FieldBlog5: Bryden Elementary- Visit 3

Honestly, I have really been enjoying Bryden. I find the school to be very great and I think that I am learning a lot. Today's visit was very typical and nothing really interesting happened. Today in science, the second graders moved on from the topic of weather and weather instruments to the topic of arachnids and insects. The class began by the teacher having the students sit on the floor in front of the board. From there, she pulled up several different images of a variety of spiders. She explained the differences of each type of spider, and whether they were poisonous or not. The kids were all really interested by this, and some were even disgusted a bit. After this, the students worked in partners on a worksheet relating to the spiders. After science, the students had snack time and Bison time. During this time there were actually only three students that stayed in the class after snack. It was nice because I was able to talk to these students and learn more about them. We talked about Halloween and their costumes, and I even told them a little bit about myself. They were all just working on Halloween activities with their sight words. It was interesting for me to see how Ms. Mock incorporated the sight words in a fun and themed way. This visit was not as eventful as the others, but I feel as if I now have a stronger ability to notice the things in the classroom that we have discussed from class.

Week 8: My learning/teaching experience

For my lesson, I want to make Play-Doh with the students because it is a fun and hands on activity that relates to science. In a classroom, a teacher has the ability to build a bridge with students by teaching them something that relates to what they are interested in. First, you can make the idea of your teaching topic connect with what the students enjoy doing. To first engage my students, I would show them what we are going to make and how we  are going to make it through a video or discussion. I would then discuss the ingredients of Play-Doh and how each individual ingredient combined will create the Play-Doh. Then, I would get the students involved by making the Play-Doh themselves and allowing them to color their own and bring it home with them! But before they clean everything up, they would be able to play with their Play-Doh for a few minutes to see what they created and allowing them to be interested in what they are learning, therefore building a bridge. When teaching this topic, I will be focusing on what the students enjoy doing and how they will be learning and benefiting from this activity. By engaging the students and making them do hands on work, they are less likely to get bored, and are actually learning in a fun and cool way. I will need to realize that these kinds of hands on activities may not be as fun or benefitting for each class that I teach because each student is different, which relates to Ohanian's concept. I can also show the students that I am passionate and caring about how they learn and what they are interested in. When I become a teacher, I want to be able to create these bridges between what students should be learning and what they are interested in so that I can provide a healthy and strong learning environment for students.

FieldBlog 4: Bryden Elementary- Visit 2

I have only been to Bryden Elementary School two times, but I absolutely love it. The staff and teachers are so friendly and the students are absolutely adorable. I love being able to interact with the students and watching them learn. I think that Bryden is a great school, and the children are lucky to be able to attend a school like that. I am in a second grade classroom, and like I said before, the kids are absolutely adorable, but this week I was trying to observe how well the students were engaged and focused. Now, I have been wondering, is it a challenge to keep little kids focused while learning and what is the best way to keep these children engaged? I have not yet found my answer to this question, but hopefully in the following weeks I will begin to see this answer in my observations. This question came into my mind when I was observing the second graders in their science class, and a thought ran through my head from something that we discussed in class, which was are students really engaged in the activity or are they just participating? The second graders have a science test coming up so their teacher prepared a review game for the students to prepare for that test. While observing this, I noticed that a lot of the students were not really focusing on what the teacher was reviewing, nor were they really listening to her, rather they were impatiently waiting for their turn to go up to the board and choose a question for the class. In my opinion, it seemed that the students were having a hard time becoming engaged with this review game. One technique that I did notice that the teacher was using in attempt to keep the students focused was gecko time. And yes, there was literally a pet gecko in the classroom. After the review game, if the students had good behavior, which some did not, they were allowed to hold and pet the gecko. After science class, the students had snack time and Bison time. During Bison, some of the students go see the intervention specialist or do other work that they have not completed. This week during Bison, Ms. Mock was holding reading conferences with the students. She had a few students read a part of their book to her, and she was evaluating them. I did not know that that was something that teachers still did, but I do recall having reading conferences when I was in elementary school. Overall, I found this second visit to be more of a learning experience than the first visit.

FieldBlog 3- Shaker Heights High School

Going into Shaker Heights High School, I did not really know what to expect. I thought that it would be weird because I am only eighteen and a recent high school graduate, so really I am still the same age as those students. But honestly, the students did not even really care that I was there. Overall, I found the visit to be boring, but I was able to observe the way the classroom was structured and how well the teachers taught. While observing, the question that I thought of was: How does the teacher present his/her relationship with the students? Are they too friendly, friendly, mutual respect, no relationship, etc.? That morning, I went into two classrooms. One was AP Biology and the other was a German class. During my time in high school, I never took either of those classes, so I was intrigued to see what the students were learning, as I had nothing to compare it to from my high school experience. During AP Biology, the students were finishing and cleaning up their lab, and then they worked on completing their lab packet. So unfortunately, I did not really get to see the teacher teach. The AP Biology teacher was young, and he seemed to be fairly friendly with his students. I noticed that it seemed like he wanted to be well liked by his students. He controlled the classroom well, and when he was discussing cell respiration, which was what the students were learning about and working on a lab about, he seemed very knowledgeable and passionate about the topic. I also noticed that the students were comfortable asking the teacher questions. In the German classroom, I can  honestly say that I have no idea what the students were learning in German. I was disappointed that I did not get to stay very long in that classroom because I was very interested in watching the exchange between the teacher and her students. I found the German classroom to be more open and conversational than the AP Biology class. Before class even began, I noticed that the students seemed to like their teacher, and there was a good amount of friendship and respect between them. Before class began, when the students were strolling in, the teacher was talking to the students and having conversations with them about their siblings and sports. My first impression of the German teacher was that she was very friendly and enthusiastic. I also noticed how enthusiastic she was about teaching German! One of the most important things that I noticed was how engaged the students were in this class. They were all willingly participating, and it seemed as if the students were genuinely learning and enjoying their time in class.

Week 7

FALL BREAK!

FieldBlog 2- Bryden Elementary: Visit 1

Before my first visit to Bryden Elementary, I can honestly say that I was really nervous because I did not know what to expect and I was unsure of what I would be doing. I also have never heard of Bryden before and I was not sure what the school would be like. My first impression when I walked into Bryden was that it was definitely an elementary school. There are tiny little kids all over the place. Everything is small, and there is artwork and children's voices all over the place. Basically, it's adorable and I absolutely love it. The teacher that I get to observe is Ms. Ashley Mock. She is super sweet and she is a perfect elementary teacher. I really noticed how she knew so much about her students, and each of their needs. When I first arrived to her classroom, her students were in science class so she gave me a tour of the school and she told me about her students. First of all, her classroom is huge! And she only has seventeen students, and they are so full of energy and ready to learn. Anyways, one of her students is autistic so he has an aid in the classroom, but he was not there very much when I was. Ms. Mock also has a girl that is partially deaf and so there is a lady named Colleen that signs in the classroom. There are also two little boys that have ADHD or ADD. I noticed that Ms. Mock's students respect her very much, but they also respect the other adults in the room. One of the boys that has ADHD has a really hard time focusing on his work, and needs extra help to get it done. During Bison time, basically like study hall, but some students would go to the intervention specialist, Ms. Mock worked with the two ADHD boys so that they could complete their work, while making sure that the other students were either reading or doing some other work. Ms. Mock allowed me to help one of the little boys with his work, and he was so sweet. We finished one of his assignments, and he climbed into my lap and gave me a hug! Also, she allowed me to help two students with their reading! This really threw me back to when I was younger because I had to remember phonics and how to sound out words and things like that. Overall, I had a really great experience at Bryden and I can not wait to continue observing there!

Week 6: BlogPostIt

" But the humanist revolutionary educator cannot wait for this possibility to materialize. From the outset, her efforts must coincide with those of the students to engage in critical thinking and the quest for mutual humanization. His efforts must be imbued with a profound trust in people and their creative power. To achieve this, they must be partners of the students in their relations with them."

The part of this statement that I would like to focus on is the bolded line. When reading about the banking concept of education, this stood out to me particularly because of the word partners. I think that to achieve a mutual respect with students, you have to be willing to work with them in a variety of ways to meet their needs, and not only be their teacher, but their "partner". I think one of the most important aspects of being in a partnership with your students, is the respect that it allows. If you do not have the respect of your students, how do you expect them to be well behaved and engaged in your classroom? Not only is teaching them important, but teaching students how to respect others and behave is important, and if they can not accomplish that in your classroom, they will not be able to achieve that outside of the classroom. Being a students partner means that they respect you and treat you as their elder, not as another student or classmate. I think that it is also important to show students that you have noticed somewhere where they are struggling or succeeding. Showing them that you care that they might need extra help or that you care that they are doing so well can help gain that partnership and respect that should already be growing. As I was reading the reading, this made me think of my previous teachers and if I have felt that partnership with them. Honestly, not all of my teachers have achieved this, but the one's that have, well let's just say that I am blessed to have had them teach me.