Kaylee Clark Dr.

Kilibarda Teaching of Science 11/13/13

Context of Learning
I am doing my science practicum in Mrs. Flaws first grade classroom at Monroe Elementary. Monroe is apart of the PCM School District. Monroe Elementary is located in Monroe, Iowa, which is just east of Des Moines. The district has approximately 1,000 students spread out into four schools. The four schools are Prairie City Elementary, Monroe Elementary, PCM Middle School and PCM High School. Monroe Elementary serves students in pre-k to grade 5. Monroe Elementary is almost 100% Caucasian, so there is not much diversity. This is consistent in the other three schools in the PCM School District, too. Most students are in the middle class economic standing. There is some variance to upper and lower class, though. I have visited Mrs. Flaws classroom two times. The room is very large. The carpet area is in the front near the white board. The desks are arranged in rows. Two students are close together, then there is one student in the middle, and then two students are close together on the other side. There are 20 students in the class, so there are four rows of five students. This set up is definitely for classroom management purposes. The four students that are alone in the middle of the rows have a harder time paying attention and sitting close to others. Books and other supplies are dispersed around the classroom. There are three tables around the room that are used for group work. Students have a designated spot for completed work, and also, each student has a mailbox where they put a lot of completed/graded work to send home. Students spend most of their time on the carpet area and then go back to their desks for individual work. There are three students in the classroom that have IEPs. All three students are on a reading, math, and writing IEP and one student also has a behavioral IEP. This student has a one-on-one associate with him all day long. One of the other students has a para-eductor as needed. Those students are not expected to do all of the work that students in the general education classroom are expected to do. Two of the students on an IEP are out of the classroom for much of the day. This will be challenging for me when I am there. I do not know the best way they learn or what they struggle with. When I was observing, the students came in for part of the time. I hope that the first day or two I teach, I am able to get a good idea of what helps each student the most so that I can differentiate the lesson in a way that fits all the students in the classroom. I will also get to see if the students will even be there when I am teaching, or if they will spend that time in the general education classroom. It will also be different to teach to a class that has an associate with a student all the time.

Mrs. Flaws does many things for classroom management. One of the main ones is a behavior chart that each student has a clothespin called an Interrupter. If a student is off task or misbehaving, Mrs. Flaws will give them one warning. If they continue the behavior, she will ask them to move their interrupter. The student has to move their interrupter three times before a parent/guardian is contacted. She also has four students on behavior plans. The sheets have to be filled out after each lesson is complete. If they do not need any reminders during the lesson they get a smiley face. If they have to have one or two reminders they get a straight face. If they get three or more reminders they get a sad face. Mrs. Flaws gives a lot of verbal cues. She will say things such as, eyes on me and Im looking for people who are The students seem to respond well to these types of cues. The class seems pretty well behaved. I did notice that the students have a hard time raising their hands. A lot of students get out of their seats and go stand next to Mrs. Flaws to ask her a question. Also, there are sometimes problems with blurting out answers. There are many things I like about the classroom. One thing that I thought was unique and different was a bulletin board called Treasured Work. Students each have an assigned box on the board to put work they are proud of. This is something I have never seen before. I really like the idea, because it gives students motivation to do well on assignments. Another thing that I liked about the classroom was that the students have assigned seats on the carpet area. I have never seen a teacher do that before. I think it is great to use in the primary grades. The students do not have to be worried about getting the spot they want or being really close to the teacher. I didnt get to observe the teacher using a lot of different instructional strategies because I was there for the same thing both days. All of the students have a science journal. They write in it after every science lesson. The teacher puts a writing prompt on the board that they have to fill out in their journals and then they can draw and color a picture. She also does interactive games. The students played the game Bug In My Pocket. The students really seemed to enjoy it. One student would pick a bug, put it in their pocket, and then the class would ask questions until they were able to guess what bug it was. The students also had a My Word Book that they used to practice handwriting. Also, when teaching handwriting she would use different sayings to help students remember how to draw each letter. This is a great instructional strategy for students learning handwriting. The students did not do very much group work when I was there. Most of the things they did were either individual or whole group activities. They had to share books with a partner, which most of them did well with. Mrs. Flaws did tell me about her assigned Work Place groups. There are three groups of six students. I havent seen the students in these groups, but she said they work out pretty well. I am excited to begin teaching and interacting with the students. The students seem excited for me to teach them, and Mrs. Flaws said they really enjoy learning about insects, which is what I will be teaching. She also said that the students love to be read to, but they do not enjoy worksheets. I am going to try to incorporate a lot of hands on activity. Also, I am going to try to find engaging literature to connect with the topics I will be teaching about.