My Service Learning Observations: Part Two

The teacher that I am observing is very good about encouraging a positive classroom community. She makes sure to greet and welcome each student entering the classroom. The day begins with a short amount of time to finish any of their classwork or homework from the previous day. After that they all go to the rug where the students are given the opportunity to talk, share what they did the night before, how they are feeling etc. They then read a book together as a class! They also have their classroom set up into groups or teams and they can work together as a table pretty often throughout the day. The teacher frequently has times where the students are encouraged to work in partnerships too. These are just a few of the ways that my teacher encourages a positive classroom community.

My cooperative teacher also offers quite a bit of opportunities for the children to make their own choices. For example after they finish their work there is a box of books and they get to choose which book to read. Each table in the classroom has daily jobs and my teacher allows the students to pick which job they want for the day, for example there is a table runner. My teacher sometimes offers the students two choices for the book they read as a class and she lets the students vote on the one they want. These are just a couple of examples as to how the teachers allows students to make their own choices.

By making a positive classroom community my cooperative teacher has created a space where the students feel safe and loved. The students have made friendships and are comfortable enough with their teacher that they feel safe in this classroom. The students also feel comfortable enough to share their feelings with each other and their teacher. I have seen this frequently in the classroom. Just the other day a kid started crying and told the teacher that one of the other students had hurt his feelings and then the teacher proceeded to talk to the two students about the problem. The classroom is also set up in a way to promote the children's safety! Here are just a couple of ways my cooperative teacher creates an environment where children feel safe and loved. 

My Service Learning Observations: Part One

Through my first week of observation of my service learning teacher I have concluded that my teacher uses a lot of the behaviorism learning theory. They have a system set up where every day the students will either get a gold, silver or bronze. They get gold when they have been good all day. A silver is rewarded when they act out a little bit and this causes a note to be sent home to let their parents know. A bronze is rewarded when they act out multiple times throughout the day. When they earn a bronze, they get a note home to let their parents know and they go talk to the principle. On random days, the students with a gold get to go to the principles and get a prize. This works because the kids know the expectations and want the rewards. The teacher and the students have mutual respect and it is amazing how well this first-grade class is behaved.

Through my observation, I have also noticed that the teacher I'm observing is good at using all three learning styles. One part of her lesson comes to mind. They were reading from a book. The teacher read out loud to them but every student had a copy so they all had their own book to look at and every time they went on to the new page she'd say, "raise your hand into the air and dive those fingers down to the next page on the word...". This part of the class stood out to me because they were using all three learning styles. Auditory was used because they listened to the teacher read. Visual was used because they had their own copy of the book to look at and follow along. Kinesthetic was used when they raised their hands in the air and dove back down to the book. They could hear, see and move!

The First Step: My Service Learning Journey

I could not be more excited to start this service learning project or this new blog. Hello, world! To get this started I thought I'd talk about what "service learning" is, where I'll be doing it and what I hope to gain from it. 

Service learning basically means providing an unpaid service for a community, an organization or in my case a school in hopes to learn something by hands on participation and real world observation. Service learning can be beneficial for many reasons: to help meet community needs, to enhance knowledge and skills, to get engaged into a certain subject etc. My Service Learning Project will be done at an elementary school under one specific teacher. I will be observing her classroom, working one on one with the children, I'll walk around and help answer questions etc. Basically I will be working hands on in a classroom, watching an amazing teacher work her magic and most important, I'll get to interact with young kids! I am beyond excited about this because this is what I want to do when I "grow up"! 

 The elementary school that I will be working at sits in a neighborhood that is filled with families and little kids. Many parents and kids are seen walking to and from the school every day.You can tell it's a really family friendly community. The neighborhood seems to be a typical middle class neighborhood. The school building is made of brick and everything inside is incredibly small! Perfect for all the kiddos they have running around. This school building is very old and is not up to code and not earthquake safe. They are currently in the process of building a new updated school building right behind the old one. I believe that the new building will be completed in the fall of 2017. Something about the school that I really like is that they have a dual immersion program! That means that most of their students go for a half a day in an English class and half a day in a Spanish class. What a better way to learn a language!

 My service learning placement is under a teacher that I know. She was my little brother's teacher last year. I have observed her class a couple times before and the work she does is astounding! I want to be her when I "grow up"! She is literally a role model for me! I'm so excited to work under her because I know I could learn so much from her. I will be working in a first grade classroom and I couldn't be more excited! Throughout this journey I am hoping to pick up some tips and tricks of the trade. I want to create a relationship with the teacher as well as the students. I want to be of help to this classroom and this community. I'd like to see how technology can be a resource for a classroom. I'd also love to be exposed to ethically and racially diverse kids. But most of all I'd like to take the first step into the world of a teacher.