Science Post 2: Second time in the classroom

Last Thursday, a big group of 8 early childhood girls revisited the kindergarten classroom at Brigham. To be perfectly honest, I was not too excited to go because of observations that I made the previous time. This included the students’ crazy excitement level and inability to listen well to the directions. This may sound harsh, but I am actually not used to students acting this way. Plus, these are kindergarteners we are talking about here. I am fully aware that many of these students may not have previously been in school before this year. That said, their behaviors could probably be classified as quite normal. Am I being too harsh? I don’t think so. Honestly though, their behaviors are actually quite understandable because I can imagine how distracted and excited they must have felt. Imagine, you are a little kindergartener sitting in your class with the same students and teacher that you see every day. Now imagine this: There are going to be 7-8 NEW PEOPLE coming into your classroom to TEACH you ALL ABOUT SCIENCE in a FUN way! Yea, I can understand why they were so extremely excited and distracted. I myself was distracted for the students due to the insane amount of TALL people that were standing in the back of the room. In that, I squatted next to one of the tables to remove myself as a distraction. I feel that had all the other PDS students done this, there probably would have been less wandering eyes and talk outs during the beginning of the lesson.

Last week I did not teach my own lesson, but I still feel that I was able to work on my personal goals while in the classroom as well as incorporate daily goals that I had just for that day. My personal goals relate mostly to opening up room for the kindergarten students to feel comfortable and capable of learning despite the language that they spoke. In addition, one of my goals is to be gentle with the students so that they may gain trust and feel comfortable around me. I do not feel that language played a big part last week. To go further, the lesson was done in solely English from the song at the beginning to the small groups in between. The students seemed to really excel considering that instruction was not done in their native language. Also, as a teacher’s helper last week I did not feel that I needed to repeat any directions or expectations in Spanish, my second language. I do feel that I was able to consider my personal goal of being gentle with the students. I made sure to provide encouragement when possible during the small group time.

Overall, I feel that last week went well considering the lesson that was taught and the goals I was able to work on and then reflect on as well. I feel that I did a great job assisting the main two teachers in the classroom as they presented their lesson and then completed a picture sort activity in small groups. By recording notes of what the students said during the activity, the main teachers will be able to write a great reflection from their lesson.

That is all, until next time folks!

-Alaina Murphy

P.S. Here is an article that discusses ways in which a teacher can use encouragement in the classroom. This can help promote a gentle touch with your students.

http://www.allaboutlearningpress.com/encouraging-words/  

EXCEEDS: Over the 500 character limit. Included an article.

Science Post 1: First time in the classroom

Last Thursday, a group of 7 of us girls went into a Kindergarten class at Brigham, our partnering school for our ISU science class. We had decided that for our first time in the classroom that we would do a short lesson utilizing centers that covered the five senses. This meant, as the teachers we would move from center to center with the items we brought that would either represent sight, smell, sound, touch, or taste. I think that we did an excellent job of organizing how to switch from station to station. I took quick note that those kindergartners were super energized the whole 30 minutes that we were in there. Also, taking into consideration the kindergarten age of 5-6, transitions can take up to twice as long as for older children. That said, I liked the idea that we as teachers were the ones moving our stations instead of trying to move the kids around each time was the best idea for us. Doing so definitely helped us to stay on task and go along according to our time constraint.

We pulled some of our ideas for the five senses centers from our on-campus Science class. During the first or second week of school, we got to participate in our own five senses centers. I feel that having done this specific activity we were all very prepared to go into a kindergarten classroom and attempt to replicate the same activity. The center that I did was not one that we did in class. I simply brought in a few household items that were of different colors. I thought that this would be fun to show that we see colors with our eyes. I also thought that we could focus on saying colors in English and in Spanish. As I reflect on my specific center, I think it may have been too simple and possibly boring for the kiddos. It was all a matter of pulling out an object and saying the color. I am glad that I was able to think of things on the spot to make my center more challenging and engaging for the kindergartners. This included making connections with the objects with where we had seen them before. Also, I showed the students that the color of the object changes when it is covered from the light. I think discussing the effect of a shadow was something that was new and exciting for the kindergartners, I just wish I had thought to mention it to all the groups instead of solely with the last group.

Something that I found very difficult when in the classroom for the first time was classroom management. I was never “in charge” of the whole group, but I still felt overwhelmed by the big personalities of the little kindergartners. I was very unsure of how to redirect students when they were off task because I was unsure of how they respond best. Multiple times I had to ask the students to stop talking because I was talking. Also, during the whole group time, many of the students were flailing on the carpet and chatting, and looking around the room. It would have served me well to have been informed of their behavior management in the classroom. For instance, in my PDS classroom and throughout the whole school, we use the DOJO behavior system. I was informed about DOJO as far as how to access it, how to work the system, and how to make connections between the classroom and DOJO points. I feel that this has helped me to work in my own classroom management style as I also get used to the style of my CT. I know that being informed about the students ahead of time and understanding how to work with their behaviors would have made our activity much more effective.

That’s all folks…until next time!

-Alaina Murphy

EXCEEDS: I exceeded the 500 character limit by at least 150 characters, well 168 to be exact.