Week 1 Reflection

This week, I spent time in two kindergarten classrooms, Springfield and New London, both taught by Mrs. James. At the beginning of the week, I spent most of my time observing Mrs. James' teaching techniques and the students in order to get to know them better. Activities this week included modeling addition problems with beans, working with the alphabet caterpillar and alphabet magnets, playing with pattern blocks, daily news and sharing, two concerts, and of course some recess.

The most significant thing I learned this week is that kids are learning at all different rates, especially when it comes to reading. During stations on day 1, I was helping with a math station while Mrs. James worked on sight words with a group of students. When we rotated stations, I went over to language arts and helped kids with saying the alphabet up to G and put together the alphabet caterpillar, which was quite a struggle. This group was having trouble determining which letter was which and which letter came next, while the group before was reading and spelling sightwords.  In order to accommodate the different learning speeds stations are very important. Stations allow for groups to work on activities that will help them the most.

Another thing I learned about this week is what Mrs. James calls reality therapy. This involves posing questions about what good behavior looks like, sounds like, and feels like. Using these questions helps kids to understand what they should be doing. This technique also works when a student has done something wrong. In this case the student might be asked why they did what they did, how it made someone else feel, and how can they act differently next time. 

Daily news and sharing, recess, and snack time were all very helpful in allowing me to get to know the students in the classroom in other ways beyond educational interactions with them. These activities allowed me to learn what is important to each student as well as things that each one enjoys doing. 

I really enjoyed my time in Mrs. James' classroom this week. This week has been exactly what I had hoped it would be, a lot of fun, but I have also learned a ton. I have loved getting to know the students both personally and educationally. It is a lot of fun to be back in the building I went to elementary school in, and I am really looking forward to the next two weeks!