March 25, 2011

This week we learned more about teaching methods in the classroom to help the students achieve more success. Yesterday we went back to the elementary school and I helped with a few students outside at a time. We worked on numbers 1-9 and how to write the numbers and recognize them when shown in a sequence or when written on a card. It was interesting to see the changes the children have in their learning abilities and how quickly they learn the numbers. One student hasn't been there a lot lately and it was evident when I was trying to help him. I tried to help him along the way and not just lump him in with a group, it seemed to work and he began to want to learn even more and catch up to the other students as time went by. After watching this weeks video of Harry Wong and his advice on teaching and effective classrooms I tried to watch my class at the elementary school and see if my teacher was doing any of the things Harry Wong says to do. It seems she has great control of the class and the students are all taught to their bes advantage and not just tested for the grades but to see if they are actually learning. It is cool to see a classroom flow so nicely.

March 10, 2011

Yesterday we went to the elementary school for the first time in a while. It was good to see all the students again and how excited they were to see me in return. My teacher gave me two students to take out in the hall and work with. The objective was along the lines of with color coded picture cards the students will identify matches and put the pieces together. The students did a good job at that and then were sent back inside where they had other obejectives. The class went through a series of tables they rotated between and had a different objective at each table. The teacher did not say the objective just how we have seen it done on paper, but she explained what the students were supposed to do and gave examples on how to accomplish what she wanted done at each table. Objectives can come in handy in a classroom, but when the classroom is a kindergarten class full of 6 year olds, the job of getting the objective across becomes a little harder.