Learn and Serve October 5th (2 hours)

October 5th

This week in learn and serve I was able to meet my observation teacher. She is a very kind lady that I believe I will be able to learn a lot from. From the minute I walked in she had me working with students, writing on the board and leading discussions. She is not the type of teacher that wants me to sit back and watch what she is doing she wants me to work with her and be hands on.
The first thing that I was asked to do was work one on one with a few students who were struggling with their vocabulary assignment. They were asked to match words with pictures and then glue them in the correct word families. During this activity I was placed with some of the students who were struggling in order to help them complete the activity correctly.
Next the students had reading time. My teacher read a story and she had me place the sight words up on the smart board. After this she gave me the task of making sure the students knew what all of the words were. I was to call on students and give them a number and have them tell me what each word was until everyone knew all of them. I had fun with this for a short time and all eyes were on me. Also even though it was a simple task I was able to use the smart board.

While my placement teacher was working with one of the reading groups my task was to make sure that all of the other students where reading two different books independently and then logging what they read on their log sheets. There where students that did this very easily and right away and then there were others that had serious trouble focusing on what they were to do looking at everyone else and being easily distracting. Understanding what the task was and how to perform it was very difficult for some of the students. Many were also very distracted by the fact that I was leading the class while their teacher was sitting in the corner with only a few students.
The last activity that I participated in that day was writer's workshop. They were talking about good ways to begin stories. My placement teacher had certain books that she had picked out that had good original beginnings. I had each of the three books and my job was to read the first few pages so the student could let the beginnings sink in.
I am still just beginning to get to know the students but I am starting to learn their habits and what levels they are at as learners.
I do have to say that at times in the day I was pushed out of my comfort zone. She had me doing activities that I have never done before with no warning at all and this was somewhat scary but also a good learning experience.
Here is a more specific hyperlink for a smart board lesson about vocabulary.

Even though I have only been in the classroom twice I can already see that there are students who need to be challenged, they are bored and this is causing them to be under achievers. Chapter 9 talks about children with gifts and talents (Kirk, Gallagher, Coleman, & Anastasiow, 2009). Gifted is often used to refer to people with intellectual gifts. I have noticed in the classroom that if these students were given the tools to succeed they would work so much better, but instead they are a distraction to themselves and their classmates. These students are gifted underachievers; they are students whose academic performance constantly falls far short of expectations even with their very high abilities. I feel that it would be in the best interest of the students if the teacher adapted the learning environment to teach to all levels of students.

Kirk S. , Gallagher J.J. , Coleman M.R. , & Anastasiow N. (2009). Educating Exceptional Children (12th ed. , 285-320). Boston, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company.