Observation #2

It feels good to be comfortable in our second grade classroom. I like being able to walk in to Mr. F’s class and jump right in to the class routine. We walked in on this day during Mr. F’s famous mystery poem. As explained last semester, he tries to do a “mystery poem” every morning with his class where he writes a poem on a piece of Butcher paper in front of the class and reads through it and has the students fill in missing letters for one to two words per line. I remember last semester thinking about how pointless these seemed to me. But I also remember last semester when we watched G., the ESL student from Africa, guess one of the mystery words and Mr. F. noted his excitement over this. He told us that this is a mile-marker for his students, that as soon as they start getting these mystery words, their reading and writing skills start skyrocketing. Our second graders were certainly demonstrating their growth with this poem, “Magic Carpet” by Shel Silverstein. But when Mr. F. got to __ __ __ z, the class got stumped and Mr. F. reminded them that they were in the lead for the record of all of his classes for fewest stumpers in the year. Catherine R. and I couldn’t even get it! Mr. F. started a countdown and then the word “whiz” came to me. As the tension was high and all of the students were screaming about how they were going to get stumped, I whispered the word to J. who was able to save the day for his classmates! I loved seeing how the class got so excited about this activity. I am more convinced that I would like to do mystery poems in my future classrooms. Children both enjoy them and, as demonstrated by Mr. F.’s class, benefit from them in increasing their reading and writing skills.

From 9:00-10:00 a.m., Catherine R. and I went to observe Quest, the gifted program for the students at the elementary school. It is always so interesting to watch the teacher Mr. H. with the 11 or so Quest kids from our class. Today he taught the kids about a 7-step problem-solving strategy that can be applied to anything on earth, including major issues like global warming. Even adults do it! He explained it to be a strategy for them to put away in their “mental toolbox”. He also told them to put it in their brain and in their body. He got them on their feet, acting out body motions to each of the 7 steps to SCAMPER (Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Magnify/Minify, Put to other uses, Eliminate, Reverse/Rearrange). Students got really into these motions and it was apparent how Mr. H. really knows how to captivate these kids. Everything he says is so motivating—“I have a challenge for you”, for example. After the SCAMPER exercise, Mr. H. explained that the students were going to be working on their covers for their novels and he sent them searching through boxes and boxes of old magazines for illustrations. He encouraged them to “Make something you are proud of” which I thought was interesting because it puts the students in the position of judge of their own work. They are working to please themselves. I also liked watching Mr. H. remind them how to use gluesticks by showing them what not to do. He definitely was acting silly as he pretended to glue all over the paper but then said, “Now don’t glue like kindergarteners.” I like being able to empower the younger students to realize their potential maturity, understanding that yes, they are second graders, but they have developed motor skills that probably not every kindergartener has.

Back in the regular classroom, it was writing journal and reading group time. Mr. F. asked if one of us would read with G., the little boy from Africa. I jumped at the opportunity as G. is a very sweet child and very easy to work with. Though he is definitely not at the reading levels of the other students, he is very eager to learn, evidenced by how he is continually trying to sound out words and always asks if he is correct or not. G. and I took a book into the hallway and he attempted to read a page. He got frustrated and asked if I could read the next page and then he would read the next page. I gladly obliged, as I want to encourage him but not wear him out too much. I did notice, however, that G. had increased dramatically in fluency and reading rate since the fall. I commented to Mr. F. about it and he told me that he has a goal of 9 – 12 month increase in reading development for all of his students and not only has the entire class reached at least 9 months, G. had already shown improvements of 15 months! Through a conversation with G., he told me that he does not speak much English at home except for when his “helper” comes on Monday through Thursday afternoons and they read and write together. It sounds like his parents are eager for him to learn English though they are not fluent themselves. G. lived in Africa just last year and he told me he thinks his country is called Liberia and that he remembers how hot it is and how there are a lot of animals there. He specifically recalled a mother pig that had to die right before he left Africa. But don’t worry, he said, the baby pig still lived. I realized that every student comes to the classroom with a story to tell. I want to know my students individually and be able to use their background knowledge and experiences to better learn in my classroom. I immediately thought about how G. could maybe tell the class about the weather in Africa when we teach our ancient Egypt unit.

Observation #1

Catherine and I were very excited to get back to our second graders that we had gotten to know so well last semester. We walked into school at 9:30 a.m., however, only to find out that the school system had declared a two-hour delay for that morning. We had not even thought to check the website for any weather-related changes; we were almost certain that the schools had maxed out on their snow days that week. Lesson learned, though. I will most certainly check ahead of time before going to a school whenever there is the slightest chance of a cancellation or delay.

The half an hour we had before the children arrived at school, though, was time well spent. We were able to sit down with Mr. F. and catch up on how our assignments for the semester were going to pan out. Like last semester, it did not seem that he was aware of our assignments for EDIS 488 and we had to fill him in on the unit we were to teach at some point during the semester. As expected, he was very gracious in saying that it was completely up to us to teach whatever we desired and that he would change his schedule around accordingly. We have always appreciated the freedom he has given us in his classroom but at times it is frustrating. We would like some guidance as to what his students are going to be learning for the rest of the semester or maybe even what subject he would like for us to cover.

We urged him to lead us somewhere in the direction of social studies because we did not want to teach material he had already taught. By his response, it seems that planning may not be his strength. He informed us that they will be doing China and Egypt for the next month or so and he went to consult another second grade teacher on the potential calendar for when they were going to be teaching what. After a good twenty minutes of looking at our calendars, we finally decided on the dates we are going to be teaching a lesson on ancient Egypt, leaving room in the second grade schedule for a couple of weeks for Mr. F. to instruct on the similarities and differences between ancient China and ancient Egypt.

It was great to see the students’ faces as they arrived at school. It made me realize how much I had missed them! I think they were just as excited to see us. There were lots of “Miss Brown and Miss Robinson are back!” floating around the classroom. We followed Mr. F’s class into the weekly assembly where the school was announcing all of the classrooms’ students of the week. I enjoyed being in the auditorium with the entire school, a chance to see the greater student body and realize that Mr. F. was just one class of many in the elementary school. Mr. F. had warned us that the morning was going to be chaotic and we really saw that take into effect when a few moms came in to show the second grade how to make dumplings and Chinese hackeysacks to celebrate the Chinese New Year. The hackeysacks were pretty complex to make and should not have been explained to the students as a whole group in the hallway; I believe that these younger students should have more direct instruction in smaller groups. It is just so hard for this class to pay attention as it is and being in a hallway with other classes does not help. The fewer distractions when you are explaining something, the better! Nonetheless, it is obvious that the children like hands-on activities so I could see the purpose behind doing such activities. I also got to see the eagerness of some of the parents to be involved. It made me sad, though, to think about the students whose parents could not care less about their child’s second grade experience.

All in all, I think I am most excited to be back with our second graders because I cannot wait to see how they have progressed in school since we saw them last. I am eager to see how they have developed their reading and writing skills. I am also a little anxious to see how our unit is going to pan out, but I have to keep reminding myself that though we lack experience and therefore take a while to plan lessons, we are going through a major learning process that has worked out so far, so why should we worry now?