Blog Entry # 3 **Service Learning Placement**

Blog Entry # 3

During my first  visit to Mrs. Hutchinson's classroom, I noticed that she doesn't waste any time!  She is a Special Education teacher (resource), so children come and go from her classroom all day.  When they walk through the door she tells them to grab their box and what color folder they need to pull out and start working on. Her room is tidy and well organized.   Her routine and tidy classroom promotes a productive learning environment.

One of my classroom visits was during math.  Mrs. Hutchinson told them they had the choice of grabbing a mini white board or to grab the counting cubes, whichever they preferred.  This let the student choose whichever method worked for them to complete their math assignment.

Mrs. Hutchinson makes time for each student to make them feel safe and loved.  One student asked her when he would be on grade level for reading.  She assured him that he was working hard and she was working hard to make sure that happens soon.  She told him how well he was doing and that she was proud of his hard work.

Blog Entry #2 Assignment

The teacher at my service learning placement is amazing.  She has all sorts of bins full of tools to help her students learn.  She is definitely a constructivism theory type of teacher.  For example, on Thursday she had me help a student learn his letters.  She had plastic uppercase and lowercase letters.  She had me help the student find the matches, upper and lower.  Then, she had me help the student trace the letters with his finger.  I thought the student would lose interest, but he didn't.

All of the instruction started with me explaining it, and then she would have them do something more visual.  Between the two instructions the students seem to understand.