Accommodations

     Our cooperating teacher at Newington Elementary accomodates for many different learners in her classroom.  She has some students who are very gifted and some that are very slow learners.  To accommodate for these two different types of students, she challenges the ones that are gifted by giving them more challenging activities.  For example, the books that they read during small group time are of a more difficult reading level.  For the slower learners, she creates a small group when she can to give them extra guidance and individualized attention.  She also adheres to many different learning styles in her instrucion by having different forms of instruction.  For example, she has visual presentations on the smart board, interactive games, plenty of songs and dances to remember a particular concept, and different individual assingments for the students.  In her classroom, this teacher has learers with ADHD and a child with cerebral parsley.  The student with cerebral parsley is accommodated by having a shadow with him for the entire day who helps him move around.  The teacher lets him be involved in every activity and will accommodate the activity so he is able to physically participate.  The children with ADHD have their own special spots on the carpet, so they do not get easily distracted by the other students.  Also, they are given special attention when they are behaving well; they are not called attention to when they are exhibiting bad behavior, which I think is very effective because if they are craving attention, they will learn that they only get it by displaying good behavior.  I think all of these accommodations that my cooperating teacher employs in her classroom are very effective and help to run her classroom smoothly and create a learning environment that is best for each and every student.

Social Studies lesson Reflection

    My fourth and final lesson that I taught at Newington Elementary was my social stuides lesson that addressed teh standard of 1-3 and concentrated on teaching the different roles of community helpers.  Overall, I believe that this lesson was succcessful, but compared to my previous lessons, I don't think it was as engaging for the students.  I think I addressed the ADEPT performance standards by using varied instructional strategies that are appropriate for the content and students' ability levels (APS 5).  I asked questions throughout the entire lesson in order to assess the students as well as to keep them engaged.  I also provided content that is appropriate for the standards and objectives of the instructional unit by playing a video that directly applied to the standard and indicator when I was teaching and activating the student's prior knowledge of that content area (APS 6).
     Although I had a positive experience teaching this lesson, I also had room for improvement.  I think I could have improved by providing opportunities for all students to engage in self assessment because some students were more active during the discussion than others (APS 4).  Also, although I used a variety of informal assessment strategies, I also think I could have used a variety of formal assessment strategies to really assess each student's knowledge of the content being taught.  All in all, I taught a successful lesson in confidence that provided a good introduction into the activity that was being taught by Alison.

Mrs. E's Assessment

In Mrs. E's first grade class, she assesses children's growth in literacy by doing benchamrks, Directed Reading Activities, daily observations anecdotal data, and reading tests.  For math, she does daily checking for understanding, assessments and benchmark quizzes.  For social studies, she assesses by checking for participation.  Mrs. E assesses children's social-emotional development by observation and their interaction with others.  Assessment information is shared between grade levels by data meetings via a Title 1 facilitator.  Most of the assessments are teacher-created. 
     Mrs. E makes assessment first and then plans for instruction and if the students do poorly on assessments (formal and informal), then she reteaches.  Mrs. E does use portfolios, each child in her classroom has a file and folder and she keeps all of their work in them.  She uses observation daily, all throughout the day and keeps it in a notebook.  First grade does not have any standardized tests, and she shares assessment with parents by conferences and sending notes home in their weekly folders.  Newington's procedure for assessing and diagnosing children with special needs is that tests are modified (if needed) and standardized tests are modified based on the child's IEP.

Stop and Think: What messages have you absorbed about economic class?

    When I was a child, I did not think much about my family's economic status.  We lived in a big but old house and we lived a comfortable lifestyle.  I do not remember my parents ever worrying about money, but I know that we did not have an abudance of it growing up.  My parents taught my sisters and I to not spend money extravagantly and that money was valuable, but you did not need to spend a huge amount of money to enjoy yourself (we took camping trips and trips to visit family as family vacations, rather than going somewhere expensive). 
    The elementary school that I attended was made up of many different economic classes-from students living in poverty to students who came from wealthy families-so I noticed that there was a difference of economic status during those school years.  I always just thought that children's parents had different jobs and those jobs paid differently so that determined whether your family had money or not. 
     As a teenager, I learned that being "successful" comes from working hard.  My dad especially has always been a really hard worker and has passed down that drive of having to work hard in order to be successful with things such as your career and money.  I always learned that any type of work was "professional" work, it just depends on how devoted you are to your particular job.   

ELA lesson reflection

          I think Alison and I effectively taught a sequenced ELA lesson with our first graders with the ever popular children's book Where the Wild Things Are.  With this literature lesson, I feel that I did have success in meeting most of the ADEPT standards.  I planned and used instruction that promoted active student involvement by giving them the opportunity to each write their own sentences and by having them repeat the directions before they even began working independently (APS 2, 5).  I also planned for efficient transitions from activity to activity by telling them to go back to their desks by calling each table by their “color” and having everybody raise their finished sentences in the air before coming back to the carpet (APS 2).  I believe that I made objectives relevant to previous and future learning by tying my activity into Alison’s lesson by activating their knowledge of the previous lesson (APS 4). 

Even though I again felt very comfortable with teaching this lesson, there are still areas for improvement.  For example, I could have used assessments that are appropriate for ability and developmental level of students by using a tool in the classroom to keep learners engaged and to check for understanding (APS 3).  I also could have improved on continually establishing high expectations for all students by thinking of ways to challenge the “higher” learners in the class.  I could have used a variety of formal instructional strategies in order to find out if the class can retell other stories or if they only knew how to retell Where the Wild things are because I guided them in doing so (APS 7).  All in all, I think I had good control of the class and planned an engaging lesson, but I needed to improve on meeting different learning abilities and developing more assessment strategies. 

Math lesson reflection

     Looking back on my lesson, I think I had many strenghts that made the lesson an overall success.  I provided clear instructions and expectations to students by beginning the lesson by setting behavioral expectations and modeling the activity.  I also implemented instruction that promoted active student involvement by planning a lesson that gave teh first grade students a hands-on experience by having them use teddy grahams as manipulatives to practice addition.  I also believe that I used observations, questions, and other appropriate techniques to monitor progress, because I continually rotated around the room while I was calling out the addition problems and asked questions about how we could get to the correct answer if a student answered incorrectly. 
     Although I felt very pleased with my lesson, I did have some weaknesses that I could improve on in my future lesson planning.  I feel that I ended my lesson rather quickly because it was time for recess for the class, but I need to make sure to conclude lessons appropriately by summarizing what was learned and hear student's feedback.  I also could have differentiated my instruction by providing extra challenge to those hwo needed it or remediation to those who needed it.  In conclusion, teaching this lesson helped me realize my potential for teaching a first grade math lesson, but there are still areas that I would like to improve.

Classroom Management

     I think my cooperating teacher at Newington does extremely well with classroom management.  We observe mostly during large group instruction on the carpet and she has each student sit in an assigned spot on the carpet each time.  The children are supposed to sit criss-cross apple sauce and always face the teacher when she is talking.  If a child is not sitting the way they are supposed to or being very wiggly, she sends them to their desk because they will "learn better" from there without the distractions on the carpet.  She keeps the attention of the kids because she uses interactive games and noises on the smart board and has a very animated and positive attitude when teaching.  Also, every once in a while, she will have the students stand up and sing or dance along with a song or just simply stand to keep from sitting in one area for too long.  I think this is very appropriate, because young children cannot fully learn if they are sitting for long periods of time.  They need physical activity to keep them engaged in the lesson.  If there is a peer conflict, the teacher will encourage the students to work it out themselves.  For example, last week a student kept poking the student sitting next to him.  The student complained to the teacher and she replied with "well why don't you tell him that it hurts you when he pokes you and you would like him to stop doing so."  I think this method is very effective, because it shows the students that some problems should be worked out among themselves instead of just resorting to tattling to the teacher.  
     I would not necessarily change any of her classroom management methods because to me, they seem to work very well with her students.  The teacher concentrates more on reinforcing good behavior instead of calling out bad behavior.  For example, if the teacher sees a student following directions and being good, she will call attention to that particular student and say "I like the way ___ is following my directions", so in that case other students will model that particular student's behavior.  She also does a positive class behavior reinforcement by putting a marble in a jar if a student is exhibiting good behavior and at the end of the day, if there is a certain number of marbles in the jar, the whole class gets a jar.  This motivates the students to follow directions and encourage their classmates to follow directions because their "prize" depends on everybody's behavior.