Isaac+Dickson+Elementary+(site+D)

Dickson is one of LT's favorite schools in the universe. Hope you had a good visit.

Katie M~ On my first visit, since we couldn't go on the first day, we got to stay for a good two hours. I loved this school, how it is set up and how the children interact with the teacher. I sat in on a second grade classroom the class was just about to start math. The teacher went over subtraction with the students and to help them remember the rules, she had created a song about knocking on the tens man door. This got the children engaged and excited about doing their math. Next she put them into their math buddies and handled them a few cards of word problems. One of the students was the writer and the other the reader. They children had to use problem-solving skills to figure out what the problem asked for and how to solve it. Each of the children worked very well together and were very good at asking for help. After each group was done with their word problems they were able to begin writing a story in their journal. The children felt confident and had a strong sense of stability and responsibility. When the children got out of hand of loud, the teacher would use "all eyes on me" or would praise a child for doing a good job. Those two combined worked very well.

With my second visit I went back to the same second grade classroom. In the class today they had a substitute, he had some of the children sitting down and reading a story about beetles. Some of the children were off task and not paying any attention. He used " all eyes on me to" to focus the children back, but that had little to no effect. After they finished their story they were told to go to a table and get out their writing folders. They were watching a movie and were to write about it or draw images that they got from the idea. The children did not like this idea and got him to agree to have the children write any type of story they would like. During the movie the children would get up to walk around and would be talking. The teacher ignored some of the movement but when talking was too much he would call out the child's name and have them take a sit. After the movie the teacher would ask questions about the video and have the children explain what they wrote or drew on their papers.

Heather On my first visit to Dickson I began in a class of third graders. However, right after I arrived, half of the class left to go upstairs to a first grade classroom (I walked with a girl named Sophie and she told me that she likes school there - her favorite subject is art). In the first grade classroom they were doing reading buddies, a first grader and a third grader paired together reading. I really enjoyed seeing them interact this way and they seemed to be enjoying themselves. When if was time for the third graders to go, everyone was hugging and waving goodbye, "See you next week!" They seemed to have a very positive experience together. On my second visit I found another third grade classroom with a very animated and energetic teacher. He was explaining topic sentences and supporting sentences, writing a sample paragraph on the board, and asking the students to find the sentence which didn't fit. I didn't see any students who weren't paying attention. Next they all wrote their own paragraphs and many were eager to share. Lastly, another teacher came in and read to them a holiday story and they talked about how the theme - love - was evident in the story. Everyone was attentive during the storytime. For our third visit, most of us went to a fourth grade classroom that was engaged in a Spanish lesson. For a while they sang holiday songs, which 'caused a lot of mumbling and laughter. Then they began drawing pictures (the requirements being that they should know how to describe the pictures in Spanish) while the teacher read aloud from a book that had some Spanish sentences. Then there was an interesting transition while some of the students stayed and played a game while others went of to other classrooms. That was a little confusing and hectic, for the teachers and students both.

Katie B My first visit to Dickson was spent mostly in a fifth grade classroom. The teacher was talking to the kids about how to solve word problems by using table and probibility. He handed out all these sheets that had tables on them where the kids could read through their word problem and cross off information that would help them find the answer. After each lesson he would incorporate what they learned into a game. The game that had to do with probability was done with dice. It was really interesting to watch the teacher engage the students and get them to work with eachother to find the answers to the questions. My second visit was with a younger classroom, I think they were 4th grade. They were having Spanish at the time, so we sat in and listened to them sing Christmas songs and paint pictures. The teacher was talking about Spanish painters and having the students paint. At the end of the class she had each of them descibe the painting to her in Spanish. I liked the fact that they were incorporting Spanish into an hands-on activity that made them really use it on a daily basis instead of just out of a book. My last visit was in a fourth grade classroom with the same Spanish teacher. She was continuing on from the last lesson, and the students were still working on their paintings and songs. It was interesting to watch how the teachers handled the transition from classroom to classroom as some students left to go work with other teachers. At the time it seemed a little unorganized, but the students moved themselves and kept themselves busy playing a game on the board while the teacher walked around and talked to individual students.