Wow, Wednesday was a LONG day. You really do not know how much work it is to be a teacher. You have to be prepared, organized, and READY for changes that come throughout the day. My experience went great, and the day went very fast as well.
To begin, school starts at 8:25 am. The teachers are usually there by 7:30-8:00. The classroom is clean, neat, and ready for the children to learn in beforehand. Class objectives are written on the board with the date to help children get organized. Class starts with a journal entry for the day and within a few minutes of being in class... the school announcements and the Pledge of Allegiance comes on the loudspeaker. One of the announcements was that the faculty meeting that I was planning to attend was canceled due to the teacher-conventions in the following week.
I was in a Language Arts class throughout the whole day, and at this particular school... 5Th graders do not necessarily "switch classes," like in Middle School settings, but they do not keep the same teacher for the full day of school. My morning class was my site liaison's homeroom class. Students were separated into 5 groups of 6 kids. Each group had a specific task to do. For example, reading, writing, revising, or speaking with the teacher. Discipline rules were set out by the teacher and were enforced greatly. Any student who opened his/her mouth during the assignment got the proper punishment of moving to another side of the room and being forced to the the work independently. The teacher had a site of strict rules that the children needed to follow. I think it was a great idea to get students to focus more on their work than leaving the room every two minutes.
From about 9:45-11:45 the class did this activity with only one break [for library class]. The librarian was not in school that day so there was a substitute. When the students had library class, the teacher had a prep period when she walked around and talked to the student teacher and I about her experiences over the years.
At 11:45-12:15[12:30] it was lunchtime. Lunch goes SO fast when you are constantly on the go. By the time you finish your last bite it was OFF TO CLASS once again!
From 12:30-2:55 there was a second group of students who seemed to be better behaved than the first group of students. They did the same activities as the morning class and around 2:20-2:30, had a Social Studies lesson that was prepared by the student teacher.
Before I knew it, the time was 2:55 and it was time to go. I would definitely like to go back to the school system where I was on Wednesday for another learning experience. I wish I could have more experience teaching the class, rather than just observing! Well, my time will come.
As for both the site liaison and the student teacher, they both were very nice and polite to me. They gave me their email addresses and told me to keep in contact with them. They both reassured me that I will love what I do if I put my heart into it.
For me, shadowing was a great experience and I cannot wait to go back into a classroom setting and be the teacher rather than the student.
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1 comment:
Thank you for your detailed description of your shadowing visit! It gives me a good idea of what to expect. I'm glad to hear you had a positive experience and I agree with you that the teacher's rules were a good idea to help her students focus.
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