Blog 6

What strategies does the teacher use to actively engage the students? How effective are these?

One strategy this teacher uses to engage the students is every hour they get up and part of the activity is a moving activity. All the students must stand up and move around. The activity they do is related to the lesson they are talking about. One example is today the teacher would ask what is 5+8 and they had to do jumping jacks to figure out what the correct answer was. She did about 4 or 5 of those and then moved on to the next activity. It was very effective. It let the students get their wiggles out and they were much more willing to listen to the next activity.

The other thing the teacher does is activities on the carpet. The students come sit down and participate in a discussion about something that they are learning about. Today they were talking about animal migration. The students were the main participators in the discussion and the teacher just guided it and made sure they stayed on the right track. This helped the students create new ideas and thoughts and got them involved so they weren't just sitting and listening.

Blog 5

What do you think is the most challenging role a teacher plays?  Why?

I think the most challenging role for a teacher would be keeping everything fair and being the mediator. I think it will be hard to look past the different personalities that each child has when making a decision. Having a favorite child will be hard to not do.

The children that are more challenging or have a personality that is more out there will be hard. I think it will be challenging when a situation arises with that child, like constant talking between that child and another, to not jump straight to the conclusion that the problem child is the one starting the problem. He or She could be trying to be quiet and the other student is the distraction. Trying to keep the balance and fairness would be hard.

With picking a favorite child, that would be challenging not to show. There will always be that one child that you will like more. The one who is always on their best behavior and does well in class will be hard not to favor. It will be hard to treat them just like the other students. You have to learn how to love each child for who they are and their personality. They are not a bad kid if they are talkative. They are just extra friendly and we need to love them for that trait.

Blog 4

What clerical and preparation responsibilities have you participated in?

On Thursday I participated in multiple clerical duties in both of the classes that I am in. I come into the room a few minutes before class so I am able to help the teacher prepare for the day and also prepare myself for what I am to do that day.

In the second grade class I am in I helped her to sharpen pencils and staple papers. I prepared packets for the children to work on later on in the day. It was kind of a slow task but was necessary to do so the children had something to work on and didn't have to wait later for us to get it done. I also sharpened about 40 pencils that day as well. That was a task I did not enjoy doing at all. It was a slow moving task because I was doing the same thing over and over again.

In the fourth grade class, I helped set morning work on the students desk for that day. When the students come in they know that they have to work on the busy work that is on their desk. That gives us time for the last few students to trickle in and to get lunch count and attendance taken care of. It also helps them to know what is coming that day. The work usually foreshadows what they will be learning today. It also is a way of pre-assessment. While the teacher or I am talking to the students about the work that they will be doing, we quickly look through the papers to see who already knows the subject material and who could use more help on it. This helps to establish groups for a group activity later on, if that is part of the plan that day.