Blog 5- Final Reflections

One of the sloppier parts of my lesson plan was the transition from Circle Time into our lesson. I had actually noticed these issues prior to this, when I was transitioning from story time, into Ms. Amy's lessons before. Transitions help ensure that lessons move smoothly, and help to organize the class, and maintain a schedule for the day.

Prior to even starting the lesson, one of the first things I need to do is organize the supplies effectively. I placed our the unifix cubes, and the part/part/whole plates, however, I had forgotten to lay out the white boards, dry erase markers, and the erasers for the class. It was only after the class had returned to their seats did I tell them to take their whiteboards, and place them on the table. I was caught up in the prior activity (the How To performances), and I had started setting up for the math lesson after the third or fourth pairing, so I was rushing to set up. Using that time as prep time would have made things much easier, and would have helped with a smoother transition.

In my lesson I had also planned on using the white board easel to write down the parts, and the wholes for each word problem. The easel was across from where, by the other side of the main white board. I planned on modeling the activity for them on it by writing down the wholes, and parts to show the missing part on there, before using the cubes to identify the missing part. Unfortunately, I blanked out part way through, and forgot to move to the other chair completely, so I instead stayed in one spot.

Lets say the word problem is, "A dog walker has 8 dogs. 3 are small. The rest are large. How many dogs are large?". I would repeat the question again, before saying, "If I were to write down this problem, I would have to figure out what is my part, and what is my whole. Now the whole is the total number of objects. So, how many dogs are being walked total?". After getting the answer 8, I'd write it down on the board, before asking for the part we know (3). I will then write the equation "3 and ___ make 8" out, before introducing the unifix cubes, and having someone take away the part (3) from the whole (8) on the cubes. I would do this again with a new example, and new numbers twice more, before we transition into the active lesson. This is something I would repeat using a smaller whiteboard for the class as well during the transition into desks.

In addition to this, on the circle time rug, I modeled how unifix cubes could be used for subtraction. That being said, the way I was seated in front of the class, there were numerous students towards the back that had an obstructed view. Ms Amy usually has math lessons in a circle around the rug, particularly when it comes to objects that can be manipulated. Circling up gives everyone a clear view, particularly when smaller manipulatives like infix cubes are in use. For the word problem, it would allow other students to see what the specific wholes are, and the different strategies used to solve the problem.

Blog 2- Observations- Worksheets

When I was in Elementary School, I remember absolutely hating worksheets. I found them boring, and a chore to get through, and finish. Whether I completed them at home, or in class, I couldn't keep myself focused. From my classes at Hunter, I have learned the worksheets are being used less, and less in the classroom environment because they are generally ineffective, and they exist to regurgitate information. That being said, in the KC class, worksheets are used as a supplemental assessment tool, while not being the center of an activity.

For math, the worksheets go with a counting activity that uses unifix cubes. The activity involved taking two parts, and combining them into a whole. The supplies were a Styrofoam plate (with equal thirds sectioned), and 12 unifix cubes. The worksheet featured a line of unifix cubes (lets say the row featured 6 cubes). Students would recreate what they saw, and take any part out of the whole on the actual cubes. They would draw out the number of cubes in each part. Then, they would fill in the numerical values in a sentence like "_____ and _____ make _____". This is a precursor to learning addition, with the next class introducing the symbols "+", and "=".

What makes this more effective than worksheets that I've seen, is that it isn't about regurgitating information. The activity is a measure of understanding using written images (drawing a picture of the cubes removed),  tactile counting (removing the actual cubes), and it gives students free choice (choosing the number of cubes they can remove from the whole). While it uses a worksheet, it's still personalized by the student.

Blog 4- Social-Emotional Time

Egocentrism is a part of Early Childhood Development. Up to around 3-4 years old, children tend think they are the center of the universe, and that's because of their limited world view. They are an individual with wants, and needs, while others aren't. It's around 3 to 4 years old that we notice children developing an understanding of the emotional world, and feelings of others around them, and they're still exploring this idea when they get into Kindergarten. Kindergarten is a point where personal bonds develop with other children. Sharing, right/wrong, and consequences are a big part of their social-emotional development at this time.

On Fridays, PS 527 has club hours for the last period of the day. The schedule is a busy day for students, with KC having science, and activities in the library, and the music room. For our teacher Amy, and assistant teacher Chelsea, the day tends to be more quiet, and a little slower. During this time, if a Kindergarten student from another class had a rough day, and their behavior in class was causing problems, Amy would use a free period to work one on one with them.

Amy would first talk to them about what happened, while the rest of their class was doing an activity. They would use the reading area, and sit on the large pillows to get comfortable. Amy has pictures of monsters saved on her laptop, each of which has a different emotion attached. She asked, "Can you tell me which of these shows how you felt earlier today", using the monsters' visual cues to describe emotions that Kindergarten students might not be able to put into words. She would also ask if they can "tell her a time they felt like the monster's emotion"

They would talk about other ways to process emotions aside from lashing out, shutting down, or crying being the student was overwhelmed. In one instance Amy spoke to a child who felt excited in nervous way, and give him words lime "anxious" which gave him a way to say how he felt, making it easier for him to talk about his emotional state (I had thought words like anxious might be too advanced for Kindergartners, but I was wrong). She taught them different breathing techniques such as breathing from your nose and into your feet, and different stretches. Amy also gave a student some harder putty for him to squeeze, stretch, and release any stressors out on, before opening the sand table, and letting him play, and release his emotions through his hands.

Blog 3- Bullying in the classroom

On January 16, the KC class had done their Guided Readings, doing partner readings of their "Just Right books". My Amy had me work with O, and A, two struggling readers. They have difficulty in reading, writing, and mathematics. For their Guided Readings, O and A were reading a small book, with 3 letter words. They told me to show them small cards with different three lettered words that are in the book, and they would tell me the word they said. Both did this by sounding out each letter sound, and then putting them together. "A" appeared to be more comfortable with the exercise, and was pronouncing every letter quickly while pointing to them. That being said, she didn't point with one to one correspondence, and seemed to recognize the letters. A does this with a number of her books, and it seems that she memorized the books after working on them repeatedly with a teacher.

O started out comfortably, but began to struggle later on, particularly when it came to decoding the letters. She was able to say individual letter sounds, but connecting them to make words was a problem. What made it worse though, was A's impatience, and pressure her to "say it faster", before then sounding out the word on her own louder than A. This occurred against when they read the book, with A getting annoyed at waiting, and half yelled over O's voice, and almost yelling at O. It kept happening to the point where O completely shut down, and refused to make eye contact, or talk until after guided reading had ended. I had done Guided Reading with O before, one on one, and she had never shut down like that before with me.

My first method of addressing the behavior was telling O to take her time, and take as much time as she needs. I told A that sometimes we need extra time, and we shouldn't rush people. While that helped for a moment, O continued with being pushy. "Why are you doing it so slow? Look at me do it", then she would read the words over O. I then used their teacher, Amy's words and asked, "Is that a kind thing to do? Is it kind to rush people and make fun of people?", and A said no, but she kept going later on.

I found out that A's siblings went to PS 527, and were at the top of, and ahead of most of their Kindergarten class. I feel A has a lot of pressure to be like her sisters, and based on anecdotes I've heard from other teachers, her parents believe she should be doing as well as her sisters. Since she usually needs help when it comes to doing work in class, I feel A looks for others that are struggling like her, and belittles them to boost herself. I spoke with Amy about this, and I recommended splitting them from one another during guided reading. Have O work with others during partner reading, and the same for A. Their pairing together was done because of their reading ability, but it isn't supportive for O in the least.

Day 1 (1/7)

For my observations, I was placed in PS 527 (the East Side School for Social Action), and I couldn't be happier for my placement. For the first day, the head teacher Ms Amy was very encouraging of me, and allowed me to be active with the K-C class. I started by helping cut, and paste new sight words into the class' notebooks, and writing sight words for them to trace, and then replicate. After, I floated, and helped students write sentences using the sight word of the day. I floated around the class during different activities, and helped with work, particularly in math, and their Guided Reading period.

When I had first walked into the classroom, I was surprised at how large the classroom is. Even with 20 students, the class didn't feel small at all. There is room for a reading rug, with a large library that is responsive to the various reading levels in the classroom. For Guided Reading, once a week students go into bins labelled A through at least H (though I don't remember the exact letter), and pull a few books for Guided Reading. In the library area, and the Circle Time area, there are rugs, but the rugs both have additional places to sit too (with the library having 4 bean bag chairs, and the circle time area having a container with mats to sit on). The Circle Time Rug is also next to a small collection of books that have been used for recent "Read Aloud"s. I love how reading, and reading spaces aren't just immediately available, but they are also designed to be comfortable.

Attached to the back of the chairs of the student chairs are little sacks. In each sack is a collection of different folders, and notebooks. Some are for math work, others  are for writing assignments, and sight words.This helps to ensure that lessons can transition quickly, and easily without distraction. That's also why art supplies, and manipulatives are close to the students' desks. By making supplies immediately accessible, lessons move quickly, and smoothly.

The classroom has multiple centers. Aside from the previously mentioned Reading Center, there is also a Sensory Table with magnetic sand. There isn't a center focused around art, math, or writing. With the art supplies nearby, and the math/writing notebooks being attached to the chair though, the centers are the seats. Also, printer paper has a space inside of a desk that students can access easily during choice time. I like how centers can be brought to the desks. It frees up space in the classroom, and based on what I observed, during choice time, students doing similar activities stay together (anyone doing drawing, or coloring stays in one or two tables together, while students playing with unifix cubes/magnetic tiles stay in a different area).