Week 8

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

Before volunteering in the classroom, I thought the most important quality for a teacher to have was to make learning fun. I assumed that children understood concepts better and wanted to learn if the teacher was funny, silly, and was friends with his/her students. However, I have found that when I try to be goofy and act silly with the kids, they walk all over me. Nothing is taken seriously in the classroom if you aren't serious yourself.
 The most important thing I've learned is that you cannot be an effective teacher unless you are prepared. There is more to teaching than what is seen during the seven hours of the day when the children are in the classroom. Great teachers put so much effort into their lessons. They go above and beyond what is required of them. I noticed that the teachers who go the extra mile have more smart, participative, successful students than the teachers who wing the lessons and are a bit unorganized.
I'm glad that I took this class! It was a great opportunity to be involved in the classroom and get a feel for what teaching is like. I'm eager to continue my education in the El.Ed program so I can become a school teacher.

Week 7

What are the procedures the teacher uses to make everything run smoothly in the class?

I haven't been in Mrs. Hutchinson's class long enough to notice any specific rules or procedures, but I have noticed a few unspoken rules. Maybe they aren't unspoken, but she possibly went over them at the beginning of the year. I'm surprised she doesn't have a poster hanging up in her classroom that indicates the major rules in her classroom which most teachers have in their own classroom.
One thing I noticed is that the students don't ask to get a drink; they just get up and go. But they do have to write their name on a specific area of the white board if they need to use the restroom, then she will excuse whoever's name is on the board when she deems it the right time. Another procedure I mentioned before is that the students have their white boards out and write out the same math problems the Mrs. Hutchinson writes on the board, but they only copy what is written in green.
Other than that, I haven't noticed any other procedures. I have been testing the students one-on-one on the Utah counties. It's been a long process. The students get three tries to name all of the counties. Today was the second time around and many of them were only able to name one or two more counties than the first try. They told me that their teacher didn't teach them the county song or gave them a list to look at. They just have the floats in the library that they made to look at.