James+Hart


 * OAKLEY ELEMENTARY:**

February 14, 2007

On my first visit I happened to walk in on something of a Valentines day party. The kids were all sitting at their desks while Mrs. Beam and two of her "helpers" passed out cookies and cupcakes. Needless to say the kids were quite wild once they all got their sugar rushes. It was certainly an interesting time to take part in my first classroom observation, but I had a good time overall. For the most part I just spoke to the teacher about her feelings about teaching 3rd grade. I did notice though that one effective method she used for controlling her students was to turn certain things into competitions. The most obvious example of this was at the end of the party when the kids were cleaning up their tables. All Mrs. Beam said to get them moving was "It looks like table three's gonna win this race.", and the room was clean in no time. Over all it was a fun visit.

February 19, 2007

For my second visit to Oakley Elementary I was there for the classes weekly spelling test. She said ten words aloud to the students as all of them quietly tried to spell them. After that they did some more work with spelling as a group. Mrs. Beam had a nice way of not being overly critical with students who made mistakes, from watching though I didn't feel like the students could have taken much away from this hour long spelling lesson. While it may have been the best she could have done with the group as a whole, it seemed like very little was being absorbed by the students. After that the students had a little bit of free time and I talked to Mrs. Beam about what she does with her vacation time as a teacher, something I have been interested in as a prospective elementary teacher.

February 21, 2007

For my final visit at Oakley it was a wonderful day out and Mrs. Beam decided that they would have recess. I was surprised to hear that they only went out if it was an exceptionally nice day. Growing up, my school would make us go outside every single day no matter what the weather, something I really appreciated, and I can't imagine teaching a class of third graders forthe last couple hours of the day when they've been sitting down for the past four hours. Nonetheless Mrs. Beam only took her kids out on the nicest days, which sort of bothered me. Also, when I asked her where the balls for the many soccer goals scattered across the field were she said that she didn't bring them out anymore because the kids often lost them. I was really shocked to hear all of this. I would have thought that with obesity among adults and children alike being the problem it is today there would have been some level of awareness on both Mrs. Beam's and the schools part. I was certainly a bit disappointed with Oakley Elementary.

You make an interesting point, looking back I realize we'd spend time outside everyday too, disregarding the weather. I think it is really unfortunate that she only brings the students out on a decent day, because kids need air, and also need a place to release their energy and tension that has built up from the day. Going outside would also be beneficial for the teacher I think, because children are usually fine on the play ground, it seems that it would give her a nice break. And the thing about not letting them use balls is because they lose them is not a sufficient answer, That is the most ridiculous thing i have ever heard! If you get to go outside with them next time, insist on taking out equipment. -Marie Bourgeois Site A response


 * RAINBOW MOUNTAIN**

March 7, 2007

On my first visit to Rainbow Mountain Elementary School I was unable to attend my assigned fourth grade class because they were in the middle of SSR when we arrived. Instead, I ended up in a first grade class just after they had finished a french lesson and began to segway into reading time. For their reading time however, they read their books aloud to those around them. Just a few moments after entering I found myself being read to by a young girl about a girl who was just about to lose a tooth, just like her. She enjoyed being able to relate to the character in the story as she read to me. We hung out a little longer after that but soon enough they transitioned to another unit and we were on our way out.

March 14, 2007

For my second visit to Rainbow Mountain I was able to sit in on the fourth grade class I was assigned to. I happened to walk in on a class discussion about politics. They were discussing the coming presidential election and the teacher was saying how exciting it was that both a woman and a black man would be running, both with a shot at the presidency. I thought this was quite an interesting class discussion for a fourth grade class, I was also quite impressed with how knowledgeable the students were. The teacher asked the students what they thought were important characteristics for a president to have and the class came up with quite a long list. I was also surprised at the differnece between the class atmosphere here and my previous visit. It seemed like the students were considerably more involved and active during their lesson. Over all it seemed to be a good class period.

Jamie: I wonder if this is common... my boss's 4th grade daughter is very involved politically, and it always impresses me because I didn't become politically involved, or even aware, until much later. That's good that they are getting an early start on something pretty important. It's always really interesting to hear the opinions of different ages on the same subject. ~Katie

March 15, 2007

For my final visit to Rainbow Mountain the students were enjoying recess on a beautiful afternoon. They were scattered around the playground doing various things. Some kids were playing some sort of tag, some kids were on the swings and some were throwing a football around. All in all it wsa just as I remembered recess to be as a kid. I went over a joined the kids by the slide and just hung out with them. I was really surprised at the difference in their maturity level, much greater than that of the third graders I had previously observed. It was nice to just hang out, remember what it was like to be so young. It was a really nice visit to end with at Rainbow Mountain. All around I really liked the school, it was quite an experence.


 * ARTSPACE CHARTER SCHOOL**

April 2, 2007

My first visit to Artspace was not at all what I expected it would be. I walked into the fifth grade class I was to observe during the middle of a Civil War lecture. This lecture, followed by a related video composed the rest of the my short stay. The man giving the lecture, an older gentleman with a booming voice, reminded me much more of a college history professor than a fifth grade teacher. He went on and on to the the class about Robert E. Lee and trench warfare and other aspects of the war. The kids in turn sat quietly, for the most part, and took notes. Ofcourse as is the case with most teaching methods, this lecture didn't seem to be reaching all the kids. One thing the teacher did to try to get all the kids involved was to leave open ended questions for anyone in the class to blurt out the answer. He would also point out kids who he noticed weren't taking notes and would say things such as, "this could very well be on the test", in the hopes of motivating them to write down what he was saying. Both of these seemed like useful methods of involving those who don't respond well to be lectured to, not that I'm really sure any fifth grader really responds too well to an hour long lecture. I think that ideally, an all together different method of conveying the information would probably be best.

April 4, 2007

This second visit of mine was a somewhat odd time for me to conduct such an observation. Some of my classmates and I walked in to our particular wing of the building to find a few classes, including the one I was observing, rehearsing for a historical play they would be performing that Friday. This rehearsal went on for about a half hour with some kids filming the performance, some kids acting, and others just hanging out. Plays and any type of performances always seemed to me to be an excellent way of learning a number of valuable skills such as public speaking and memorization. Unfortunately there were so many students involved in the play that many of the were forced to just sit around while others were much more involved in the performance. After this my teacher decided that the kids needed to blow of some steam and she let them go on recess for the next half hour until I left. During this time I just talked with the teacher about her past and what she liked and disliked about her teaching position. Overall it was a rather informative visit.


 * ISAAC DICKSON**

April 25, 2007

My first visit to Dickson was a somewhat uneventful one. When I first arrived in Betsy Ray's classroom I found a group of perhaps ten students all sitting at their desks reading. I was then told that the other half of the class was in the computer lab typing up autobiographies for themselves. I was then taken up to the computer lab where I met the other half of the class and the teacher's assistant. Each student was sitting at their own computer typing while the assistant was doing some of her own work. This pretty much made up the rest of my visit. Some of the kids were having trouble concentrating and every now and then the assistant would have to raise her voice to calm the kids down. One student actually had to be sent down to the other room because he was being disruptive and unproductive. The autobiographies the students were writing were actually going to be voice recorded by them and then set to a picture presentation of childhood photos of the students. All of which were then to be presented to the parents at the end of the year. I thought that this was a really cool final project to be done with the students.

April 30, 2007

In my second visit to Dickson I walked in in the middle of silent reading time. Some kids were sprawled out on the floor, some kids were sitting at their desks and others were huddled in the corner with headphones on listening to a book on tape. I sat down on the floor and talked to Betsy, the teacher, for a short while after she had finished giving some reading help to a student she felt had a sort of mental block when it came to reading. In the hopes of breaking through this she had actually sat opposite the student with the book facing her and had him read upside down. I thought this was quite an interesting technique. According to her though, it actually helped the boy to read in this instance. I would certainly be interested to see what she plans to do next in response to this improvement. After this I hung out with the kids a little bit and checked out what it was they were reading. It was a nice visit this time, I really felt involved in the flow of the class.

May 2, 2007

My final visit to Dickson was much the same as the previous. I entered during the classes silent reading time and sat down on the floor with a boy who wanted to read his book to me. He was reading the second book in a series about a dragon slaying academy. He read a few chapters of this to me while I sat there listening and helping him out with words he wasn't sure of. I was unsure though of the best way in which to assist him so that he would remember best so i tried out a few different methods from sound it out to just flat out telling him the word. It was an interesting exercise for me to learn about how best to help with reading. This silent reading again took up my entire visit to the classroom. Overall it was a great experience at Dickson, I really enjoyed both the teacher and the school.

LT 5/15