Moreland Hills Elementary School Visit #1

Today I took my first visit to my assigned school for my individual field hours.  When I walked in Mrs. Newman's second grade classroom, I immediately felt welcome and comfortable.  I was introduced to the class and then Mrs. Newman asked me to play an addition/subtraction game on the iPad with a student that was struggling with her math skills.  We played a few times and then Mrs. Newman saw how much this student was improving so she allowed her to move on to something else.  After this, Mrs. Newman counted down from 15 letting the students know that they had to be in their seats with everything cleaned up so she could begin her lesson.  While the kids were cleaning up, I looked around the classroom to see many works of art hung from the ceiling or taped to the walls which made the room feel very kid friendly.  She began discussing the pioneers and reviewed what the students had learned about that time period.  She then asked the students to take out their notebooks and pencils and write 8 things that the pioneers ate in their everyday lives.  Once completed, the students wrote the answers on the board.  She asked them to do the same thing with the clothing pioneers wore as well.  After this activity, it was time for the kids to eat their snacks.  Once they settled down in their desks, Mrs. Newman read them a book called The BFG by Roald Dahl.  I found it interesting that after a few sentences, the students were called on to interpret parts of the book that weren't clear.  I was also surprised by how much the students knew!  The students were then asked to take out their "punch cards" to get hole punched for participating in class and obeying their teacher which I feel was an effective method for a reward system.  Lastly, the students gathered on the floor in a circle for Mrs. Newman to read them a book about the pioneers.  The students were engaged, listened intently and even chimed in when they found facts interesting.  After this, the students packed up their belongings and then walked to their "special" of the day which was art.
I felt that Mrs. Newman was strict enough to make the students do what they are told immediately but she was also very approachable when students wanted to share something with her.  The students could sense when their teacher was getting frustrated and changed their behavior right away.  Because of this, I could tell that Mrs. Newman had a great handle of her classroom even if she was irritated at times.  One student in particular acted out quite a bit and wasn't doing what he was told but instead of reprimanding him, Mrs. Newman talked to him calmly to settle down and told him he must behave or he will have to miss Art.  I felt that overall, it was evident this had happened before and she handled it well.