Oh my poor little blog has been so very neglected! I haven't been in here in so long to post. My humble little Civil War unit plan has taken over my life, and my little blog is just sitting here collecting dust:) I can't believe it's so, but this semester is coming to en end quickly - only a couple more days to go! It's been a very hectic on, but rewarding too. I really do appreciate a teacher that challenges me because I feel like I've really accomplished something great. Not to toot my horn or anything, I'm definitely not that kind of person, but for the first time, in a really long time, I feel pretty dang proud of myself! I have been doing great at my job, managing an Animal Hospital full time every week, raising a vivacious and beautiful little almost three year old, giving my husband whatever I have left of me! :) AND, was inducted into Kappa Delta Pi two weeks ago! I've never been in an honor society before - so this is a huge deal to me, and my family - yay Jess! :)
So now onto my reflection. My last post for the semester - but I'm sure I'll continue blogging whether on my own, or with Dr. Smirnova.
I had the great pleasure of spending two days with Mrs. Lesczynski’s fifth grade class over my spring break. As difficult as it may be to get the time off from work and arrange for an extended babysitter, I really do appreciate the field work requirements Mount Saint Mary’s has. It seems like just when I’m starting to doubt myself and the decision to go back to school when life is so crazy already, I go spend some time in a school and remember why I’m doing this! I love just soaking up the atmosphere, watching the class, and helping the students. I learned a lot from Mrs. Lesczynski, her co-teachers, and students during my time at Pakansink Elementary, and really enjoyed my visit.
Mrs. L’s classroom is arranged in a “U” shape with three rows of two desks in the center. When asked she explained that was for a couple of different reasons. She told me that she likes to keep the arrangement interesting because the students seem to really enjoy it, and because it allows the most room for her “co-class” to come in for their shared lessons. Mrs. L and her co-teacher Mrs. Grainger have adjoining classrooms separated by a full length rolling partition. They take turns teaching the core subjects with the help of the special education teacher, Mrs. Griffenkranz. The students will all pile into one room, and the three teachers will share the lesson pretty equally. Mrs. L’s current classroom setup allows for students to move in and out without too much hassle and for tables around the room to be fitted with chairs for visiting students.
Mrs. L explained Pakanasink’s planning procedures for me. In August, before school begins, teachers meet by grade levels and plan out their year. The fifth grade teachers create a “Curriculum Annual Plan.” She showed me the many charts that listed the subjects, the months of the school year, what topic would be covered, what standards would be met, and the length of time to spend on each item. The plan is made and the teacher then has the freedom to switch days/weeks/months and the method in which they will teach the subject. However, at the end of the year, everyone has taught the same subject matter and met all of the necessary standards. The chart was clear and easy to read. It held a lot of important information, yet was not so overloaded that it was overwhelming to read. Knowing that the teachers sat down before the school year to figure this out together was a HUGE relief for me! Still being in the midst of achieving my teaching degree, the thought of figuring all of that out on your alone is completely overwhelming!
As for Mrs. L’s personal planning and implanting of plans - things are a little different. She has a standard lesson book that I’ve seen a hundred times and most of the pages are blank. She told me she’s really a fly by the seat of your pants kind of person. Lessons are thought of and developed over time, and the next day’s work is discussed in advance with the co-teachers, but nothing much is every actually written down in the lesson books. She even told me she was doing a great disadvantage to herself because she’s constantly copying worksheets at the very last second. Her school requires three days notice to make your copies at no charge, so she ends up using a small printer/copier in the classroom where she supplies the ink and paper.
I really loved Mrs. L’s behavior management techniques. One thing I wrote down and will definitely take to my own classroom one day is the popsicle stick reward system. When children show extra effort, are on task, do a nice deed or anything else deserving a compliment, she hands them a popsicle stick.
I learned that mastery tests are the definitely the main form of assessment in this classroom. It seemed like the students were constantly doing them. The mastery tests work like so: for example, in math with fractions, the student must master the simplest questions, then move onto more difficult ones, then so on and so on. There are many different levels to these tests, and once all levels are completed the student can move on to the next topic. If the most basic of the provide tests are too difficult for some students, the teachers will create a test for the student alone. The same is done for students who excel and master the topic before the rest of the class. The days pretty much consisted of these mastery tests for math and lots of practice tests for the upcoming ELA exam. I did notice some hands on projects displayed around the room, Mrs. L explained that those were done at the end of some particular units and were graded by a rubric – a form of summative assessment.
I think that if I had visited this classroom before taking a class with Dr. Smirnova I might not have seen anything I thought I might want to change. However, now having the knowledge I have about how we, as teachers, can make education an exciting adventure for our students. I felt bored for the children performing worksheet after worksheet! I asked the teacher if she would mind me preparing the next weeks spelling words in new way for the students, and she did not - so I quickly added the words into a Wordle image and the students LOVED it! They loved it so much that Mrs. L posted the website by their computers so that the students could use it every week from there on out. It was sad to see those poor computers sitting there, barely even being touched. Now that I know some of their great potential for students I can't wait to get my hands on them and make every lesson a fun and innovative one for my future students!
