Week 14: Thirteenth Day in the Classroom
Date: Sunday, December 12th, 2021
By: Monica Schrank
I
cannot believe that this was my last day in the classroom with the students!!
On the first day I was in the classroom, the last day felt like so far away and
now the last day has come and gone. On my last day, the students made me a book
about how to survive 1st grade and they all drew pictures of me
(which made me feel so loved) and as well as a sign on the whiteboard when I
came in to the room on my last day!
One of my strengths going
in to FE was my determination and enthusiasm to teach the students and to help
them learn about the world around them. Another strength now that I have FE under
my belt is to show a variety of ways for the students to work on activities,
respond to questions, and to learn that best fits each student’s own learning
abilities. I have learned so much by being in the classroom with the students.
One of the areas that I improved on was classroom management. My CT used a
variety of call and responses as well as a chime to get the students’ attention
before talking or providing directions. After day one of being in the
classroom, I picked up on her call and responses and used them throughout the
rest of my days in the classroom with the students. Another area that I
improved on was providing “brain breaks” for the students. After my first
lesson, I realized that I was losing the students’ interest. Therefore, after
talking to my CT, she mentioned that I should incorporate brain breaks into my
lesson after a certain amount of time to get the students moving and keep them
focused for the rest of the lesson. One area that I still need work on is time
management. Throughout my lessons, I tried my hardest to keep an eye on time,
but still had difficulty keeping my lesson to the designated time. Another area
that I still need work on is to keep the information that I explain to the
students to a minimum. The more information that you explain to students, the
more distracted they will be and they will not be understanding the
information.
The most fun experience
that I had was being with the students and being a part of their parent teacher
conferences. I learned so much from the students about how to double check my
work (the students liked to call out my mistakes that I made), being there for
them when they needed someone to talk to, and doing everything I could to help
them to learn the information in a way that best fits them and their learning
needs. I truly will miss each and every one of them and cannot wait to come and
visit them when I have time! I was able to be a part of the students’ parent
teacher conferences which was a wonderful learning experience for me to see how
the conferences go and how the different parents react. The most challenging
experience that I had was being able to talk to the students with my mask on. A
lot of the students had difficulty understanding me which forced me to talk
louder which made following directions or understanding information a little
challenging. My best lesson that I taught was my last lesson about the
continents of the world. This is my best lesson because each morning the
students were shown a map of the world and talked about traveling to other
countries. Therefore, the students had prior knowledge about a map and what a
map is used for. So, this lesson was very beneficial because it allowed the
students to expand their prior knowledge that they had of a map and to learn
about the different continents, what they include, and where they are located
on a map. My worst lesson was teaching the students how to add using hundreds chart.
This lesson was my worst because this was the first time the students had ever
used a hundreds chart which made it very difficult for the students to fully
understand the different strategies that are used when using hundreds chart to
add. I feel that this lesson would have been better if I had just focused on
just the hundreds chart itself and the different strategies, rather than
focusing on the hundreds chart and how to add using it.
There are many things
that I learned from my CT. One of the things that I learned was how to inform
the parents of the daily activities that the students are doing. My CT uses a
website called Bloomz that allows the parents of the students to connect with
her classroom while seeing posts and announcements about the class and what the
students are doing on a daily basis. My CT allowed me to be a part of her
classroom on Bloomz which allowed me to see some of the activities that the
students were doing that the parents are informed about. It also allowed me to
be a part of the classroom by informing the parents about myself, the different
lessons I taught, my newsletter, my last day, and about the literacy reading
website. I've learned that keeping parents informed on what the students are
doing throughout the day is beneficial for keeping them up-to-date on what
their child is doing especially if students do not tell their parents what they
did at school. Another thing that I learned was how to have a structured
classroom that has great classroom management. As previously mentioned, the
call and responses that I learned from my CT, helped the students to learn how
to stop with their doing and give their teacher their undivided attention to
make sure that they are listening to what the teacher is saying so that they
know what they should and should not be doing. These call and responses help to
provide a well-managed and structured classroom and I plan to use them when I
start teaching to help me to have a structured and well managed classroom. Another
thing that I learned from my CT was how to make learning fun and engaging.
Throughout the day, my CT always had a craft or a fun activity for the students
to do in between the content material that they were learning. For example, one
of the days, the students were working on making elves for the hallway. The
students were always excited to do a fun craft before or after they finished
math or writing to allow them to take a break from learning and refresh their
brains. While observing and teaching in the classroom, I learned a lot about
myself. I learned how to quickly make modifications to a lesson by reading the
students and realizing that they needed more time on the information that they
were learning. It is very important to realize that lessons will not always go
as planned and it is important to read the students and to see you need to
spend more time on certain information so that they can better understand the
information that is being taught to them. Another thing that I learned about
myself was being ready to explain information such as directions multiple times.
In the classroom, I noticed that students came up to me multiple times asking
me what they should do, and where they should put their papers after they were
done working on them. I realized that it is very important to make sure that
you repeat the directions multiple times or even call on a student to repeat
the directions to the rest of their class. Another thing that I learned about
myself was how time management plays a very important role in the life of a
teacher. In the classroom, I got to see first-hand how little time teachers
have to make copies, talk to parents, send emails and get other things done when
the kids are at specials or if they are at lunch and recess. While I was in the
classroom, I made very good use of my time by talking with my CT about how I
can improve my lesson or by talking with my CT about how we can reconstruct an
activity to best fit the learning needs of the students.
There are many things I
learned about the education field. I learned how important it is to be informed
of different strategies that can be used in the classroom to change the way
that you instruct and teach in the classroom. It is also important it is to
keep parents informed of situations that happens at school but also making sure
that parents are keeping teachers informed of situations that are happening at
home that teachers should be aware of. It is also important to make good use of
the allotted time that you have either after dropping the students off at
specials or quickly finding the time to use the bathroom. There is not much
time for teachers to get their planning done or make copies. It is important to
make good use of the time that you have either coming early to school or
leaving a little later in order to get everything done to ensure you can leave
it at the school and not bring it home to make sure that you spend time with
your family. One of the things that I wished I did differently would have been
to try and come other days, rather than just one day a week to see how my CT
taught the students for other subjects that she did not teach when I was
observing. This would have allowed me to get more experience and see how the
other subjects were taught. I am very excited for student teaching because I am
excited to be in another grade (1st grade) and to see a different teacher’s
perspective to gain more information and knowledge on other useful tips that
can use in the classroom to be a successful teacher. I am also excited to be
observing Monday through Friday rather than just one day a week so that the
students will become more familiar with me and I will be more familiar with
them. One of the things that I'm anxious about for student teaching is taking
over the classroom and being the teacher for five to six weeks. This is very
nerve wracking for me because it is preparing me for the future when I become a
teacher and have my own classroom and am the only person, teaching rather than
co-teaching or assisting the teacher.
I honestly am so sad to not be able to see the students anymore and to not be a part of their classroom. I enjoyed spending time with them, teaching them, and observing my CT. I hope to find time to visit them to show that I still care about them. I also hope that I can take all that I have learned from their classroom into student teaching as well as when I become a teacher to be the best teacher that I can be and to teach the students about the world around them in a way that is fun and engaging!
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