April 24, 2015 Journal Entry #8

Journal Entry 8

What is the most important thing you have learned from the field work observation? Why?

          

             The most important thing I learned during my field work. I think was a lot of classroom management and how to work with student on an individual level. Mrs. Nuttall was really good at taking time to explain to me her rule and how she managed her classroom. She had her classroom organized in a way that went well with her schedule so that kids were not just all over the classroom all the time, because she had a huge classroom. I would have never thought about the layout of the classroom to help classroom management. I noticed and she taught me that a huge part of classroom management, is individualized student management. There were a couple kids in each class who had a harder time staying on task, or would get angry fast, or try to get their friends off task. Mrs Nuttall would take them aside each morning, in a not noticeable way and talk to them about the schedule for the day and what she expected and she would give them encouragement. This really helped these students because they knew her expectations and they felt that she cared. By doing this the whole class ran smoother. 

                There was no empty time, their schedule was regular for the most part, besides assemblies and stuff, so that the students had a routine and they knew how to go about the day. I also learned nothing slides when it comes to students. It you let one little thine slide, one time they will try again, or you will become to relaxed with your class and loose the respect of the students.
             The last thing I learned that is the biggest to me, is you are not the students friend, you are their teacher. A teach can care and love their students, but they are not there to play with them. They are there to teach. The students need to know this and the teacher needs to keep this rule. 

April 17, 2015: Journal Entry # 7

Journal Entry 7

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

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

         Mrs. Nuttal had a very specific schedule for her class and rules. All of the student knew the rules and schedule though. One of the biggest rules was a rule for Mrs. Nuttall her self. The rule was to always be consistent, to not left things slide with the kids, no matter how small. She said that this was vital because if she ever did let them slide even the little things, its would grow and grow and become a problem, the kids would begin to loose their respect for her and think they can get away with much more. The rules I noticed in Mrs Nuttall's class were all pretty simple, but it kept the class going, some of her rules were, walking in a straight line, not speaking out of turn. They students always had to tell her something they learned before they went to recess and went home. 

           Many rules in Mrs Nuttall's class were very specific to each student. Some students that struggled with focusing and got angry or frustrated fast, she would pull them aside and talk about the routine of the day and asked how they were and just prepared them for the day. I am thinking of a specific little girl she did this with. The little girl has 3 strikes a day, if she reached those 3 strike, the parents would find out and she would have to sit out of an activity or out of the class. 

           Mrs. Nuttall used several things to help her classroom rune smoothly, but one of the biggest things she did that was for every student was punch cards and earning marbles. I loved these 2 ideas because it helped students individually and as a class. The punch cards were little card they each had with 20 boxes on them. Every time Mrs Nuttall saw a student on task, or getting to the rug early, she would say "I caught you" and give them a sticker, when the punch card was fun they earned prize. Then the class as a whole could earn marbles she could place in a mason jar, when the mason jar was full they would earn a party.

Blog Entry 6: April 3, 2015

Blog Entry 6

What strategies does the teacher use to actively engage the students? How effective are these?

                  Mrs. Nuttall has to be one of the best teachers I have ever been around. I love observing and being in her class room. She is a kindergarten teacher, so she has a hard job of making sure the students are engaged. Kindergartners loose focus very fast they have a short attention span. She has several strategies to make sure they are engaged and learning. The biggest one I can think of though, is that her lessons are short. In the beginning of observing  I felt a little overwhelmed with how fast the class moved. The longest activity was centers or small group time  (around 20 minutes) and even then they were switching centers and groups every 6-7 minutes. I asked her about this and she was able to help me understand. She explained that since their attention spans are short, she does short activities so that when they are in group time, guided reading, large group or math, they are focused and getting the most out it as they can be. She would also start new activities or lesson when the kids were cleaning up the last one, because it forced them to stay on task, because they new they needed to get to the next thing.

                 Mrs. Nuttall also taught me that as a teacher you much be super excited about everything you do, even exaggerator your excitement to help the kids focus. You cannot be monotone. Mrs Nuttall, is actually my neighbor and I have known her for years. I never knew how silly and excited and loud she could be until I saw her teach, because I had only ever seen her pretty quiet. 

               These last two things I want to write a out I think are the most important. She does a ton of small group activities where she is working with around 5 students and is able to really work with them individually and help them. I think this is the most important way to actively engage students, is to just create time where you directly work with each one, like in small group time. During all the small group time activities she has "self start" activities that the students know how to do with out her instruction. I think this really gives students responsibility. From what I have seen the self start is the "cool" thing to do for the kids. They all enjoy it and think it is cool, and that they are cool that they can choose a learning activity that they don't need someone telling them what to do all the time.

              These are just a couple strategies I have seen. I have learned so much from observing and I am so exited to apply it when I begin teaching. 

Journal Entry # 5 March 27, 2015

Journal Entry #5

             I have been able to observe Mrs. Nuttal now for a while and we have talked a lot about different roles and jobs a teacher has. One thing Mrs. Nuttal has told me over and over is that she is a teacher not her students friend. This does not mean they don't have have fun and that class is boring, but that she wants her students to recognize her role to help them learn. She has told me that when they think the teacher is their friend a respect is lost. This is all in a kindergarten class and I thought that was very interesting. I agree with Mrs. Nuttal though, that a teachers role is exactly that to be a teacher, not a parent, or a friend. I do believe being a teacher means more than just lecturing students and "Teaching them" especially in elementary school. A teachers most important role is love her students and nurture them in their learning. A teacher should be a role model. Students need to know the teacher is their to guide and help them in learning, and that the teacher cares about them. If the students know the teacher believe in them and cares about them, I believe students will flourish in their education because many limits they face will be taken away. Limits like, being scared of failure, not feeling comfortable with the teacher or with students. 

             There have been a couple time when Mrs. Nuttal and the other kindergarten teacher are talking about their students and I have been their. Their conversations have been about how to work with certain students and their behaviors, or disabilities. I think this would be the most challenging role as a teacher. Trying to ind a way to teach each child in a way that is best for them, when you have 26 students to to that for. I noticed how Mrs Nuttal is really good ant individualizing learning, she teaches the same thing in several ways. She uses a lot small group activities to help the students. There are other behavior problems, like students (they are kindergartners) pulling tantrums in the class or running out of the class room. Hitting other kids. I feel like this would be so difficult to deal with because it is hurting other students learning and teachers are not parents so we  can not just sit them on our laps or give them a time out. That would be hard.  Mrs Nuttal has told me a couple stories or behavior problems. One of her past students ran out side and jumped on a car kicking and screaming. She said she just ran out after him having another teacher watch her class. She grabbed the kid off the car and held him to get him inside. Teachers are legally not supposed to do this, however she said "sometimes you do what you have to do and then tell the parent and your boss what happened." This was a matter of keeping the kid safe, or keeping the legal boundaries, of course she kept the child safe, and everything worked out find. Behavior problems are going to be challenging. 

Journal Entry #4 March 13, 2015

Journal Entry #4

       While observing in Mrs. Nuttall's kindergarten class I have been able to many ways that she assesses her students. With in the last month she has had parent teach conferences and had to put out grades. Observing just a small part of Mrs. Nuttals's  assessments with the students was overwhelming, because of how much goes into assessing each student. She went over her list of what she needed to assess to update their grades and it was so much. It ranged fro social skills to counting to 100 and reading. There was a list of at least 20 (probably much more) that she showed me on all these skills that the students are tested on.
        When Mrs. Nuttall was preparing for parent teacher conferences she used the assessments with the grades how ever she also had collected a lot of work that she had the student work on previously, like projects that tested their motor skills, and "writing a narrative" worksheet. I loved this because it showed the good work of the students, though they has no idea it was a "test" in a sense. I love this also because it works well for me as well. I am not a great at taking tests, I become nervous and do not focus well, but on projects I can really dedicated my self to a project and do my best. I feel like Mrs. Nutall was really able to asses the students in several ways like these to really see the real progress of each student.

Journal Entry #3 February 25, 2015

Journal Entry 3 

Blog Entry #3 February 27, 2015

             In the last couple weeks in my observation with Mrs. Nuttall and her kindergarten class, there have been two special education students lowly being merged into the class. This has been really neat to observe. There is always a teacher that come in with them, and every week they extend their stay in the class a little bit longer. Like the first week it was literally 5 minutes, now they are to about 20 minute in the class, which give them time to do some group time and center. It is very neat to see the other kids help them, out and get the hang of class room environment. I do not know what special needs these kid have, one is more severe than the other. However they bother are doing well with being immersed into the class, It is wonderful that they ca be immersed into the class.

                      While observing this week I was able to talk to another kindergarten teacher about one of her student who has a really hard time focusing, and also runs from the class at random times. He has an IEP, because he has a learning disability. It was neat to talk to her because she is able to help him in ways she could not help her regular student. Since the student is a runner and has a hard time focusing, the IEP allows her to hold him and help him stay focused and not run so that he can learn. Normally holding student is not allowed, but because it is what helps him and he has an IEP with it addressed in it she can. That was cool to me because it shows how the IEP helped the student learn, but also helped the teacher teach him. 

           

Journal Entry 2

Friday February 6th, 2015 10:45-12:15pm
Tuesday February 10th, 2015 12:30-1:45pm
        This past week in Mrs. Nuttle's class I was able to go twice, once to her morning class and once to her afternoon class. It was a really col opportunity because on Friday it was hundreds day. I loved seeing how Mrs. Nuttle used the 100s party they had to still teach, the whole time. They did a hundreds work out, where they practiced counting to 100 by 10's. She also taught me some useful information for when I am a teacher. She told me that class room parties, teachers usually hate, because class room management goes out the window. She then said, but if you have trained your class well enough you will still be able to have management and have fun.
       On Tuesday I went in during the afternoon class so that I could observe a math lesson, I have really wanted to do that. It was very simple with work sheet with racing bears and the students would roll a dice and move the bear and then roll again to move it again, and it taught them addition. After the math lesson it was small group and so I was with Mrs. Nuttle in a reading group and I was able to help the children read their homework books. That was really neat cause I was able to observe how Mrs. Nuttle helped them, and I was able to apply like, helping them sound out the word, or looking at the pictures and just trying over and over.  I realized it I harder to help a student read a work that I thought it was. Its hard to teach and not just tell. When I would sound it out, I noticed the student would just look at me to get the answer, rather that try to figure it out themselves. I had to have them sound it out by them selves and to remind them to look at the book, not at me. I feel like I am learning a lot!  I am really grateful I get to observe Mrs. Nuttle.
 

Journal Entry #1
January 30th, 2015

         Today was my first day being in Mrs. Nuttall's Kindergarten class. I absolutely loved it. When I arrived the kids were in their rotation, which included math activities and reading activities. It was neat because Mrs Nuttall was doing testing with the kids one on one and so I was able to observe testing. I cant remember what the testing was exactly called, It was something like the DRA...or RDA, I will ask her again. It was really awesome to see how much these kindergartners knew! Throughout class I was able to see kids read words and write their own addition problems and solve them! That blew me away to think that they are so far ahead compared to where I was in Kindergarten. I didn't read until 1st grade and Mrs. Nuttall told me that by the end of kindergarten now, kids should be able to read. I noticed how fast paced the average kindergartens daily schedule is. Every activity was only like 20 minutes long and the teacher had to get everything in, in only 3 hours.
        During the time I was in the class room a 4th grade class came to the kindergartners to read with them. That very neat to observe. The 4th graders really helped the kids read. I thought it was a great activity to do to help the kindergartners learn. One of the 4th graders just moved from Mexico and so she did not speak much English, so the 4th grade teacher was having Mrs Nuttall test this girl because Mrs Nuttall is a lot more familiar with that level of testing, because the girl is on a kindergarten level. It was interesting to see, because the girl is very smart, but the language barrier is not letting it show.
        Mrs. Nuttall was always busy, she was always interacting with the kids whether during group time or rotation. She told me she has a lot of paperwork at home to do because there is not time during class for her to do it. I loved this about her because she was so focused on the kids and teaching them. Everything she did had a reason, which was awesome. Some examples are, she had all the kids tell her what word they learned today, which was "from," she also had them use it in a sentence before they ran off onto the play ground. All of the songs she sang while cleaning up had to do with some sort of learning. I am so excited to keep learning from Mrs. Nuttall and to see what I can apply in my class when I am a teacher.