FieldBlog-Agnon

    Today I revisited Agnon with Adrianna because she needed transportation and I agreed to help her. Again, I still really enjoy it there. When I went with the class, I sat in an English class, where the students sat across the carpet and worked in their workbooks. Today I also was in an English class but they played a game called Word Soar. Usually the students compete in groups but today they were competing with themselves to save time. The students laid the flash cards all out in their areas and divided each card into a category. In my opinion, this game was productive. The only thing I didn't like was the teacher didn't go around to check them to see if the student was correct. (Although being short on time could have affected her method of this game)
     Once finish, the students then transitioned to math in the workbooks. The class was spilt into two different group. One was with a more advanced group of students, who went out in the hall to work and the other stay in the classroom, where Adrianna and I observed. The students circled around and began doing problems in their books and on the smart board. The students seem to enjoy the technology being used. But looking around the room, you could see how some students were going right along with the teacher while others were falling behind or skipping problems to keep up. This was different. In all the classrooms that I have been to previously, teachers could teach their students to understand the content but couldn't keep the students engaged. Here, the teachers could keep the students engaged but couldn't keep all the students on the same progression level.
       I now have a few questions purposed in my head on why this is. Is it because they students are younger? Or could it be because of the technology being use? It is now a few days until the semester is over and this has created more curiosity for me in the education field.

Field Blog Three

On Tuesday, I visited PICAN again. I observed a seventh grade classroom. There wasn't much activity in the classroom because the students weren't taking a test. I did however, got a chance to interact with one student was not there a few days before because he was sick and wasn't prepare for the test. I got the chance help a kid while he completed his review packet. He was a smart student, so he didn't really need my help. He did ask me with help on a problem on fractions. You could tell he was defeated by this concept by all the erase marks on his paper.  I showed him how to get the common denominators though multiplication. When I gave him a practice problem to do on his own, the eyes of the little boy recovering from a sickness lit up. He was absolute amazed how easy it was. I was proud, I taught someone how to do something!

As weird as it sounds, I was happy for the rest of the day. I went back to campus and told my friends how I assisted a student. Although it wasn't major help, it felt good to know that I made a difference in a students life.

Field Blog Two

Today, I attended the same 8th grade classrooms that I did my first day. I'm not sure if I came on a bad day, or the students were just getting use to each other but they were a little talkative. As the teacher was teaching the lesson, one student was not paying attention at all. He was turned talking to his friend across from him. Without a warning, the teacher turned and said "Camren and Le'Shaun those are both talking demerits for you, pay attention or I will call home." I thought this was a little aggressive. Don't get me wrong, the two were a distraction to the classroom, but I felt like they should have had a warning, or at least not have asked them to see her after class.

The other two classes went smoothly, the teacher taught her lesson though dry erase boards and doing problems with her students and then transitioning into their workbooks, doing the same thing so they had a visual when doing their homework. This seemed effective because I remember when I was in middle, even high school times where I would do something in the class, but not take notes because I thought I "understood" the concept and then got home to do homework and drew a blank.

Later on before I left, I was still upset about the teacher exploiting the students for talking. In search for the answer, I asked the teacher why she wrote these kids up because I knew she would give the logical method on her reason and felt comfortable asking her because she was my sister. She explained to me that the two have already received warning for talking previously that week. This made me feel better because in order to be a successful teacher you must create a comfortable student teacher relationship and her calling the two students out was not helping. But I can see now she wasn't being harsh towards these students, she was maintaining control over her classroom, which is a key factor in the education field.

Field Blog One

Field Experience 1:
Today was my first day of being in a classroom from a teacher perspective. I am doing my hours at a PICAN Charter school in Akron, Ohio. The school was once some sort of factory but they reconstructed it and added lots of paintings and colors to the walls. When I first got to the school, I noticed the students walking along a piece of tape on the floor on a straight line, which a later found out was to keep order. I decided to do my hours here because my sister is a teacher and I knew she would work around my school and soccer schedule, along with giving me a lot of tasks, to prepare me early in the education field.

I first attended the 8th grade math classroom. The class playing a review game because they had a test coming up. They referenced the name of this game as Soar Review. This was a game where the class was split into two halves. Each student went to the board and wrote down a math problem given to them by the teacher. If a student got the answer incorrect, the student next up to the board was the only person who could help them correct it. The side to finish first won, getting a point. Each round was split into different areas of what the test was going to be over. Sitting through three classes of this game, I thought this was a very effective game. I also liked how I got to see how one class could struggle on a certain problem or area of the review while another class flew through it. Each student was engaged in every problem, even taking notes to see if they could get the answer correct on their own.  But I did not like how only the student behind or next in order could answer the question and not the whole class. I thought it would have been more effective if the classroom as a whole to help build teamwork.

Overall, I enjoyed my first time in the field.

Agnon School

This school created tons of excitement for me towards education. I think this is because of the way it was set up.  At first when given an overview of the school by Mr. Shutkin I was unsure how I felt about it because it seemed a little informal that the students called the teachers by their first name, but then it grew on me. In the classroom, the teacher spilt the kids up based on their reading levels. The ones that had high reading levels and understood the reading better were pair together as well as the ones who needed work. Then the teacher sat them down and made a list on the board of the activities they could do in their "busy work" packet, she made the coloring project at the end because that is what the students were most excited to do. Every 10 minutes, or how every long she needed, she would work with a pair of students. She had them read aloud to her, correcting them on any errors. When they finished the reading, she would go back and ask them questions about the reading, which I thought was very effective because it helped them comprehend what was going on. This classroom was very well organized which was what I liked the most.
  Overall, this school was very well put together. I was very surprised how every student was already writing in Hebrew as only second graders. This just blew my mind, because I am a college student now and can barley write or speak in a simple language like Spanish. Also, when we had our little group at the end, and she talked about how their school was family oriented, this got me even more intrigued about the school because being a big family person, I thought that this was the best way to capture a students learning, because of these "tribes" the student would always have a friend in the school, and no one would feel left out.
   This school was very well academically structured but it only creates more questions on standardize testing for me. I am wondering if these schools are better than public schools because they don't have to teach to the test and the teachers have creativity in their lessons? Do you have any idea?

Blog Post 10

Over this course, I have learned many things about education that I did not know before. While in the field, I learned how hard it was for a teacher to make sure all students were engaged while learning at different paces. I also learned how important it is to create a relationship with the student. I enjoyed going to all three of the different schools because not only were they different grade levels, they were also diverse, which isn't something I have experienced.
  In the class, I learned just as much. I learned how critical it is for a student to have a positive attitude for a student,  along with treating every student the same no matter what his or hers interested were. But most importantly, I learned that when a student fails, the teacher fails. often times we are so concerned that a student is doing badly in the class, that we don't take notice that the teacher has a vital role to what is being taught. This class has also created excitement for the preparation of my classroom set up. I learned that the key for a students education is comfortably. By setting up a classroom so that the students feel welcome will carry over to the effort into their education.
  As I walk away from this class, I think the biggest thing I am going to take away is going to be how each student has that one special teacher. That one teacher who impacted and influenced them to take a positive step in education and I want to be that teacher, by being the best I can be every class a teach, no matter what mood I am in.

Blog 9: What Good Schools Look Like

When I think of what a good school looks, I think of a school building that is well-maintained from the outside, with flowers and a welcoming school sign. I personally don't really care of the location, it could be in the middle of a low poverty city or high class development, the only thing that really matters is the education, and what the students take away from it. Inside the classrooms, I want the desk set up in 4 rows of six, a total or 24 desk in the classrooms. I believe in a small classroom setting that way the teacher is able to make sure every student knows the content and can have one on one meetings if necessary.
  Each Wednesday, classes will be shorten so that each student takes a mandatory 45 minutes out of their day to go to the classroom(s) that he or she has make-up work in or their lowest grade of all their classes, to get extra help. As I said before, the classrooms will be small so the students will be sure to get help from the teacher along with staying on top of their school work.
  When it comes to dress code, I have no preference. I feel like each student should be able to feel comfortable in whatever they want to wear, although I will not allow any students to wear shorts that do not fully cover their bottom half, shirts that show too much of their top or belly shirts.
 I do believe in a no cell phone policy in the classroom, UNLESS recommended by a teacher. Each classroom you walk into, I think their should be a bucket for the students to put a their phones in, and they will be them back at the end of the class. In order for a student to learn effectually, there must be no distractions, and in my opinion phones do distract a student from learning, and takes away the respect for the teacher because they aren't giving the teacher their undivided attention. I do understand that sometimes you get done with class early, or do projects that involve your phone, which is understandable.
  Energy and a positive attitude is what students feed off of. If all the teachers have a positive attitude towards the learning then so will the students. I would cancel the whole teacher tenure idea and try to do what Michelle Rhee did and give the teachers a chance to have increase their pay by being an effective teacher or keep the same pay and no make progress in the students. By doing this, I think that the students education will be more productive because we will get rid of the teacher who believes in the "I get paid whether you learn or not" method, which is what we want!