Week of 2/19

This week, we were able to spend some more time with our teacher working out plans for our unit. This was very helpful. We got a little bit more background about what the students have been doing lately. During this planning time, we also learned more about the teaching of Spanish and sign language to the students. All teachers in the school are responsible for teaching Spanish to their students, which I thought was very interesting. I still wonder whether the teachers are taught the Spanish or if they have to learn a lot on their own. Our field teacher decided to teach sign language to the students on her own, which has been going very well. I am trying to focus and remember some of the signs she has taught the children while we've been there!
We saw the students react to a desk change this week. We gathered that the teacher took students' suggestions about how to arrange the seats in some ways. I thought that was a great idea to have the students involved in the decision.
Last week, I saw a lot of math strategies in practice. This week, I saw a lot more of our reading development/language block strategies in use. We were able to watch some speed sorts of various groups of students, and I noted the stages they worked on. The speed sorts seemed to motivate the students, who were anxious to know if they had beaten their previous scores. I also noted that there is a student in the class working in the syllables and affixes stage of word study. This was very surprising to me. There are actually three first graders in the school on this level, so two other students come to our room for word study to group the three together. The teachers noted that they have trouble determining what to study with these few students.
Since I have been observing some ESL pullouts for these students, I have been noticing the amount of time they spend out of the classroom much more. I am still amazed at how often they are pulled out and wonder if they are losing too much time in these transitions. When the students go to ESL, they walk outside to another building. The pullout session is only 30 minutes, but the students spend about 5 minutes in transit and getting settled. It seems like a lot of time is lost just in that one pullout, and I am curious how much time is lost throughout the course of the day in this movement. I am hoping to see a little bit more of this as the semester progresses.

We're back! Visits 1 & 2 (2/15-2/16)

This week, we returned to our first grade classroom. With the exception of fewer teeth in most of the kids' mouths and a new classroom desk setup, the class was as I remembered it. Due to the snow days and delayed opening over the last two weeks, the classroom is a little bit chaotic. It seems that the teachers are feeling the pressure to catch up.
Once again, I am observing in the morning, so I saw the morning meeting, math, and writing sections of the day. Centers were used in math, and I saw many of the activities we have done in our math class used in this classroom. The students were using domino cards, 10 frames, and dot addition cards. These activities were run similarly to the centers from last semester.
I noted a couple of the children signing a name to each other, and thought it was funny that they remembered their sign language from last semester and are using it to communicate with each other during quieter work times. I'm not sure this is what the teacher was going for, but it was good to see that they did remember it!
I noticed a new method being used for one child with Asperger's Syndrome, which we have talked about in some of our classes. The student now carries a clipboard with the daily schedule written on it. Next to each subject or time slot, a teacher works with him to determine how he behaved and participated that day. There is a space for notes, and there is a circle next to each section to draw a face, showing how well he had done that day. Today, there was a happy face next to morning meeting. :)
I also had a more emotional connection made this week. Yesterday, there was a delayed opening, so breakfast was not served in the cafeteria. The teacher recognized that a couple of the students were 'acting strangely' and asked if the class who had eaten breakfast. About a third of the class hadn't had anything to eat yet. We also heard about one of the students coming to school crying because he didn't have his backpack. To keep his family warm over the last week, a kerosene lamp was lit, which burned his backpack overnight. While I knew a little bit about the students prior to this week, I feel like I am learning much more about their backgrounds very quickly.
I have also been fortunate enough to follow a few of the children from class to their ESL pullout, for another field placement. It was interesting to note that the children seem to speak much more and much louder in the smaller groups for ESL. I am not sure whether this is due to a smaller group of people or the level of the students they are with, but I am curious to watch this as the semester goes on.