children come from a wide range of backgrounds. This little girl had attended a preschool at 3 years old and at 5 could have been moved into the first grade by her performance on her assessments. At the same time this little girl was able to make that connection, other students were constantly looking around the room, talking, and moving around. Ms. S is quick to correct their behavior, which is something that I have found to be very necessary. She also shared with us some of the projects the students had completed since we were last with them. I really feel like it is all coming together for me now. One of the things I was very nervous about last fall was seeing my year develop and making sure everything that I do will build on each other. After being able to observe such a great teacher, I'm excited to get started! In addition to the lesson Ms. S taught, we were able to discuss our unit plan. My partner and I have a very fun unit, water. We will be teaching the students about floating and sinking and solid, liquid, and gas. Next Thursday, we will be doing a pre-assessment to evaluate what they know about the subject!