BLOG ENTRY #6

Service Learning has been a great opportunity to be in a classroom.   There are many things the teacher does behind the scenes that I wouldn't have noticed until now.  When the teacher gives student Z, a different book than the other students, I realize she is making the effort to give him what he needs.  When she helps student J with a different worksheet, I notice his worksheet has some spanish words and some english words.  At certain times I notice the teacher quietly telling student C and M to go to the resource room so they can get the extra help they need.

Blog Entry #5

I've been saddened and humbled while researching the historical events that shaped our public schools and made them what they are today.  I've also been inspired by their strength and courage.  Their courage paid off and I see it every time I go into my service learning classroom.

When I see the black kids in my class, I wonder if they know if they would've been born 60 years ago, they would have a much different school experience.   Before the supreme court case, Brown vs. The board of Education, schools were segrated by color.  The fight didn't end when the court case was won, blacks had to continue the fight and I'm so glad they did. 

When I'm reading to a little boy in the class who doesn't speak any English, I realized the impact of court case, Lau vs. Nichols.  The little boy in my class would be pushed to the back of the room, left to fall through the cracks. Some brave child before him, fought for change and won. 

I feel proud of my country and priveledged to be a future teacher. 

Blog Entry #4

My service learning assignment has given me several opportunities to witness great teaching....and a few times that weren't so great. 

Here are a few examples of when the teacher used great ideas to engage learners. 

To help them understand the ones place and the tens place, she gave them all a large squared graph paper and 2 different colored pens.   Then, she put the same paper on an overhead projector.  She wrote the ones place in red and the tens place in blue.  Then the lesson moved to adding 2 digit numbers on top of 2 digit numbers.    25 + 32.  She had them arrange the numbers in vertical positioning to make sure they were in the correct place. The students loved having their own markers and paid special attention to which column and place they were writing in. 

Another day the teacher pulled out a flip book for each student she had made.  It had a sound a letter or a combination of letters made, along with a picture that you would use the letters in. 

UI

Here is an example.  A picture of fruit, with the combination of letters UI.
The students were actively engaged at looking at the pictures and making the sounds.  She showed them what she expected them to do and then let them work with a partner. 

Another day while I was helping out, during math she got each student a mini white board, marker and cloth for erasing.  First she had them draw a line.  Then she had them label the line with a #1 at the start and #10 at the end.  She asked them to draw a dot that would cut the line in half.  She asked them what number they thought would go there.  She told them to raise their hand when they thought of the answer.  She then went on to explain rounding up and down, using that middle mark, which now had a #5 on it.  The students were very busy focusing on their white boards, it really made the learning individualized. 

Then there was a time when I thought the teacher could've done a better job at engaging her students. (What do I know, right?)  She was having the students do "packet" work for social studies.  When they were finished filling out all the information they had to color the picture of the solar system on the back, she told them to "color neatly."  I noticed some of the students seem to enjoy coloring, they took it very serious to color neatly.  Most of the students hurried and got it done and then wandered into the "DEAD TIME," which was discussed in this chapter.  I remember in school I HATED coloring, I thought it was such a waste of time!