Blog #8

"What is the most important thing you learned during fieldwork observation?"

 So I feel like I have answered this questions in part in every blog that I have written.

 From all the great traits that I observed of the teacher I followed. I would say it kind of boiled down to being PREPARED. Because she was prepared with what she was going to teach, how she was going to teach, and had the instruments needed to teach. She was able to be teach with confidence, she was able to stay calm when it came it answering questions, she was able to concentrate on the children learning the subject instead of how to teach it. If she was ill prepared she could be focusing on what and how she was teaching the subject more then how the children are ingesting the subject.

For example, the teacher had the children do a drawing of themselves. She knew enough about aspects of art and portrait drawing that she could give solid instruction, "Draw what you see not what you think should be there" , "Eyes are not ovals with road dots in the middle, what do you see when you lookin the mirror" "A Neck isn't just a two straight lines, filled in with color. Your neck has different colors.. draw those difference"  If another person that wasn't well versed at art where to teach the students, they may have been refereing to a manual , or would n't have answers to questions. ect.  

But as this teacher was well prepared she was able to give all of her attention to helping the kids learn. This teacher was a great example to me for the classroom and for life. 

Blog #7

• How are materials organized within the classroom?

So the school that I did my service at was a summer school and the teachers were not in there original classrooms. Instead we borrowed classrooms from other teachers. So the set up wasn't entirely the idea of the teacher that I was shadowing. 

Still there was plenty to notice in the set up. First of all the classroom that I was in there wasn't individual desks. They actually had tables set up in the room. The tables weren't one behind the other either, they were staggered in a zig zag pattern around the room. Each of the tables were designed that a person could sit on the opposite side of the children and then the children could sit around that person in the middle in a half circle. Giving the instructor and children all an equal view.  By getting rid of the desks all in a line the tables made it easier to see what the kids were up to and the teacher was able to walk around and in-between each of the tables easier then if they had been sitting at desks.   She was also able to instruct something int eh middle of the table and have several children with an up close view of what she was instructing. 

Also in this classroom they had cubbies for trays with children names on it.  So on the outside of the room was where the cubbies, supplies, computers, and ect.  So the teacher could still have a clear view of all the areas of the class room. With every area organized it was easy for older kids to decipher where to get supplies, where to put there own stuff, ect. 

The entire classroom was set up for a better learning experience, set up so the teacher could get close to the children and also see what is going on when she has several students doing different tasks. Great set up makes me want Tables in my future classroom.