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.