It's Time To Say Goodbye

Well we have finally arrived. The end of the course.

At the beginning I thought, "What have I gotten myself into?"

Now that we are at the end, I am happy to say that I wouldn't have changed any of it.

Yes, there was a lot of work. And yes, there were a lot of sleepless nights because of all the work.

All of that work, however, made me better.

I have more confidence than ever that I will be a successful teacher some day, and I have the work to prove it.

I have to be honest, I'm pretty proud of my unit plan.

Never would I have ever thought to do something of that magnitude on the Internet. Before this class I couldn't even tell you what a wiki was.

Blogging turned out to also be an enjoyable assignment.

As a past journalist, I used to be against blogging. I thought it was pointless, and just an outlet for people to ramble about their thoughts.

Well after having to blog for this course, I must admit, I now enjoy rambling about my thoughts.

It is an easy and fun way to reflect on what I learned, and share anything new I may discover in the world of education.

In the beginning of the course everyone I talked to that had taken this course with Dr. S in previous semesters said it would be overwhelming at first, but in the end you will see everything come together and make sense.

They were right.

Fieldwork - Assessment

During my observation, there was a lot of test prep going on.

The state ELA and math tests were coming up in a month, so students were being prepped repeatedly for these exams.

Fridays are review days in the 5th grade class I observed. The only day of the week, specifically designated as a day to "teach to the test."

For example, on the state ELA test, students are allowed to use a highlighter. Due to this, the teacher did a whole theme on highlighting during a social studies unit. She taught them how to highlight without highlighting the whole page or simply using the highlighter to draw.

The teacher goes over test-taking strategies, which were established by both her and the students.

Prior to taking a practice test, the students first had to share useful test-taking strategies.

While the students take this practice test, the teacher walks around the room and observes. The practice test is also timed out the way the actual state test is.

After a section of the test was completed, the teacher would read off the answers. If a student answered a question incorrectly, they would have to say where they went wrong.

The teacher has students do this self-assessment when going over homework answers as well.

She believes if the students can find where they went wrong, they can fix the problem on their own.

Fieldwork - Models of Instruction

During the days of my observations, there was little direct instruction.

Direct instruction would take place the beginning of math lessons, lasting only a few minutes. There was some direct instruction during ELA.

During lessons, there was quite a bit of social and interactive work by the students.

Students work collaboratively on certain assignments, but even when collaboration was not required, students were allowed to socialize and share their work.

During direct instruction, the students attention was generally directed toward the teacher. There were a few students who would talk while she was talking.

When other students were asking questions, the class became noticeably noisier.

The teacher quickly gains everyone's attention again and gets the students back on task.

Whenever a students needs help with something, some students raise their hands, while others just call out the teachers name.

The teacher made it known that she cannot stand when students call out her name.

She constantly lectures them on sitting quietly and raising their hands.

When seat work has been completed, students are well aware as to what they can do next.

A list hangs on the wall in the classroom giving students different options.

These options include finishing any owed work, reading a book, write a story/do a journal entry, study notes, practice math problems, or do reading BINGO.

Some students opt to read a book, however, many just talk to their neighbors or anyone else that sits in their group.

This was a VERY chatty class.

When students are speaking in front of the class, for the most part it is done clearly and loudly.

There are one or two who speak very softly or mumble.

As for the teacher, she speaks loudly and with clarity. It did not appear that, at any point during my observations, students may have had a hard time hearing or understanding her.

Fieldwork - Planning/Implementing Lessons

When it comes to planning instruction, the district where I observed simplifies the process with its scope and sequence.

The scope is based on NYS standards.

When writing out daily lesson plans, the teacher must write an objective, sentence or two describing the activity, and what the assessment will be.

Plans must be written for every subject and are handed in to the principal weekly.

As for unit plans, they are subject-oriented due to the state tests.

Science and social studies units are based on the districts scope and sequence. Math is as well.

ELA units are based on what the students need. This includes writing, word study, spelling, etc.

After going through all of the planning of units and lessons, the teacher must then implement these lessons.

The teacher I observed said that she does not even look at her lesson plans after she writes them.

She prepares herself for what she will be teaching ahead of time. It also does not hurt that she has been teaching for a few years now.

The teacher I observed tries to incorporate different subjects into lessons also.

During a math lesson, are was incorporated when students were asked to draw a picture showing translation, reflection, and rotation. Students then had to write a story to go along with their drawing using math vocabulary.

Another example was in science. Students were working on a compare/contrast essay, therefore incorporating ELA into science instruction.

Fieldwork - Student Population/Diversity

In most classrooms these days, it appears students are now classified as a number. You are either a 4, 3, 2, or 1.

The class I observed was broken down like this according to the teacher; no 1's, a few 2's, and mostly 3's.

No student in the class entered the 5th grade as a 4.

For those who do not know about the number system, a grade of A, B, C, D, and F has been replaced by 4, 3, 2, and 1.

The class I observed was not an inclusion class. No student in the class has an IEP.

There was one diagnosed 504.

As for gifted students, there is one who the teacher labeled as gifted, and stated that there were two others who were not far from being gifted as well.

When it comes to working with the gifted students, she stressed that it is important that these students are not given more work, rather the level of difficulty for assignments is higher.

The teacher told me that her one gifted student is one of her biggest challenges do to the fact that she has to constantly think of new ways to challenge the student. This student often gets bored and does not push herself.

One thing the teacher did to address this was to place her next to another student who was near her level as a way to have them challenge one another and keep each other engaged.

Fieldwork - Classroom Setting

Over the course of the semester I have been completing fieldwork that is required for the class.

For this, I observed a 5th grade classroom.

The first thing I noticed when I began my observations was the classroom setup.

For a class with 27 students in it, it was a rather small classroom. The teacher whom I was observing discussed this issue with me.

She noted how while this was the classroom the 5th graders were placed in, the 2nd graders had a much larger room and a considerably smaller class enrollment.

When it came to arranging the classroom before the school year began, she was required to have a certain arrangement, however, when it came to the small stuff like materials, storage, mailboxes, etc. it all came down to where she could find the space.

Desks were arranged in three large groups of nine, making a 'U' shape. In the center of the 'U' was a space for students to gather on the floor, or the meeting area, where they sit in front of the Smart board and receive direct instruction before being sent back to their desks to work on an activity.

Materials (i.e. pencils, paper, pencil sharpener, etc.) are located on the counter by the window. Alongside these materials is the class library. Here, students may check out a book from a number of genres including realistic fiction, nonfiction, fiction, etc.

The teacher's desk was located in the back of the room near the window. Again, this was because that was where it could fit.

Next to the Smart board were five computers for the students to use.

Above the computers was a bulletin board where the students' work was displayed. During the time I was observing, the bulletin board was used to display book reports the class had recently completed.

Coat racks are located along the wall where the door is located. So are the students' mailboxes.

In this classroom, as with most other classrooms I have been in, the traditional blackboard and whiteboard are no longer needed, thanks in part to the Smart board. Therefore, these boards are now used to hang up posters, rules, pocket charts, and student work.

During ELA and math, the class is usually broken up into learning centers. When this happens, one group usually is assigned to the computers, and the rest are split up into two or three groups.

The teacher explained that the district was a Fountas and Pinnell district. This means that the classrooms were required to have a guided reading area and a meeting area. The meeting area is used to bring the students closer together and helps the students to pay attention.

The classroom was essentially set up for ELA purposes, or to create a literacy rich environment.

Unit Plan Is Almost Done!

It has been a while since I last wrote. I have been busy, busy, busy working on this unit plan.

It's all starting to come together slowly, but surely.

Thankfully, we have been spending most of our class time working on our units.

I'm currently working on putting together my possible activities in my unit. I have a total of seven activities.

I have been having a hard time writing up these activities though, and I'm not sure why.

The part of the activity I'm having the hardest time with is the development.

In the development, you are supposed to write out what kind of strategy, model, and method you are going to use for that particular activity.

After this past week's class, however, I feel like I'm starting to get what I need to include.

I need to be very specific in this section.

For example, if my activity has students working in groups, I need to write how I will create the groups.

Once my activities are completed, I can then write up my culminating project and evaluations. After that I should be done!

Wish me luck!