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!  

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.

Service Learning Section

             

                  Blog Entry #1    Service Learning Section

     I'm excited to start the service learning section of this class.  Service Learning is where I go and volunteer at a school and assist the teacher, a total of 20 hours.  The school I have chosen is Legacy Elementary in American Fork, Utah.  My daughter went there and I think it's a great school.

     After getting familiar with the census website I learned some facts about American Fork.  The average home in Am. Fork is $216,600 and has 3.61 people in the household.  The 2010 census records show that 92% of the citizens are white and only 7.2% of the households speak non-english at home.  94% of the citizens have graduated from high school and 32.7% have bachelor's degrees.  It sounds like the community values education and the majority of the children will speak english in the home.

   

Breathe and Relax

Standard 1
The students will learn ways to improve mental health and manage stress.

Standard 7
Use telecommunications and on-line resources (e.g., email, online discussions, web environments) to participate in collaborative problem-solving activities to develop solutions or products for audiences inside and outside the classroom. (4, 5)

**This activity is great for the kids in my classroom.  I want them to know their feelings are important and real.  I want them to be able to deal with the stress and anger they will feel in life. Some days are happy, some days are sad.