How does your teacher welcome students the first day of school? What kind of welcoming activities does your teacher do?
· Greets parents and students at the door
· Morning procedures posted and warm-up on desk
· All About Me warm-up – some students shared. All will share by the end of the week
· Not much introduction – students did not go around and say their names. Did not even take formal attendance. Saw that all desks were full and said that all students were present.
o One student had asked during the pre-service week to be called by a different name. I asked her to remind us when we took attendance on the first day, but that never happened. Some students go by a different name but they have not had the opportunity to share that except with their peers at lunch/recess.
How does your teacher get to know the students, their interests, their specific needs?
· All About Me warm-up asked students about home life, interests, favorite books, goals and dreams
· Short writing assignment about their goals for the year
· Postcard assignment – in the first one they discussed a memorable moment from their summer, in the second one they discussed something that made them special.
· I would have preferred more discussion and community building activities. All of these were given as assignments and completed silently and independently.
How does your teacher facilitate student interaction in order for students to get to know each other?
· Students are seated in tables of 4 or 5.
· Students shared their postcards and All About Me worksheet in front of the class – some were REALLY nervous. Everybody HAD to share.
· Students are not really allowed to speak unless they are called on by the teacher – not clear why they are seated in groups if they can’t work together!
· Name-O – Bingo where students had to use facts from All About Me presentations to figure out what name to cover.
How does your teacher create an enriched environment for learning?
· This has not been evident yet. Very little “learning” has occurred. Mostly getting to know each other activities and pre-assessments.
· Posters on the walls with important information – active listening, reading strategies, purposes for writing
How does your teacher “teach” her expectations? What are the expectations? Would you do it differently? How?
· Class rules, school rules, consequences, and rewards are posted on the wall
· Procedures were discussed at length and repeated several times
· Quiz on rules and procedures on Friday – true/false statements where false statements had to be corrected. Taken and discussed.
· Charactergrams are given to students who can repeat the procedures
· Most important rule = Active Listening
o Sit still
o Don’t talk
o Look at speaker
o Hands on lap/desk
· Warm-ups to have students explain rules and procedures: “Explain how we switch classes” “how do we enter the room?”
· Students attended an assembly about the Student Code of Conduct
o It was SO boring and long. Students were struggling to stay awake (I was too) and they were getting yelled at the whole time
o The goal of the assembly: to tell them not to bring weapons or cell phones – they know this already, why waste an hour of the day?
· Students enter room quietly
· No back-packs at desk
· Never turn in work to the teacher, always put it in the team folder
· Students are to be in their seats at all times except with permission
· Bring a water bottle – students are never permitted to leave the room to go to the water fountain
· Cell phones off and out of sight at all times
· I would have preferred to have students create a classroom bill of rights. These are TAG students, they probably could have handled it and the rules would have been more meaningful to them.
· I would also have to relax the no talking policy. During the first week of school especially, being able to talk to each other and the teachers is an important part of community building.
What is the discipline plan in this classroom? Is there a school wide discipline plan? How do children know what is expected of their behavior?
· Classroom and school rules, discipline, and rewards are posted on the wall
· School wide behavior initiative – a clipboard with a list of the names of the students follows the class wherever it goes. Students get checks if they are misbehaving. If they get more than 5 checks in one month they have not met their behavior initiative for the month and they miss a fun activity or reward.
o Seems to be somewhat effective but teachers threaten to give checks often without following through – “we don’t want to have to stay behind with one student”
o Students don’t get to see how many checks they have. The teacher is in charge of the clipboard so for a student to know how they are doing, they have to ask
o Would be more effective if the information on the clipboard was posted in a place that students had access to
· Consequences
o 1st Offense: Warning
o 2nd Offense: 10 min. timeout in classroom
o 3rd Offense: 10 min. timeout in another room
o 4th Offense: 10 min. off recess
o 5th Offense: Complete a Think Sheet. No recess
o 6th Offense: Parent Notification
· Seems like students have A LOT of chances to correct their behavior. Is that really necessary?
How does your teacher discover the ability levels of her children?
· On the first day of school, students were given a spelling inventory and a reading inventory to assess their abilities.
o It was REALLY hard and students did not do well
o This took the place of explaining rules and expectations. Most of the first day was spent in silence taking tests.
o The 4th grade teacher had told her that the students were exceptionally bright so she was nervous that she would not have challenging enough material for them.
· Feeder cards from previous teachers with assessments of different abilities were provided
· Scholastic Reading Inventory scores and other assessment scores were passed on
· Writing samples over the first few days
· Discussions about the types of books students were reading – not exactly representative though because they could be reading at a much higher level but their parents were concerned about the content of more challenging books.
How are materials organized?
· The classroom materials are not well organized. It is not clear what the organizational system is. It is often a challenge to find things like a stapler or a dry erase marker. This makes it extremely difficult to work efficiently
o I would love to reorganize the classroom, but attempts have been pretty much shut down in favor of “more important” tasks.
o It is hard for me to concentrate in such a mess, I can only imagine how the students feel
· Students must have all of their supplies with them at all times. 5th graders change classes for every subject so they are expected to carry their books, paper, pens, and any other supplies they need with them. The only things that should be left in their desks are the books they use in homeroom
· Students are not allowed to carry backpacks because the thought is that they have objects that are unrelated to school (cellphones, toys, electronic devices, etc.) in them – some students have totes that they carry from class to class but others don’t.
o This also creates a mess because as students change classes, they come in and sit at desks with the belongings of the homeroom students in them. They can’t put their supplies in the desk, but they also can’t put them in a bag, so they end up all over their desk and they work on the edge.
o This would drive me crazy and limit my productivity.
o I asked if it was at all possible to allow students to carry their backpacks, and the answer was no.
What surprised you the most about the first week of school? What did you enjoy the most? What didn’t you like about the first week of school?
· I was surprised by how much time was taken by pre-assessments. I was barely able to speak to the students because they were testing almost all week. I realize that they are necessary in some respects, but I would have liked to have more time for community building.
· I enjoyed seeing the differences between each of the three fifth grade classes. My homeroom is the TAG class so the students are extremely motivated, hard working, and intelligent. Their vocabularies are enormous and they love to read and learn. Meanwhile, the on and below grade level classes are less excited about learning and require more encouragement. It was great to be able to see what it takes to work with each level of student.
· I did not like the fact that nobody seemed to know what was going on. The first three days were filled with uncertainty about whether or not they would change classes, if students were going to specials, how they were getting home, how they were supposed to line up for lunch, etc. It seems that the teacher should have a better grasp of what is going on before it happens.
