blog 3

This week as I observed the class I was doing my service learning for, I looked for how the teacher involved the students in the learning process and how she encouraged a community in the classroom. One of the ways that she was able to get them involved was by giving the kids a choice in how they wrote their answers for their homework. Some of the kids preferred to draw the answer where others did well with the numbers and at the end they would share and explain their answers for each way, giving the students a opportunity to observe how it could be approached differently. 

In the morning she had a routine that I thought was interesting, she would have a set of questions on the board that the kids were to answer in their morning exercise booklet. On the day I went there there was a review math question, and quick writing prompt as well as a personal question such as “what makes a good friend” once the kids were done they were encouraged to share their answers with their neighbor. I really liked this because it seemed to get the kids in a learning attitude and it brought them closer to their classmates leading to a calmer and more respectful place which I believe is really important for kids to experience in the classroom. 

After morning exercises we jumped into the math lesson for the day. To start she would introduce the topic and then give the kids some questions to go over on their own. While the kids were working on the questions she could walk around and see who was struggling and who was doing well.  She would then have kids come up and teach the class how they got the answer that they did. I liked this because it gave the kids who knew the topic an opportunity to show off their skills and receive praise while also giving those who may not be getting the topic different insight that they may be able to understand better. When a student came up that had gotten the question wrong the teacher did not call the student out on it, but rather went over the subject again in the class. She praised the student for their willingness to share which she said was a special skill in and of itself. 

This specific classroom was organized into tables and I noticed that rather than speaking about what she didn’t like, the teacher would rather refer to a table to encourage good behavior. She would say things like “the baseball table is being so good and quiet” the other kids would then strive to be more quiet seeking that approval. The whole time I was there she said nothing negative to a specific student or even to the class as a whole but rather really tried to point out the good that they were doing to encourage them to continue with it.

As I was observing this classroom it became very obvious that the teacher cared about her class and how they were doing. She worked on encouraging them and making sure that school was a positive experience for them. It was obvious through the students actions that they felt the same way and knew that the teacher cared for them and how they did. It was because of the combination of all of these factors that the class was formed into a positive and relatively stress free environment of learning and experimentation.