3rd grade field observation #2

In my 2nd observation this morning I felt like I was more more involved in what was going on in the classroom. I got there about 15 minutes before the teacher and a woman who helps out in the classrooms, after retiring from teaching for 57 years, started giving me some advice. She told me that the two most important things you need to teach are discipline and to be on time. The teacher for my room arrived about 10 minutes before 8 o'clock but kids were already there, and this woman who I was speaking with also suggested that before you leave your classroom each day you should leave instructions for what the students should do the next morning so that if any get there before the teacher they are expected to be seated quietly and working on something productive. I thought this was a great idea. As I waited for the teacher, I also started talking to one of the students who was telling me all about the trends for third grade girls and her favorite shows, which include hands down of Hannah Montana, Drake and Josh, and That's so Raven, which are all Disney TV series. There are quite a few Hannah Montana backpacks in the room too. Once the teacher arrived I handed out a 2-sided reading and reaction handout. One side was a reading about Helen Keller and the other about the sport, Cricket. While the teacher got organized, I made an answer key for the lesson , and then Liza and I walked around and helped kids. The kids seemed much more comfortable with us helping them today and I got a much better sense of their personalities than I did the previous observation.


As students were finishing up their worksheet, it was time for the morning meeting and assembly, so because it was nice weather, we all went outside. At the assembly, which Kenneth's dad ran today, Dr. Roper, a WW2 Vet, spoke about why we put the flag at half mast and about the recent military trajedy. We did the pledge of allegiance, and sang, "My Country 'tis of Thee," and they recited their school moral code. We then listened to the Kindergarten class (who were adorable!) talk about caring attitudes. They also discussed 2 specific students who had written essays and won awards for them. After the assembly we headed back to the classroom.


The next activity was DOL, and Liza and I circulated the room, helping kids write about when they say "Thank you" and how often they say it. Then the teacher reviewed prefixes and suffixes with the class. She then did a short activity, looking at the roots of words, their prefixes and suffixes, and what they mean. The next activity, Liza and I helped the students trace their hands on two pieces of paper. Some kids were able to trace their left but tracing their right with their left hand was a challenge. On the palm of one hand they wrote, im- ,and on the other they wrote, "-ful". The teahcer handed out dictionaries and they were to look up words with -im as a prefix and put one word on each finger they traced and on the other 5 words with the suffix -ful, with one word per finger. They then were to write sentences using these word. The teacher let them us dictionaries for this, but I felt like many of the kids did not understand the word they were writing.


I think in this observation the kids really opened up more to us and were a lot less shy. It is nice to see kids who are eager to learn and seemed to appreciate our help and kids were even giving us hugs. I also noticed things that were not working in the classroom and I think I may have an idea as to what might work better for the teacher, which I hope to try in the next 2 weeks when I teach some lessons. I think there needs to be more visual and creative learning, more use of gross motor skills and moving around, and less worksheets and assigned readings. I think enforcing behavior as a game and making it competitive between desk cluster groups would help to ensure better focus and less talking to. I am really enjoying my time in this classroom and look forward to getting an opportunity to teach in the next two weeks.