Alison's 260 Weblog

Melrose Carnival

arogers08 — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 03:27:29 +0000

On Friday April 11th, I was able to attend the Melrose Carnival. When I entered the school it took me back to when my school would have fun fairs on friday nights and how excited I was for them. The classrooms at Melrose were rearranged so that the desks and supplies were out of the way and games were set up in each room. There were a large variety of prizes that each student could win as well as raffle baskets that classrooms put together in order to raffle off. I enjoyed seeing the students in this environment outside of the classroom. I was able to relate to them and get to know them for who they are without having to be instructing them and making sure they behave. I also enjoyed seeing how much the entire community came together to put this event on. There were many parent volunteers who put their time into preparing, setting up, working the event, as well as cleaning up after the event. It was great to see them involved in their children’s education in a fun way where teachers/students/and families are able to interact in a fun environment. It provided a family fun event where all family members were able to have a good time with each other as well as other family friends.

Final week of field/overall reactions

arogers08 — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 03:20:41 +0000

This Thursday was the final day at Melrose elementary in Mr. L’s 1st grade classroom. There were ups and downs for the week including a lesson by myself in everyday math in which I felt like I was constantly trying to pull the students back into the lesson after being distracted. But overall it was a good week. As far as my overall experience at Melrose, I really enjoyed it. It was great working with Angela and Danielle within the classroom especially when using everyday math manipulative items as well as checking math hw during the lesson so we could move on. It was also fun to bounce ideas off of each other for other lessons and see other teaching styles. One issue I found was that the 1st graders had trouble seeing us all on an equal level of respect for us during out lessons. Maybe this is just my opinion when I was teaching but I felt that the students were just overtaken by all the outside help that they saw me as more of just an outside helper and not a teacher because I was only in there for a couple hours each day whereas Angela was in there for the entire day, everyday. I also found it hard to get opportunities to create lessons in other topics outside of everyday math. Angela was doing an awesome unit in social studies with traveling the world and seeing different cultures. Because of this I only was able to have options teaching math lessons.

Overall I enjoyed working with the two other girls but with the few downsides I would suggest maybe keeping the max of field teachers in the room at 2. That way working on team teaching is avaliable but it also limits the amount of people the students are exposed to.

The Week of the Math Manipulative

arogers08 — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 19:22:34 +0000

I was able to teach my first everyday math lesson in the first grade classroom this week. Lets just say it could have gone smoother. The first problem that I saw within the lesson was that everyday math assigned 2 manipulative items into one lesson, pattern blocks and geoboards. There was a frenzy when the pattern blocks were put out and not one student seemed to be listening in my mind. When those were cleaned up, the geoboards were then distributed and it was the same situation. They were not listening even though I felt as if I tried every technique possible to keep them with me and because they were not listening they were not able to complete the activity correctly. The excitement with both items caused too much of a frenzy within the classroom which took away from the grasping of the overall concept. If I were to teach this lesson for a second time I would not use both items even though everyday math told me too. What is also hard is that everyday math doesn’t account time for spreading up lessons and expects you to follow each days lesson and move one. So splitting them up would push of off schedule but I feel the students would have gotten more out of the lesson if that was done.

First week after Spring Break

arogers08 — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 00:21:19 +0000

This week was the week of the math manipulative. Math lessons this week consisted of using real money and rods/flats/cubes. The lessons were good for learning the concepts but offered many problems with classroom management. It was a learning experience for myself and something to keep in mind when using any math manipulative.

Angela, the student teacher, taught a run lesson this week in social studies where the students “traveled” to Brazil. They have been learning about different countries and this week was Brazil. The students re-entered the room after recess to find music playing over the voice amplifier from a youtube video playing Brazilian music. Each student enjoyed the music and really got excited about learning about Brazil. I thought this was a great use of technology and resources. She also was just going to play the music through the computer but Mr. L had the idea to use the voice amplifier which worked perfect for making sure every student could hear the music. I wasn’t able to stay for the entire lesson but I enjoyed what I saw and so did the students.

I was able to teach a lesson this week with the calendar problems and read a story. The students were a little rowdy for some reason and just did not want to seem to sit still and listen. But even with this the lesson still went well and they enjoyed the story I read.

Week 5

arogers08 — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 20:31:56 +0000

There was not anything too exciting that happened the last week of field before spring break. Things were pretty normal other than the students have cabin fever from being inside due to the weather.

As I have been in the field I have noticed that many teachers, including my cooperating one choose to do a switching tactic where they switch students with another classroom in order to teach certain subjects. For example, my teacher teaches all of the social studies and the other 1st grade teacher teaches all of the science. Overall I think this is a good style of teaching in the fact that it allows one teacher to focus on writing up good lessons and focusing their effort on them instead of spreading your efforts out trying to come up with two lessons for both social studies and science. I also find some downfalls to this. I find the switch to be rather disrupting. Students waste a lot of time just walking across the hallway and choosing a desk to sit in. It is unecessary movement that can be avoided. Also, the students have to get used to a different teaching style than what they are used to which takes away from their learning experience. I know that the students enjoy this time because it allows them to move around the school and gives them a change of scene but does it benefit them? What do you think?

Week 4

arogers08 — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 20:12:45 +0000

There really wasn’t anything too exciting that happened in my 1st grade classroom this week. The students came in on Monday with a little extra spunk and energy which I am assuming from the fact that they had a snow day on last Friday. Then Tuesday was another snow day which made them energized on Wed. as well. With it being so cold and snowy outside there was inside recess in which the students actively played some games as a class. One game I witnessed was one called “bump”. This game consisted of the students forming a line facing the chalk board away from the word wall. Starting at one end, Mr L would give the students a word from the word wall for them to spell. The students would then spell the word one letter at a time passing the microphone down the line as the students say the letter they think comes next. When the word has been completed it is the next student in line job to say bump. Then the next student will sit down. Students also sit down if they say an incorrect letter in spelling the certain words as well. The game continues until there is only one student standing and they are considered “the winner”. Then the students all stand up again and it starts over. I feel it is a fun way to have the student practice their word wall word spelling without just implementing a spelling test. It gives an alternative way of assessing their knowledge of the word wall words to the spelling tests.

I was also able to witness a social studies lesson this week with the topic being people you would see within your community (friends, family, salesman, trash collectors, mail person, teachers, etc.) and places you would see in your community (school, park, office building, houses, restaurants, stores, etc.) It was interesting listening to the students’ list what they thought they would see. Some students said things like sky scrapers and airports which wouldn’t necessarily work for Wooster but are things they would see in a city community.

I am continuing to enjoy my time at Melrose and maybe we will have a full week next week!

Week 3

arogers08 — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 22:16:10 +0000

I was able to teach a lesson this Thursday using the daily calender activities. I was a little nervous for this because there are a couple problem students that usually have trouble sitting through calender without disrupting the whole class. Surprisingly they were not a problem and were attentive and not disruptive. I was very excited about this and felt that overall the lesson went well. The students had a little trouble with some of the math problems but we worked through them together and they were able to find the correct answers. I enjoyed taking the class and am looking forward for my future lessons.

In my classroom, there are two of us from 260 and a student teacher as well. It is fun having all of the extra hands when checking math homework and helping them with problems. One issue I have had is trying to decide how far to step in on other’s lessons. When students are acting out I want to help and get them back on track but I also do not want to overstep the teacher that is teaching and let them be in control. It has not been an issue so far but it was just one thing I noticed this week as I was teaching.

Week 2 of field, week one in a new classroom

arogers08 — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 20:09:34 +0000

First off, I greatly enjoyed the 2 days off due to snow days but was eager to get back into field and see what my new classroom would be like. I was moved from Ms. Mapes 2nd grade at Melrose to Mr. Larousse’s 1st grade class at Melrose. For the 2 days I was there I have enjoyed my time and really feel welcome and useful within the classroom.

When I arrived the first day he was teaching a math lesson using triangles to teach addition and subtraction. After this was finished each student had a set of worksheets to fill out. When they were finished he had me jump right in and read over their answers to check for completion and then direct them to their next worksheet. I found this to be a great way for me to learn the students names as well as learn what each student was like on an individual bases as I worked with them on questions they had on the worksheets.

On my second day I was able to observe Mr. Larousse conduct the calender activity that they do every morning. It was a great activity and very similar to other classrooms that I have seen do a calender activity dealing with Everyday Math. The children were very excited to participate and they were chosen by pulling their name out of a jar of Popsicle sticks. This was a great classroom management tool as Mr. L was able to be sure to call on every student before calling on someone for their second time.

One thing that I did notice as interesting was that Mr. Larousse has wore blue jeans to both days of school I have been in there. I don’t see this as a negative aspect because he is an absolutely gifted teacher with the “knack” we discussed in class and I feel that him wearing the jeans does not take away from the respect his students or other teachers give him at all. I just saw it as interesting considering some schools do not allow jeans at all, even on Fridays.

Overall my short time there has been very beneficial and I find modeling my teaching style after Mr. Larousse’s as a great way of teaching because it has a laid back feel to in along with a strong sense of hard work and determination to learn more.

Week One

arogers08 — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 21:14:38 +0000

This week was full of up and downs as far as feeling useful in the classroom. One Wed. I was able to work with half of the class on a math project using geoboards. It was a fun lesson where the students each had a board and created 4 different types of rectangles or squares using one rubber band. When they were finished with one they would draw it on their worksheet and then write about it counting the number of rows, dots in each row, and dots all together. The activity overall went well. There were many setbacks throughout the time because students were very cramped on the table we were working on and were constantly talking to one another as well as fidgeting with their supplies and making sure they weren’t being put with the other students’ stuff. One student in particular liked to not listen to my directions and then ask a question that pertained to what I just said. This was frustrating and I found myself reminding myself to have patience and try to emphasize the importance of paying attention. I was not able to finish the activity because the students went to 2 different specials back to back and then we didn’t work with it on Thursday morning so I am not sure how the end of the lesson went with the group. I enjoyed being given the chance to work with a group and teach them something and hope for another opportunity like this one so I can try to work with better time management and focusing the students attention on my directions.