My Learning Experiences:
While observing at Chilhowie Elementary I learned many new skills. For example:
1) One of the students in my classroom had ADD. When I started observing the classroom I discovered that the student was currently being taken off of her ADD medicine and so she was much more restless than usual in the classroom. The teacher was very calm and patient with this student when she began acting restless and needing to move around. I was very impressed by the way my teacher handled the situation with calmness and patience, and I will follow her tactics when I am in the field.
2) One of the students I had the opportunity to observe like many others did not like to follow the rules. He felt that he could be the comedian in the room by constantly challenging my teacher. When ever she would ask if he was working on an assignment he would bluntly tell her no. Although it made me mad and when I expected her to raise her voice she calmly explained how he would receive a zero and a note would be sent home to his parents if he did not begin working, and he would sit in either silent lunch or have time out during recess. This skill showed me how to handle situations in the classroom that I may not expect,
3) While observing I was observing another teacher that I was not observing was having trouble communicating with parents. One of her students would not complete his assignment to read for 15 minutes and have parents sign a notebook calendar verifying that the student completed his homework. The parent refused to sign the notebook, but then complained about their student receiving a bad grade on his homework. The teacher calmly had a meeting with the parent and principal to explain that she wants to teach her students responsibility, and how it is the students responsibility to complete the homework assigned.
4)I had the joy of sharing Valentine's day with my classroom. It was a wonderful and exciting day filled with happiness in the classroom. Instead of the students all bringing treats because some could not afford to bring them Mrs. McKinney brought little Debbie snacks for all the students! She is a very sweet woman who I admire as a teacher!
5)One of my students Emma was able to participate in the spelling bee representing Mrs. McKinney's class because she scored the most AR points in her class. Emma won second place! The only person who beat Emma was a eighth grader while Emma was in fifth!
6)One of my favorite lessons Mrs. McKinney incorporates into her classroom is the importance of not discriminating against others. She uses points brought up in class readings for example to tell students the importance of not discriminating against each other, but to love one another.
7)One of my favorite things Mrs. McKinney does in her classroom is to encourage students to fill their plate for breakfast and if they are not able to eat a fruit, juice, or milk to bring it back to the classroom so that another student who may have not been able to get breakfast can eat something too.
8) I was able to observe a substitute for about 15 minutes while Mrs. McKinney was in a meeting. The assignment she left was a stapled packet for students to quietly work on while she was out to make it easy on the substitute that morning.
9)Many of the books read in group work involved topics that are not particularly easy to understand for elementary school students. For example, one of the books read was about the holocaust. Mrs. McKinney was very knowledgeable about how the students were understanding the book so asked the students to discuss aloud their thoughts, opinions, and questions they may have.
1) One of the students in my classroom had ADD. When I started observing the classroom I discovered that the student was currently being taken off of her ADD medicine and so she was much more restless than usual in the classroom. The teacher was very calm and patient with this student when she began acting restless and needing to move around. I was very impressed by the way my teacher handled the situation with calmness and patience, and I will follow her tactics when I am in the field.
2) One of the students I had the opportunity to observe like many others did not like to follow the rules. He felt that he could be the comedian in the room by constantly challenging my teacher. When ever she would ask if he was working on an assignment he would bluntly tell her no. Although it made me mad and when I expected her to raise her voice she calmly explained how he would receive a zero and a note would be sent home to his parents if he did not begin working, and he would sit in either silent lunch or have time out during recess. This skill showed me how to handle situations in the classroom that I may not expect,
3) While observing I was observing another teacher that I was not observing was having trouble communicating with parents. One of her students would not complete his assignment to read for 15 minutes and have parents sign a notebook calendar verifying that the student completed his homework. The parent refused to sign the notebook, but then complained about their student receiving a bad grade on his homework. The teacher calmly had a meeting with the parent and principal to explain that she wants to teach her students responsibility, and how it is the students responsibility to complete the homework assigned.
4)I had the joy of sharing Valentine's day with my classroom. It was a wonderful and exciting day filled with happiness in the classroom. Instead of the students all bringing treats because some could not afford to bring them Mrs. McKinney brought little Debbie snacks for all the students! She is a very sweet woman who I admire as a teacher!
5)One of my students Emma was able to participate in the spelling bee representing Mrs. McKinney's class because she scored the most AR points in her class. Emma won second place! The only person who beat Emma was a eighth grader while Emma was in fifth!
6)One of my favorite lessons Mrs. McKinney incorporates into her classroom is the importance of not discriminating against others. She uses points brought up in class readings for example to tell students the importance of not discriminating against each other, but to love one another.
7)One of my favorite things Mrs. McKinney does in her classroom is to encourage students to fill their plate for breakfast and if they are not able to eat a fruit, juice, or milk to bring it back to the classroom so that another student who may have not been able to get breakfast can eat something too.
8) I was able to observe a substitute for about 15 minutes while Mrs. McKinney was in a meeting. The assignment she left was a stapled packet for students to quietly work on while she was out to make it easy on the substitute that morning.
9)Many of the books read in group work involved topics that are not particularly easy to understand for elementary school students. For example, one of the books read was about the holocaust. Mrs. McKinney was very knowledgeable about how the students were understanding the book so asked the students to discuss aloud their thoughts, opinions, and questions they may have.