Day One in the Classroom!

Day one while in the classroom was absolutely great! It finally hit me that this would be the classroom I will be student teaching, and in my mind I said, "this just got real!" I was able to meet all of the students. My CE and I were talking about how easy the first day seemed to be. We have such great students. All of the students seemed to be very quite and shy. We were supposed to have eighteen children in our classroom, but two of the students did not show up. I later learned that they had been pulled from school and were to be home-schooled. My CE spoke with me about the development of the students. My CE told me that a majority of the class are below-grade level.

We began the day out by explaining the procedures for the classroom. Students seemed very receptive, but my CE and I discussed with the students about how we would remind them for about a week. After the week, we told them we expected them to take these procedures and make them into a routine. The classroom was generally quite, which was a little surprising. I did like that my CE would allow the students to speak up and tell their answers but made sure to specify when she wanted them to raise their hands. Once procedures and rules were explained we had the students participate in a mini-science lesson, while my CE taught on prioritizing time and tasks. My CE used a large jar and asked the students which objects did she need to put into the jar. First were the large rocks, and then the small rocks, next sand, and lastly water. The students were learning about density and volume, while also learning how to prioritize their time and tasks.

We continued on with our day by starting phonics. If I can be honest, do not remember participating in phonics much while I was elementary school. The students were able to answer the questions relatively easy and if the questions were answered correctly the student received candy. I learned that "A short vowel followed by a consonant is coded with a breve. A long vowel followed by a consonant is coded with a macron." Guess what I need to work on before I began to student teach....PHONICS!

One thing that I was able to do extremely well, was to help the students as they played "Contraction Bingo", students were to pick a card i.e. "have not", and match it with the contraction on their bingo card. Some of my students seemed to have no problems with connecting the two words with its contraction while others were struggling. I like that my CE used this method to allow the students to learn, but to also enjoy this learning task while playing the game. Ultimately, they were learning without recognizing it because it was a game.

My goals for next week is to learn more about my students, and what level they are at developmentally. I also know as explained in 435, that I need to greatly observe my CE carefully, and learn to model her actions for the students.