Week 3 Reflection

For my final week, I again spent time in both of Mrs. James' classrooms, Springfield and New London. Since it was production week for our play, The Enchanted Egg, we spent a lot of time preparing. We also spent time looking at the letter Y, doing missing number problems, and talking about veterans.

This week Laura worked with me on classroom management. On Monday, I took the majority of the kids through the hallway to get milk. While this doesn't seem that hard, when you have a couple kids who don't stop talking and a couple who like to be in charge, things get difficult. I had to be the one to tell them to stop talking, have them switch places in line, and even walk next to me. I learned that even the simple tasks can be a lot of hard work. Starting on Tuesday, I was put in charge of group directives on the noise level. Every time it started to get loud, my job was to say, "1, 2, 3. Eyes on me." Wait for attention and say, "remember to use your one inch voices please." It was a hard job. One of the things that makes it hard is that it is somewhat awkward to be directing someone else's class. The other thing that made it hard was that the kids would listen and heed the reminder for about 30 seconds and then it would get loud again. I learned that you have to have the right mix of sweetness and strictness, but if it's still not working to not be afraid to be more strict. Another classroom skill I observed Mrs. James using, and talked with her about is stopping poor behavior immediately and asking the student to join you somewhere else to talk. This can be used with a student saying something that might not be best suited for the classroom as well as poor behavioral decisions. Not letting anything go to far is helpful to everyone on the room, and the one on one conversation allows the student to talk about what happened, sharing their side, and is not as embarrassing. The whole skill is as simple as saying, "can you join me at my desk," or "why don't you and I talk about that latter."

This was a hard week for me because I have a difficult time with being loud and using my voice especially to give directions, but it was also a helpful week because I got to work on those skills with the support of Mrs. James and Mrs. Cardillo. This week was also a lot of fun. Getting to see all the kids act in the Enchanted Egg was tons of fun.

Week 3: Friday

LAST DAY!

Today was HOT! We did some outside recess before class started. When we went inside everyone had a glass of water and used cold compresses to cool down before we started our day. The first thing we did today was talk about vetrans and who we think about on Memorial Day, this became our sharing for the day. When we finished our discussion, we moved into snack. During snack, I helped pull out the supplies for a flag project. At the end of snack instead of pulling out a book, the kids made paper American Flags in honor of Memorial day. They were shown an example, but were to do the project with out help, it was interesting to see where each kid naturally started. One cut all the pieces she would need and then put them together, another just started cutting and pasting. A large part of school is learning about healthy choices and in order to reinforce that, the school focuses on non-food celebrations. In celebration of my last day, we got to spend 10 minutes playing on the big playground. The kids had a lot of fun playing somewhere new and it was good for them to experience the playground they will use next year. From the playground we walked directly to the old middle school gym for the Memorial Day assembly where we said the pledge, sang patriotic songs, and learned about the holiday to end our day.

Week 3: Thursday

Thursday, May 26, 2011: 9:30-11, 11:50-3:15  

Finally today was the day of our play! I arrived at Springfield at 9:30 to help with some last minute costume crisises before parents started arriving. I took the kids downstairs while people showed up and read a story out loud. At 10, the play started and at the end we all had cookies and milk. Students were released early with their parents and we cleaned up before heading over to New London.

Jasmine, one of the princesses
poses for a picture

Fairies Tillie and Savannah
recite their poem

Sammy, the duck,
and Ethan, the wise
old owl, discover the
enchanted egg

We had a pizza lunch before heading out to New London recess. The kids went inside early to start snack so that they would have plenty of time to prepare for the play. I help Mrs. Cardillo put out the costumes so that they were easy to access. Today as they kids finished snacks instead of reading, they colored programs. Finally it was time to get dressed for our 1:00 dress rehearsal for the 1st graders. It went really well and we were able to work out a couple kinks. When we finished we took some down time to get some water, use the restroom, and relax before parents arrived. When parents started arriving, we took a walk to the water fountains and then went to Mrs. Fowlers room to wait for the que to walk in. The show went fantastic and we finished the day with cookies and milk. Some students left early with their parents and others stuck around to listen to some stories.

The New London cast

Week 3: Wednesday

Early morning in Springfield today, and since it's a Wednesday, our day started with some library time. Today Librarian Steve talked about variations, or changes. Last week he told us the story of the 3 little pigs, and today he read The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by A. Wolf, the story from the wolfs perspective. When we got back to the classroom we talked for a little while about how our day would go. The kids had a hard time paying complete attention. We got on the topic of vetrans and that lost even more kids. From our meeting we broke for snack time. After snack we did a full run through of tomorrow's play. After the play the plan was to take a field trip to the cemetery to help the American Legion place flags in honor of our veterans. A bus was supposed to come pick us up, so we played number games while we waited, but the bas never came. When a request for a bus has to go through 4 people before the bus can arrive things are bound to go wrong. Transportation misplaced Mrs. James' bus request so as a result no bus, and no field trip. Instead, we had some inside free time before the day ended with outside recess.

Week 3: Tuesday

Tuesday, May 24, 2011: 11:50 - 2:45

Finally some sunshine today, or at least no rain - OUTSIDE recess! When we went inside, we started with some sharing from our two start students. One student shared a bengal tiger stuffed animal from his recent trip to Busch Gardens. The other shared some stories about four wheeling and snowmobiling in his yard. When we finished sharing time, we broke for a working snack. Mrs. James gave me the job of making sure the room stayed quiet by using loud group directions, something I really struggle with doing. I was getting off easy with my task during our working snack. This was the first time I had experienced working snack. Today while the students ate, Mrs. James worked with them on whats the missing number problems on the white board. When the working part of snack was over my job got trickier. As students finish their snack the pull out books. One boy was looking at a book, and needed to share the pictures with his friends and they all ended up crowded around talking very loudly. After a couple of quiet directions Mrs. James had to step in and help me and we moved to silent reading. In an effort to keep things remaining quiet, I read a story out loud to the group. When the story was finished we moved into silent worksheets and students were taken 1 at a time to do math assessments in the hall with Mrs. Phipps and Dr. J. Todays worksheets were all about the letter Y. The first one had a kitten playing with yarn connect the dot and some writing practice. The second was coloring page that when folded made a story about a yak for the kids to read. During this time my job was to write the names of students who were talking on the board and put check marks if they continued to talk.  Our work was interrupted by a chance to go and watch the 4th grade watershed play, a play that I even remember doing in 4th grade. When we returned to the room, we continued worksheets. I worked with 3 students individually on reading their new paper books which was really enjoyable.

Week 3: Monday

Monday, May 23, 2011: 11:50 - 2:45

IT'S PRODUCTION WEEK!!!

After more than a week of rainy days, we were still inside for recess today. Mrs. James was at meetings for the first part of the day, but the class goes on. Mrs. Cardillo lead some sharing and daily news to start our day. After, I took the milk kids up the the cafeteria to pick up their milk for the week. It was a new experience to be completely on my own with a majority of the kids. I was in charge of making sure they were quiet and polite in the hallway, which we seemed to struggle with on the way back. It was really a new experience for me having to be the strict teacher in the hallway. When we were back from our milk run, we had some snack. Mrs. James joined us just as we were finishing snack clean up and we moved right into some coloring. Each student was given a construction paper egg to design how ever they wanted. Once they were finished designing, Mrs. James and I helped tape pictures of each child onto their egg. These will get put onto a big board for display during the play on Thursday. When they were finished with their egg, they each drew pictures of what they thought the enchanted forrest looked like. During this time, I helped Dinky the Elf, who was out last week on a vacation, make some shoes for her costume. We had a lot of fun putting together green felt, pom poms, and feathers. When we finished with the coloring and crafts, it was time for what else, play practice.

Week 2: Reflection

This week I again spent 4 days in New London and 1 day in Springfield. At the beginning of the week we talked a lot about families. Not just our families, but word families as well. There was some recess, snack, stations, arts and crafts, lots of sharing, starting subtraction, building with blocks, and even an assembly.

This week what I learned built of last weeks lesson on every child learning at different speeds. The most prevalent thing I learned about this week was differentiated learning. When we work in stations, the groups are established by where the kids are in the learning process. While each group is working with the same general concept, wether it be math, language arts, or spatial reasoning, the activity varies slightly for each group. This week I spent station time working on pattern recognition and spatial reasoning using colored cubes. With the most advanced group I was having them copy 3d stacked designs with hidden blocks. I even had a hard time coming up with patterns that would be hard enough. In the next group we did stacked patterns, but hidden blocks were a bit of a struggle. In the third group, we did line patterns and wrote our names using the blocks. The activity needed to be tailored so that each group would get the most out of it as possible.
In addition this week, one of the best words of wisdom I heard was from Dr. Johnson. One student was really struggling to be a good friend so I joined Mrs. James and him on a trip to the principal. We talked about what had happened and events and consequences from the past to discuss a solution that might have a better effect. I got to observe Mrs. James and Dr. J as they talked with the boy. They showed him respect and maintained a conversation feel to the meeting, rather than an angry feel. At the end of the meeting Dr. J told the boy it is easier to be a good friend than a bad friend. If you are a good friend, people will want to be around you and all you have to do is be kind. If you are a bad friend you wil have to work really hard to be friends and end up doing a lot of work.
My favorite parts of the week were costume workshop in Springfield on Wednesday, and scenery painting in New London on Friday. These arts and craft times really allowed me to learn about who the kids are creatively. Who has a huge imagination, and who might need to remember to turn their imagination on. These activities also gave me a time to talk to and play with the kids to learn more about them.

Overall, I really enjoyed this week in the kindergarten with Mrs. James. Next week I look forward to sharing my lesson on symmetry. I am thinking about using cut outs of the letters for the students to fold as I teach the lesson. I am not sure wether it will become a station or not, but in a station I would start with having the students use paint to trace half of one letter and then fold it to create the other half. After that, I would have them looking at one half draw the other. Next week is also production week for our play the Enchanted Egg, which will be a lot of fun.

Week 2: Friday

Friday, May 20, 2011: 11:50-2:45

Friday was a short day of play. We started out with some inside recess to escape the pouring rain. Things got pretty messy, but were cleaned up quick. We moved swiftly into a quick snack before a 1:00 assembly. Today, a freestyle frisbeeist came to preform. Todays assembly was definitely more engaging than the musician that came last week. He was more hands on and interactive so he was more able to connect with the kids, especially the kindergarteners and 1st graders, and as a result the kids were all really happy. When the assembly ended, we walked quietly back to our classroom to paint the set for next week's play. Mrs. Fowler's class was presenting their play next door, so we left our door open in order to listen to them as we painted. This made for a very peaceful, calm, and quiet classroom and an enjoyable painting atmosphere. It also helped the students to focus on what they were painting.

Week 2: Thursday

Thursday, May 19, 2011: 11:50 - 2:45

Today started as a rainy wet day on the playground, but we ventured inside to get some work done. The day started with a sharing from one of the two star students this week. He shared some "baseball cards" of search and rescue dogs and a whistle. He told us how the dogs could find people and how the whistle can also help you get found if you get lost in the woods. We had a great time testing out how loud with whistle was from different distances. Next we heard some sharing from the second star student. He told us about playing football with his brothers. They even play tackle, not just tag. After sharing, we broke for snack. I took advantage of this time to go see my fourth grade teacher and observe another grade. This class was struggling with staying quiet and keeping their desks clean, and as a result had to do 5 minutes of silent reading to try to calm them down. It was interesting to see the teacher have to lay down the law because it is something I don't remember him having to do with my class very often. Although it seemed hectic, he made some comment about 4th grade being so much fun because all the kids are like mini adults, personally thats the thing I don't really like about the older grades. I rejoined the K class in time to split for centers. Again, I was in charge of the block center, but today the task was building 3d patterns and shapes, not just 2d. The other center started to learn how to subract using counters to help. We ended the day with a movie about subtraction giving examples and providing some good laughs.

Week 2: Wednesday

Wednesday, May 18, 2011: 7:50-11

Today was a bright and early morning in Springfield K. Lucky for me it was a nice simple day. The day started off with a trip next door to the library so that Librarian Steve could read us some stories. When he was finished each student picked out a new book to check out. After our time in the library the students ate snack while Mrs. James, Mr. B (the springfield helper) and I prepared for some craft time. Today was a special day because parents were invited to join us in making costumes for the play. As we cleaned up snack, the parents started arriving. When everything was picked up we did some showing off with the pledge, a quick moment of silence, some patriotic songs and geography.  From here we broke into small groups by character. The birds made wings and beaks, the nights made shields, the princess made crowns, and I helped the fairies make magic wands and fairy dust purses. Our art projects took us the rest of the day and we didn't even have any time for recess!

Week 2: Tuesday

Tuesday, May 17, 2011: 11:50 - 2:45

My day at the New London Kindergarten started off with some swing pushing while other students ran around a slippery playground. Our day inside started with one student telling us all about the trip to Busch Gardens that his family and he just returned from. We heard all about the different animals he saw. We then continued yesterday's theme of families and read Mercer Mayer's book The New Baby. When the book was done we worked with a word family. Today the family we looked at was the -et family. Students took turns coming up with words that fit into the family, wet, met, net, set, jet, ect.. From here we broke for some snack time before a busy day. One boy in the classroom in particular has a hard time always being nice to others and did a few things at the end of snack that were disrespectful to another student. Mrs. James invited me to join the student and her on a walk up to Dr. Johnson's office for a discussion on ways we can work on being a good friend. Dr. J brought up a good point that it is easier to be a good friend than a bad friend because as a bad friend you have to spend time apologizing, writing letters, filling out plans, and in a thinking chair or on the fence. You have to compensate for bad behavior, but not for good behavior. We returned just in time for the end of Daily News before we started practice for the play. The kids marched in and back out, then in again. They did a full run through of the show for the first time, and picked up their dances and chants quickly. At the end of the runthrough there was a quick fast break outside before students came back in for centers. There were 3 centers today. One was word families and writing the words, one was writing the letter X, and mine was using the blocks again. Today in my center we didn't use the example cards but rather I made a pattern for the group to follow. We also used the blocks to write letters and spell our names. It was a breeze for some students but much harder for others.

Week 1: Wednesday

Wednesday, May 11, 2011; 7:50am - 11

It was a bright and early morning today. I had the nice little challenge of finding Springfield Kindergarden by 8am this morning but mapquest helped me out. In morning kindergarden students are welcomed into the classroom instead of starting the day with recess. Students watered their bean plants while they waited for everyone to arrive. Wednesday is library day in the kindergarden classrooms so the kids start their day with a trip to visit Librarian Steve next door in the Springfield Library. Durring this time, Mrs. James showed me her class webpage and I showed her my blog. When the students returned from the library they shared their books before a quick "fast break," a five minute recess. Today we played some baseball, and some of the kids could really hit! The break was followed by the pledge, a moment of silence, and some patriotic songs in preparation for Memorial Day and Graduation festivities which the kids will be performing in. This was followed by a snack and some reading of the new library books. I read through Dr. Suess' The Foot Book with a couple of students. It seems to be a favorite! This weeks "star student" showed us some toy cars of his, giving each student a chance to play with one as he showed them off. We followed his show and tell with some daily news. The classroom day ended with some stations. One was painting and the other was math. In math the students did more modeling of addition. I worked in the painting station where each kindergarden was to paint a picture of themselves in their upcoming play The Enchanted Egg. Since the day in Springfield does not begin with recess, naturally, it must end with some recess. The played on the playground till parents arrived to pickt hem up around 11.
It was an early morning, but over all a lot of fun.

Week 2: Monday

Monday, May 16, 2011: 11:50-2:45

Because of the stormy weather, week 2 in Mrs. James' kindergarden class started out with some inside recess at New London K. There was some dress up, grocery shopping, and coloring as the students waited for the day to start. Class began at noon with a milk run. Each Monday a number of students walk all the way up to the multi-purpose room (gym/cafeteria/theater/ect.) to get their milk for the week. This trip dovetailed nicely with snack. During snack, the kids took turns having their picture taken in a pop up theater for the upcoming play. After kids were finished eating, we sat down on friendship landing for some talk about family. We started by listening to Mrs. James read the Tommie dePaula book, Baby Sister. We then talked about how every family has something they all like to do, are good at, or makes them all look alike and each student shared what makes their family special. This was parleyed into a conversation about word families, specifically the -at family. We talked about how all the words that ended in -at belonged in the same house, and that they all rhymed. From here, we broke into stations. At one station, the kids continued to work with word families, this time with -ar. I was in charge of a station using colored blocks to recreate a structure or pattern on a card. They ranged from simple line patterns to standing structures with hidden blocks. Some students were able to jump to the hardest patterns and shapes quick, others required a little more time and found it beneficial to start with doing the flat patterns right on top of the card before moving on to more challenging cards. At the end of the day, one students grandfather joined us to read some books out loud.

Today, Mrs. James also gave me a lesson on symmetry that I will read through and develop over the next couple of days. I have the challenge of figuring out how I would like to teach the lesson keeping in mind different learning rates and styles.

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!

Week 1: Friday

May 13, 2011; 12-2:45

Today was another pretty low key day in the New London kindergarten. I started the day with some tag and swing pushing at recess. The classroom day started with talking about superstitions because after all it's Friday the 13th. We discussed the fact that most superstitions have some truth to them, but have been embellished to scare people. Students then got washed up for an early snack. After snack, we did some share time. The "star student" of the week shared a stuffed sea horse with us before we all shared a bit of daily news. After daily news, we did some practice for our play, The Enchanted Egg. Students learned where they will sit and how they will march on and off of the stage. Our marching in a line was tested with a long walk to the old middle school gym to see a musician perform. The kids were given clapping, snapping and singing directions and seemed to have a great time. After the performance, Mrs. Fowler's class joined us as our "star student" shared something else with us, her father. He is a profesional story teller, so he read a couple books to end the day.

Week 1: Thursday

May 12, 2011; 12-2:45


Day 4 in New London was a fairly low key day.  I started by playing some tag at noon recess with some of the kids from Mrs. James’ class and Mrs. Fowler’s class from next door. The day in the classroom started with a dual class snack because Mrs. Fowler was out sick. It was really fun to get to know a couple more kids. After snack time, the American Legion came to present the history of our American flag and the rules for showing patriotic etiquette when it comes to the flag. As the talk started to wrap up, one of our friends started to struggle with the large group so he took some time to show me the Special Education classroom. He picked out a game of sticking body parts onto the outline of a body, which he was very good at, especially considering the detail of the game. We rejoined the classroom in time to practice saying words that begin with the letter E. Each student was given the task of finding something in the classroom that started with the letter E and then to share with the class. After this, we used our imaginary finger chalk and our friends backs as chalkboards to take turns practicing the motion of writing E. Each student then worked on a worksheet tracing and then writing lower case Es before we walked very quietly up to the multi-purpose room to watch the 4 grade’s spring concert. There were a number of soloists who did a great job, and the kindergarteners were very well behaved. The day ended with a quick fast break.

Week 1: Tuesday

Tuesday, May 10, 2011: 11:50-2:45

Day two in the kindergarden started out (after some recess of course) with talking about the date. The class informed me that we say the year as two thousand eleven because if we say two thousand and eleven people might assume we are adding, not telling the year. Next we counted the days on the calendar to determine the number of days in the month of May. We also talked about what day of the week tomorrow is and what month comes next. Once we established that tomorrow is Wednesday and the next month of the year is June, we discussed the tools that students used to figure it out. Some students looked at the calendar, others used songs, and one used a birthday she knew was coming up. it was interesting to see how each student thought differently. We had some quick excitement as it looked like it had started to rain, but when we checked it was just a false alarm. This prompted using the weather chart to document that today was windy and cloudy. After, we talked about syllables vs. sounds. We started by using clapping to split everyones names into the different syllables, and then chopped different body parts into the sounds that make up the word. Then it was time for snack. Durring snack, students took turns watering the bean plants they are growing in the window. A couple have started to sprout which made the kids really happy. At the same time, students were taken one at a time to do quick one minute assessments in the hallway. At the end of snack time, this weeks "star student" did some show and tell. Today she showed us a shell that was a gift from her father and she passed it around so that each child could have a chance to look at it and try to hear the ocean. From show and tell we moved into daily news. Students shared stories about pets, siblings, and what they did after school yesterday. The day ended with some stations. The math station did more modeling of addition using beans while another station used pattern blocks to make new shapes using smaller shapes. A third station had two parts. Part one was writing the letters A and G in both upper and lower case one worksheets. They started with tracing and then moved to writing them on their own. The second part of the station was using letter magnets to write the alphabet and sight words.
I look forward to exploring Springfield Kindergarten tomorrow morning and being able to compare and contrast the two different classrooms.

Week 1: Monday

Monday, May 9, 2011; 12-2:50pm

Today was the first day of my internship in Laura James' kindergarden classroom at Kearsarge Regional Elementary School - New London. New London has three kindergarden classes. One is held in the mornings and two take place starting at 12:15 in the afternoon. As the best place to start to learn is through observation, i spent most of today's time observing and taking in my surroundings. The students in the afternoon start off their day with recess while everyone arrives. At 12:15 they come inside and say the pledge of allegiance, have a brief moment of silence and sing a couple of patriotic songs. Afterwards, we did some introductions with names and favorite colors and heard a piece of daily news from each student. This activity was followed by a discussion about letters, which were the hardest to say ond hear and which were the hardest to write. The discussion of letters was followed by washing up for snack, which was interrupted by a chance to watch the kindergarden class across the hall's dry run of their upcoming play, The Little Red Hen. Then it was back to snack time. Durring snack the class talked about their own play with will happen a little later on in May. Snack got a little rowdy, so Mrs. James used a 60 second silence to calm the class down. When snack was finished, a student took her turn at show and tell. She showed us a stuffed animal of hers and told us why it was special to her. Three students were picked at random to ask questions. This was followed by a split into three stations: math, language arts, and some floor play. This class has students of all abilities so each group had a slightly different activity at each station.I started by observing and helping with the Math station with the strongest of the three groups. We used beans to model addition problems. Next, I helped with the language arts station helping three students with their alphabet. We used different hand motions as we said the alphabet up to G. After this, we worked to put an alphabet caterpillar puzzel together. Once the puzzel was together it was time for me to leave. I enjoyed my day in the classroom and am looking forward to day 2, and then next couple of weeks.