Engaging Learners in the Classroom

I have loved being in the classroom and this lesson really made me thing about the methods that teachers use to get and keep their students attention during the day.

One way that Mrs. Day engages her students in her classroom is by testing them on their spelling words. At the beginning of each week she has a comprehensive spelling list. This list contains words that are on the easier side, and ones that are much more challenging. So the majority of the class takes the test on these words, and the words that the misspell (up to a certain number) becomes their list for the week. This helps all of the students learn at their level, and those who are better at spelling are challenged more with more challenging words. 

In another instance, the class was doing Literature Circles, and each time they met, they got to meet in a different part of the classroom. This helped the students be more engaged because they are not just sitting in desks talking to their peers, they are able to sit on the floor, or at the back table, or even on the bean bags on the corner. This just helps them to experience new things, which definitely helps 5th graders focus.

In quite a few projects that I've seen in the time that I have seen in the classroom, there have been quite a few projects going on. And the way that Mrs. Day does it is that occasionally she will put the students into groups based on where they sit, which enables them to work with people other than their friends in the class. This helps them to work harder because they may not know those in their groups as well. I like the aspect of switching between assigning groups and letting the students choose who they want in their group.

Just this last time I was in the classroom, there was a time when the students were working between spelling and reading and as Mrs. Day was giving out instructions of what the next tasks were, I could tell that is was something that was very part of a routine, and that some students weren't paying attention and not doing what they were told. This was easily fixed with their classroom method of discipline (pulling cards), but I think that changing the routine a bit could be beneficial for the class to refocus and regroup on occasion. 

Having to think about this has given me a little bit of a shifted perspective on how hard teachers really do work to keep learning appealing to students enough that they actually want to learn and participate. 

Observations - Student Choices

I have been having a very enjoyable experience with my service learning observation.

On one of the first days, I definitely saw that my teacher does give her students choices. On Friday Afternoons the classroom is a lot more relaxed than other times, so that was interesting. This choice had to do with recess, but did involve figuring out. It was the last recess of the day and so she let the students input ideas as to what to do. The main choices were: going outside, personal reading, or a class game. They ended up choosing the class game. Not all students wanted to play, and once again, they had the option to do something else, those particular students just had to be in the circle of the game, they just watched instead. So overall, everyone was content with the choice. This was obviously something that was common because it happened quickly and there wasn't really any complaining.

So far as I have seen, the teacher that I am observing actually takes a lot of time to compliment her students. Whenever they have finished something and are switching subjects or are turning something she points out a specific aspect that a student did well. One that I remember was she complimented a student's handwriting because it was neat and orderly on the page. I think this helps all the students because I can imagine that it would encourage students to do well to get that kind of praise, and it makes the student to feel good that the teacher noticed something that they may have been working hard on.

This one aspect of this classroom is one that I definitely want to put into my classroom in the future. Each week they have a compliment jar. At the beginning of the week, they hand out the compliments that they are for and the person that gives them gets Buffalo Bucks (the classroom reward system). This encourages students to notice the things that those around them are doing or the attributes that they have. Looking outside of themselves causes them to have a better relationship with their peers and therefore a better classroom environment. I think that the relationship that they have with each other causes them to get along better, therefore learning is able to happen because they aren't at odds with each other or causing troubles when the teacher is trying to either start or continue with a lesson.

I have already learned quite a bit, and this is just the beginning of my time in the classroom.