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.