Last blog for the semester

I have had such a wonderful experience with my classroom observation. I have enjoyed my time with the students and watching the way they interact and behave. I learned many great techniques from the teachers. I can see the huge amount of preperation that goes into each day's lessons.For instance, a fifth grade teacher I observed taught the students a technique called SQ3R. She taught this while teaching a science class. The point was to show the students how to read a text book. First the students should Survey the sections they need to read, next read the questions at the end of the sections so they can focus on what they need to know, then read the actual sections, recite the important facts and review what was learned. It is clear that teaching is hard work but really worth it. I am looking forward to next semester and doing more observation. 

Observation of 1st grade class at a charter school

I had the opportunity to observe at a charter school in Roosevelt. Having never been, it was a great chance for me to see a charter school in action.  I noticed right away that the school had a bright, friendly atmosphere. The students wear uniforms which I think uniforms are a good idea. I think they take a lot of stress of the parents and children. Children don't have to worry about having name brand clothing.   I observed the morning routine in the first grade class and thought it was nice how the teacher had the students stop and greet the student next to them in the circle by saying "Good morning [name]." It was a great way to start the day while teaching courtesy and manners. The teacher also stopped other students from talking while each student told what they did over the weekend. Again, showing children how to be polite and respectful. The classes in this school each had a teacher and co-teacher.  This classroom did have a student with severe behavioral issues. Even with two teachers it was a challenge! It was a good lesson for me to see how tough teaching can be. The teachers had to handle this one student while trying to continue the lesson for the rest of the class. It was clear that this one student's behavior at times set off misbehavior by other students. This teacher showed how important it is to remain calm and have lots of patience.

Teacher observation

Had a great experience during teacher observation this week. The teacher had me do the review of a worksheet for language arts and math with the class. It was sort of a last minute thing and I had to wing it. I was nervous but it was a good first experience for me!

fieldwork observation

While doing my classroom observation I was able to sit in on a teacher meeting.  These two fifth grade teachers were teamed together.  One teacher teaches both classes science and the other social studies. They coordinate the lesson plans and exams for the other subjects.  It was a great opportunity to see this in action. I was  amazed at how much preperation goes into scheduling. There is so much juggling with specials, assemblies, students being pulled out for speech and music lessons. These were veteran teachers who clearly had been working together for awhile. It was interesting to hear them discuss the different pace for the two classes and the levels at which each class was learning. One class was picking the material up quicker so that was addressed. It was a valuable experience for me and really got a lot out of it.

attending a board of education meeting

As part of my fieldwork experience I attended the Commack Board of Education meeting. It was interesting to see all the issues that the board must vote on. Although some were very routine matters on the agenda, there was some "new business".  There was a presentation by the high school students who are in the "IB" program which is a program Commack high school adopted replacing AP classes. The students discussed how rewarding they find the program although it is very challenging.

observation of 5th grade math and social studies lessons

I observed a 5th grade math lesson and a social studies lesson. I first noticed that before the kids came in the teacher was using Google translate to translate a letter to a student's  parents who were from Haiti and couldn't understand English. I observed the math lesson and how the teacher incorporated teaching to the whole group, then broke them up into small groups of 3 to work on problems and then had them work on math problems individually from the text book. By doing this the teacher was able to give help to those children struggling and allow those who were ready to move on. At this school the fifth graders switch classes for certain subjects so I was able to see a different group have a social studies lesson. I noticed while teaching the social studies lesson the teacher was also teaching reading skills. She taught them skills called SQ3R and it was very helpful to those students when they needed to answer the questions in the text book.
I am amazed at the lack of time the teachers have with the students. Students are being pulled out for reading help, speech, music lessons, assemblies. It is very hard for the teachers to deal with all the scheduling issues

Introductory entry

My name is Jen Farrell. I am enrolled at LIU Brentwood and I am taking EDI 601 with Dr. Schneiderman. This is my first blog. I have just begun my feldwork. My first day was in a fifth grade classroom. I observed the beginning of the day and the daily routing and I observed a mathematics class. The teacher reviewed place value. She used a sheet with a large box with gridlines to represent 1.0 and had the children  outline it. She then had them outline what would represent 1 tenth, hundreth and thousandth. She then had them do a really interesting excerice with  a bag of manipulatives. They got together in groups of 3, one child would be a "arranger"  who would pick several peices and the next child would be a "writer" who would write down the value of the arrangement in both word and standard form. The third child would be the checker to make sure they matched. They then took turns. It was fun for the kids because they would try to trick each other with harder and harder values.  The teacher followed up with a homework sheet that had place value equations. Intersting to see how quickly some picked it up and others struggled. Looking forward to going back to the classroom.