Observation In Lewis E. Wadsworth Elementary School

Every month the spring side community leaders inspect every house in springside, and decide which house is worthy of the yard of the month title.This is a friendly even competition between the springside community, but it hasn't been so even for the last three months. When you turn the corner onto crestknoll way you see a house with a blue mailbox and matching blue flower pots near a big rock in the yard, this house, house 2401 has won the yard of the month award for the last three month. In this story I will be talking with the people behind this yard of the month streak. I will also tell some of the tricks that house number 2401 uses. The target audience for this video would definitely be anyone interested in winning yard of the month in the springside community, and anyone who would be interested in keeping their

I teach at Marshall Elementary School in Dubuque, IA. Marshall is in a suburban area of our city. The families at Marshall are in a wide range of incomes, but mostly the families are low to middle income level. The school is located in an area around houses, there is train tracks that run behind the school, then behind that is an industrial area. The Mississippi River runs along the industrial area. The families at Marshall are employed in a wide range of places throughout Dubuque. There are quite a few stay at home moms, factory workers, food service employees, office staff, etc.

Over the course of second semester junior year, I was given the opportunity of tutoring children at a school a few blocks from my high school. As my classmates and I walked the 3 blocks down the street towards the old brick school, my apprehension grew. My only experience with small children at the time was babysitting family friends’ children while they were at dinner parties. What if the kids were boisterous and uncontrollable? Would I be able to reach the children or would I fail and not teach them anything? Luckily, my anxiety disappeared as soon as I walked into the second grade classroom and was greeted by twenty excited, smiling seven year olds. I was grouped with three amazing kids: Demaria, Wynn, and Malik. Wynn was very studious and

When I first walked in, a lot of memories crossed my mind; I started remembering my elementary school with the smell I absorbed. The smell of hand sanitizer filled the cafeteria. When I walked in the office to sign in they all welcomed me with open arms. I was nervous going there for the first time not knowing what to expect. While I was making my way to the classroom, I was thinking how would the kids react when the saw me. I entered the class the kids were already solving math problems; so they didn’t notice me, which made it easy for me. I started making my way to the kids and introduced myself. Some of them accepted my help. However, some were very distant. I am really excited to see what the kids have to offer and how they will open up

At Children’s Learning Center in Gresham, their organization is in an easy access to get into their location. When I went on to their website it was easy to use and locate information about what they do and their goals in the classroom siting. I noticed that they meet with public school district requirements, they follow USDA food center program for serving food, and they are child centered educational classes; when I sew that it was a good feeling that they are meeting and seeing the needs for children that are going to school. They offer care to Infant & Toddler, Preschool & Pre-K, Private Kindergarten, Before & After-School, and Summer; this is great for parents that have to work and cannot get their child(s) to school and after school.

The way the children learn and have come so far is so amazing. These children are only in pre-k and kindergarten and I was constantly forgetting that. I’ve always been experienced to the regular classroom, so being exposed to this kind of teaching really opened my eyes. It sparked an interest in how independent these students are learning. The love and laughter in Mrs. Addairs classroom is something I will always take with me. I’m so incredibly thankful for this experience and those students I only spent three days, Those students with will always hold a place in my heart and will help me thrive to want to begin my long teaching

As a lifelong learner, Mrs. Oliver holds true to the values that knowledge is power, and learning never stops. Every day in the classroom, she strives to impact and motivate her students so that they will have a genuine passion for learning. A native of Louisiana. Mrs. Oliver has been happily married for 20 years and is the proud mother of a 13-year-old daughter, Corinn. She holds a Bachelors of Science degree from Louisiana State University--Geaaauxxx Tigers!--and a Masters of Education in Administration and Leadership. Though she is not a native Texan, she says she, "saddled up my horse and got here as quickly as I could." She loves being a teacher, and can’t imagine doing anything else. "Young people are so much fun, and I feel fortunate

At Harvard Middle School, a big, clean, fancy school, in class C103, a teacher named Mrs. Price holds up a old, dirty, red sweater and asks, ‘’whose sweater?’’ While she was holding the ugly sweater by its collar, she looks at Rachel. She walks over to Rachel’s desk and slams the red sweater on her wooden desk. Rachel said to her, ‘’this is not mine.’’ Mrs. Price replies, ‘’ of course it’s yours I saw you wear it one day.’’

I conducted my observation at a public middle school in an urban setting. The class that I observed was a sixth grade self-contained class. The class was small, containing about fifteen students, the teacher and a teacher aid. The teacher taught the students English, which included writing and reading but also helped students with math. In the classroom the desk were put in groups of four so that the students were facing each other. There were bins in the back of the room that help their individual folders and reading books along with the teacher aids desk. The teachers’ desks were set to one side of the classroom and in the front were a chalkboard and an interactive white board.

An activity that I did in elementary school that I think would be a great idea to keep it going is that the teacher brought in a bunch of goodies that are circular. Some of the things that she brought in were pizza’s, cookies, pies, Oreos, etc. Before we got to eat anything, she explained to us that pi is the ratio of the circle’s circumference to its diameter. We all washed our hands and put on gloves to measure the diameter of the food available. Not only did she stress the importance of Pi, but when she cut the pizza we talked about fractions with the number of slices that the pizza had. I think that this is a great lesson for teachers, that I would love to use in my future classroom. Pi day is always supposed to be fun when in elementary

The observation took four hours at A. Harry Moore School in a class of children with special needs who were 5 to 6 years old. The classroom was spacious. The class had only five kids, four boys, one girl, two teachers and a nurse to observe their health. The classroom was wide enough for the children to have their own space, with extra room for computers, a place for them to eat and play games. The students treat their classroom as a second home, where teacher treats their students like their own kids. The class was middle class, everyone had their own materials that they use including their wipes. The classroom was soft, the teacher had an excellent way of communicating with each one.

Through my time at Groveland Park Elementary I have been able to observe two classrooms that each offer a number of students. I have been enjoying the opportunity to observe and help out in a fourth grade class, taught by Ms. Hammes, and a second grade class taught by Mrs. Hyatt. All of the students vary in academic levels and abilities, some having exceptionalities or needs have to use resources that are offered by the school. I have been able to observe students with learning disabilities, physical challenges, gifts, and language barriers. I have also been able to reach out and gather information about another school, Medford Public School, and see how their school system works to support students with exceptionalities.

My teacher shadowing occurred on October 21, 2016 this was one of the best experiences of my life. I was able to see what a day would be like as a future educator. This experience made me feel as if I am going into the right profession. The teacher I shadowed was Julie Schmidt a second grade teacher at Arcadia Elementary. Ms. Schmidt did her teacher preparation here in Kalamazoo at Western Michigan University where she earned her bachelors in earth science with a secondary education certificate in 1978. Then in 1980 she received her master’s degree in early childhood with an elementary teaching certificate. Mrs. Schmidt has been teaching for 28 years she even focuses on school during the summer time. I learned that teaching changes as the politics change over time. I was surprised because I did not realize how often education changes. Julie is an excellent professional who has great classroom control. Mrs. Schmidt says, “Building relationships with students is a key motivator. This lets me know that I shadowed a passionate teacher who takes pride in her job. Not only is Mrs. Schmidt a great role model teacher has also taught me that involvement with students outside of learning time is also important. Outside of teaching she serve as the First/Second Grade team leader, write grants for the school, and sponsor Free Comic Book Day for all students in May, mentor teachers, tutors and volunteers. This experience was beneficial for me, it taught me ways to handle situations,

Lisa Cady knows this and she always made sure she gave me the extra help I needed to pass her classes. This makes me want to become a special education teacher because often this is what happens to the students with mental and physical disabilities. I want to create a classroom where all my students feel safe and comfortable to be themselves just like Lisa does with all of her classrooms each year. One of her other questions that really made me think about my career was question number nine. It asked Lisa Cady to give me advice for the next four years in order to be prepared to become a teacher. She told me, “Try out different age groups. I know you already have experience from high school with the Best Buddies Club. So, try younger age groups. Get a feel for multiple school districts and areas and feel out the one that suits you the best.” (CITATION). This actually made me reflect on my experiences so far in my field placement classroom. Lisa and I talked about my field placement a little after the interview and I was very interested in continuing to pursue the younger age groups when it comes to teaching. Up until a few days ago I didn’t know what age group I wanted to focus on, but after this interview and teaching my first lesson with kindergarten I think Lisa helped me figure it out for now. The last question I wanted to reflect on was question number 15 and this is one of the four that I made up for her to answer.

The semester is going by fast here at DIA. The past week I have helped some teachers out in their classrooms, lunch duty, creating goals with kids, reading “One” as a lesson for character education, trainings and meetings. The more the kids see me the more they are able to feel comfortable around me. I helped out the kids in the first grade Spanish class. As a social worker I feel it is important to be able to wear different hats, even if that means teacher or babysitter. The more the kids see me involved in school the more comfortable they are getting with me. During lunch duty I have gotten to know some kids. I have helped Julie and some kids with creating goals and checking up on them weekly. It is exciting to learn and observe Julie; she has been a school counselor and teacher for over 30 years. She plans her lessons a day before, uses lessons that have worked in the past, uses some books for her lessons, she has written her own books and songs as well. Therefore it is comforting to learn from someone who has a lot of experience working with kids. We read the book “One,” to the class and I got to read it to three classes. It was in English but I used some Spanish words too, and that made the kids excited. It made me happy to hear a kid say, “I love that book!” The books that we read to the character education class have lessons such as bullying and standing up to the bullies. The latest training I have done is the McKinney-Vento homeless children training. Every school has to have a person who is trained for this in case of situations where there are homeless kids and families in the school. The latest meeting I have gone to is the Riverside Task Force as part of my macro level.