The most important things I have learned in my classroom observations

In my 5th grade double dosing classroom observations I have learned so much about the extra work a teacher, school, and district can provide to help struggling students find success in the classroom. The Title I program provides so much for our school through the double dosing program, teacher's aides in at least every grade if not every classroom, reading and comprehension programs like RazKids and Waterford, and a lot of other technology to help with different learning needs. Seeing how much the teacher loves his profession affected how well he taught. The teacher that I worked with loves these kids a lot and you can tell by how much he invests in his teaching and caring for his students. I could tell that these children love and respect him. He also made learning interesting to keep his students engaged in what he was teaching.

In the Kindergarten classroom that I observed the most important thing I learned was good classroom management. This teacher was in a constant mode of watching and giving attention to the needs of her classroom. She would use a behavior incentive that would work for a little while, but as soon as she noticed that it wasn't working, she would switch it up and use a different incentive to keep the students on their toes concerning their behavior. I found that it is vital to keep control of a classroom filled with 30, 5-6 year old children. This good management creates an optimal learning environment for the students to not only learn academically, but socially as well. In Kindergarten there are a lot of social norms that the children are still learning and school is a great place for them to learn how to behave with others. It is also a time to learn when is a good time to be silly, to be quiet, to play, to listen, and to work.

In the end, I learned that the investment and love you put into teaching will return ten-fold, good classroom management is essential to the best learning situations, and you will find success in teaching as you learn and grow in areas that will best serve the students you teach.

Procedures the teacher uses to make everything run smoothly in the classroom

In my Kindergarten classroom observations the day begins when the children line up outside after the playground aide blows her whistle. The teacher has a picture of a dog where the children are supposed to start lining up. The children then follow the teacher into the classroom where they drop off their backpacks and coats and then line up along a counter. That is when the students go to the computer lab where they have assigned seats. All of these morning procedures make the transition from outdoors to the start of school very smooth.

Another procedure that the class and the school as a whole are expected to follow is walking in a straight line, quietly down the hallways when transitioning to and from different activities outside the classroom. After computer time the students return to the classroom and sit on the carpet. Every child is expected to sit crisscross so that everyone fits on this carpet. A child is chosen with name sticks from a baggie to present the calendar and the Pledge of Allegiance.

After these daily morning routines and procedures occur the work on math, literacy, and other core topics begin. Daily reviewing and introducing of site words, writer's workshop, math problems, and science are included. Since we are a Title I school, the aides are constantly pulling students for one on one reading and work. The child who has been out with the aide then comes into the room and calls out to the next child to go out and work. This is such a habit with the children that it all moves rather seamlessly throughout the day.

Some of the rules that the students have in Kindergarten are: hands to yourself, being a good listener, working hard, and raising your hand to talk. There are 5 tables, each with a specific color, and 5-6 students are grouped on each table to work. Each table has their own bucket with pencils, crayons, scissors, and glue sticks. When a student finishes their work quickly there is also a bucket of books on each table to help the students keep busy.