Teacher Observation Journal #1

I went to my very first teacher observation at Maple River Elementary School in Good Thunder today. I most of the teachers and the principal and everyone was so nice. Many of the teachers asked me if I would stay longer because the teacher I am observing needs "another adult in that classroom". I went to the classroom which appears to be an old storage unit in the back of the library. It is a tiny little room but the teacher has every inch of it covered with letters and pictures. I like the room a lot and I did not realize how much I missed sitting in miniature chairs.

The day started with one student from the 1st grade come in for help with reading. The teacher wanted us to read the story Johny Appleseed together. We read it out loud and he followed along with my finger. I found he was getting bored so before we would read a page I would have him look at the pictures and guess what was going to happen next. That seemed to work because then he wanted to keep reading so he would find out if he was correct. He was then suppose to write three sentences about the story. I noticed while we were reading Johnny Appleseed, other children were wondering where the laughing an having fun was coming from. A that time all the morning students had arrived and it totalled to be 5 students ranging from 1st to 5th grade and they were all either cousins or brothers. That does not seem to be a lot of students but when the classroom is THAT small it is quite intense.

My first student went back to his main classroom and I worked with another student on reading. The teacher provided a basket full of little books that he could read. He was reading a story that was at beginning level but even I was bored with it. I told him to find a book that he really wanted to read. We found one about soccer and that was sooo much better. All of the kids play on the same soccer team and they get quite excited when talking about it. I didn't mind that they were telling me about soccer because at least they were talking. The main teacher did not want them to be talking so I directed them back onto the story. Every few pages he would stop to tell me something more about soccer. I really liked meeting those students! One of them saw my Spiderman notebook and drew me pictures!

The last group of kids to come in is 5 kindergartners. I had not realized but it is a big deal to walk down the hall so everyday one of the students gets to pick the "pattern" with which we walk. We finally got to the classroom and started to discuss the letters "a" and "b" and only after 30 minutes they were gone. It was not nearly enough time to help the kids with any of the language issues that they have.

Overall, it was a day full of learning, for me and for them!