Elementary Classroom : Various Strategies And Their Effects

Observing is a when you watch something very carefully and closely. I had to observe two classes close to my major. I want to become an early childhood Intervention specialist meaning I want to work with little special Ed students. I observed a middle school and elementary school class. In my middle school class which was 6th grade, it had many students who had IEP’s to 504 and had some accommodations. In my elementary school class, I observed a kindergarten and first grade Special Ed class, which was much smaller and had all boys. The students got all the accommodations they needed from shortening test to if they need a break in the middle of class. Both classes were very different in their own ways. Therefore, I will talk more about the observations with the goals they had, their unique learnings, assessments, technology, teaching strategies, resources they teachers had, and my perspective on the whole observation.

There are many different strategies that an instructor can use in ELL classrooms or in classrooms in which ELL students have been mainstreamed. As always, instructors are called upon to constantly modify their curriculum and instruction in order to meet the needs of each individual learner. This is made more possible if the instructor has more knowledge of different teaching methods and strategies. There are many possible research sources that offer ideas, methods and strategies for everyday use in an ELL classroom. Several of the more common or functional strategies will be discussed here.

An experienced educator, Dwight Asberry holds a bachelor of arts in behavioral science from National University in La Jolla, California. He has also undertaken significant undergraduate studies in music education at Pasadena City College and California State University Dominguez Hills in Pasadena. Dwight Asberry earned his teaching credentials in K-12 music in 2004 and has since completed graduate training in music research at Adam State University and music technology at both Southern Oregon University and Seattle Pacific University. He is currently pursuing a master of arts in e-learning at Concordia University in Portland, Oregon.

A high quality learning environment should have enough (indoor) space for children to explore their interest and supportive adults to engage them to regulate their feelings and behaviors in it. I will be assessing the “Indoor space” from the Space and Furnishings subscale section of ECERS-3 to rate an early childhood education environment. This playful learning environment is located in Discovery bay and it is named Nolan Kindergarten and Nursery School. I choose to focus a 5-6 years old children’s classroom which has two different areas namely dramatic pretend play and reading. In this essay, I will pinpoint the indoor space with reference to ECERS-3 and assess the selected venue pictures to elaborate whether it supports child development.

For my observation, I observed a second grade general education classroom at Emmanuel Children’s Mission. The day of my observation, I met with Mrs. Cooper, the classroom teacher to go over the purpose of me examining her classroom, which is to observe three students. I observed two boys and a girl, one African American boy and the other boy and girl were Hispanic. They all were seven years old. Student A, the African American boy according Mrs. Cooper, he is on the spectrum and receives small group instruction through RTI. Student B, who is the Hispanic boy he is learning well thus far, without any signs of a learning disability and so is student C, the girl.

Teaching requires creating a classroom where all students are able to participate in the learning. Chapter 1 discusses the importance language, expectations, and integration. Chapter 1 introduces the topic of multicultural teaching.

One must look at classroom management as a plan for what procedures students will follow throughout the day. Teachers must understand their role in making sure students have a successful experience each day. Wong H. & Wong R., state “Effective teachers teach how to responsibly follow procedures” (2009, p. 165). To have a smooth-running classroom with minimal behaviors, students must be taught classroom procedures from the very first day. In my classroom we have procedures for many things we do each day. Some of these are arrival of children, snack time, lining up and walking down the hallway, and cleaning up centers. I have been teaching these procedures for many years with much success.

In your reflection, please attend to the following and cite specific examples from your student artifacts and video.

When researching online examples of journaling in the music content area, the most common results found were lesson plans authored by teachers, graduate students, and school boards in the form of PDFs and documents. The point of the online search was to uncover types of journaling strategies, many of which are outlined in the textbook Content Area Reading, catered specifically for the music content area. The online search did not yield research-based, online resources for journaling strategies to increase achievement specifically in music, but did yield some articles and lesson plans relevant to this area

My mind is still processing all of the ideas and challenges presented by George Couros during our most recent institute day this past Friday. After this day of professional development, I feel revitalized, encouraged, and motivated to stretch my teaching muscles and rethink how I incite learning in my classroom. Technology has opened a world of opportunity for us as learners, but as Uncle Ben quips in Spiderman, "With great power comes great responsible."

SC2 Demonstrate an understanding of how students learn and effective classroom teaching strategies and the capacity to work with colleagues to continually improve teaching and learning.

Kindergarten classrooms will run efficiently when students follow procedures and rules. When the students choose to follow them they will get rewarded or pay the consequence. When all of the students are following the rules there will be less interruptions. Procedures, rules, and a reward system allows more time for conductive learning. In everyday routines, “children have to suppress undesirable behaviors in order to follow their caregivers’ requests” (Kopp, 1982, p. 208).

In school all across America we focus on remembering the facts, remember this, read this, and listen to this PowerPoint. The education system needs to shape young minds and teach instead of forcing knowledge upon them. Brains of young children are like a water balloon, it has room to expand for knowledge although, if you fill it to fast water will erupt or leak. Americans move fast, we believe the faster we go the further we will succeed. Despite these beliefs this does not work for students, to fast and to much water in their balloon will make it pop. All students are different, and have a different style of learning. There are a total of 7 different categories that all students fall under for learning they include visual, aural, verbal, physical, logical, social, and solitary (Lepi). As a result some students learn by working this groups, or using a song to remember material for an upcoming test. Others may like to see graphs to compare; and some comprehend chemistry better from seeing and studying a model of water. As a result of this diversity it is hard for many students to sit through a power point with facts to fully understand what they are learning. A study was performed using “Academic music” at Hoover elementary school in California. After 6 weeks of the technic of learning using music the students scored 50% higher on a fraction test then students at the same score using

The term sponge may sound like an odd term in education, but many people refer to sponges as bell work, vocabulary builders, or even transitions. Sponges take up the awkward free time in the classroom, where students often talk to a classmate, throw a paper airplane through the air, or loss interest in the subject all together. They can help eliminate the added time it sometimes takes to get students back in order and ready for the lesson. By eliminating the extra time it takes students to regain order, you can increase students learning. Sponges help reinforce past, present, and future learning. They can also challenge student thinking, making the student think on a higher level than just recalling information.

Did you know that, according to the United States Department of Education, on any given school day over 2 million students won’t show up for school in the United States? (Bullock) Truancy can lead to a multitude of undesirable attributes, such as delinquency, poor school performance, and an increased risk of dropping out of school. Truancy is defined differently from state to state, which makes it difficult to research and come up with the reasons students do not attend school. Generally, truancy can be defined as the state of being truant, or a student who misses school without permission from his parents or from the school. From this definition, you can assume that one of the three subjects is to blame, the student, the parent, or the school. Many states focus on blaming and penalizing the student, which usually leads to more truancy and an increased chance of delinquent behavior. In order to decrease truancy, schools must begin placing responsibility on the parents as well as increasing the amount of communication with the parents or guardians. Placing responsibility on the parents increases their incentive to make sure their children attend school because they can be fined, ordered to do community service, or even be sent to jail for contempt of court. Increased communication between the school and the parents or guardians will reduce truancy by letting the parent know exactly what is going on in their children’s lives. Increasing parental involvement in student’s lives