Mid Semester Check

I am currently working with a fourth grade class at an elementary school in lower Mishawaka Indiana. The school consists of a wide variety of children from different socio-economic backgrounds. 70 percent of the children are eligible for the free or reduced lunch program.  The classroom that I have been placed in has a wide variety of learners. One child has extreme HDHD issues and his parents do not regularly give him his medicine. The skills that these children have vary greatly. Some are high achieving while others are way below. The difference in students really shows during our math time. Some of the kids cannot multiple or divide and struggle with simple addition and subtraction. These issues are the biggest struggle for the teacher and me in the classroom.  

                I like the way my teacher has her room set up. She has things on the walls that relate to what the students are learning throughout the year. The classroom rules and expectations are understood by the students and the teacher does a good job at enforcing them. The schedule is the one thing that I do not like and that is out of my teacher’s control. The kids go to their Specials every day at 8:45 which is 45 minutes after their day starts. This forces the teacher to split the math lesson into two because they do a part of it before specials and a part after. I think this makes is difficult for the students to really take time to ask questions and understand the concept that is being taught that day. Our language arts time is right after math and goes until lunch.  When we come back from lunch on Tuesdays we have Doctor Popcorn which teaches children about food habits. Next we have science or a daily wrap up time. The way the day is set up, we only have 1 hour after lunch of school time. This is a challenge because the long mornings can make it hard for students to focus during the second half of language arts.

                I enjoy working with the kids in small groups during math and language arts. I have been able to work with the lower level groups and try to help the understand that basic concepts of the day. I enjoy working with all the kids in the class. I taught a math lesson and the biggest challenge was meeting the needs of all the students in the class.  I used the highest group of students to assist other students in the class after they finished their workbook page. This provided me the opportunity to work with 5 students who were not grasping the concepts. It is important to use group work to work individually with students.

I really enjoy my classroom and the teacher. I am looking forward to learning a lot this semester!!

Learning Theories

A classroom that is based on the behaviorist theory would use reward programs to help their students work towards their goals. The reward acts as a stimulus to get the student to work, hard and once the work is done the teacher will reinforce this behavior with a reward or a snack or activity. The behaviorist classroom would focus more on exactly what the student does and not so much have an emphasis on what the learner is thinking. The behaviorist teacher would have a very organized classroom with clear objectives and expectations of students. The students would probably be put on some kind of reward system for their work and behavior. The teacher would guide the instruction and have clear expectations for his or her students.

A constructivist theory based classroom would focus on things that the learner is interested in.  Experiences are very important in this classroom and building on those experiences is how a student learns. A teacher will scaffold the students just enough to give them what they need to learn.  The teacher in this environment will probably be more flexible to go with the flow and create lesson plans to fit the current students needs. A constructivist teacher will most likely use different material every year because he or she will have different students every year who have a desire to learn different things.

The classes could be similar with the reward programs. I believe that both constructivist and behaviorist classrooms can use rewards to encourage student involvement and participation. These rewards can also be used to encourage positive behavior in the classroom.

The challenge of behaviorism is that students may get too dependent on the rewards. It is important for students to have a desire to education themselves and not just work for a reward. Students must learn to educate themselves to a certain degree and work towards their goals on their own without a reward. If students are rewarded for every little thing in the classroom it may encourage them to work hard only while in your classroom. Students also need to work hard outside of the classroom as well.

The challenge for a constructivist classroom style is that students do need to have some scaffolding and previous knowledge of things in order to move up. If students are way behind on a certain subject, it may not be in their best interest to just work towards what ever it is they want to work at. Some students need to have structured math time in order to better their math skills whether they like it or not. It is important to cover all subjects and meet the standards for that child’s education. A teacher must work very hard in order to meet the needs of each individual student who have different interests.

I believe that a mixture of all styles is the best thing for students in the classroom. Teachers need to be flexible and willing to work with their students to find what works best for them. There cannot be a strict one way or the other, because that will not be what is best for each individual student. A teacher must keep an open mind and be flexible to meet the demands of each individual student.

Diversity in the Classroom

I have recently been working with a 4^th grade class at a local elementary school. This school is different than my transition to teaching placement. In this class there are two Chinese students. One of them can speak fairly good English while the other one cannot speak any English at all and moved into the school about 2 weeks ago. In my mind I have question the methods that the teacher is using to best teach the non English speaking student, and I have questioned her handling of these two students in her classroom.

            The student who speaks no English at all basically sits in the back of the classroom and works on a packet that matched words with pictures. I do not know how he does on any of this seeing as the words are in English and not Chinese. The other student who is his cousin, but has been at the school longer and speaks better English sits in the middle of the classroom and is able to work on everything that the rest of the class is involved with. While speaking to other teachers about this student they use words and saying that I do not feel are appropriate and many don’t seem to care much about finding new ways to work with the non English-speaking child. I have also witnessed aids and other teachers demanding that the English-speaking student translate for this cousin, which clearly makes him uncomfortable. The teachers demand him to translate and have said to me how they don’t understand why he does not want to speak Chinese while at school. Students in the class also jokingly bow to these students and make noises and phrases made to sound like they are speaking Chinese. I know that this makes the Chinese students uncomfortable, but I see their teacher giving little effort to stop this from happening.

            This whole situation is very uncomfortable for me because I do not know exactly how to deal with this issue since it is not my classroom. When I have the opportunity I tell the students teasing them to stop, but I think the teacher needs to do some sort of activity to encourage acceptance and to talk about how things certain people think are funny can really hurt another persons feelings. The entire staff in the school needs to understand that they cannot force a child to speak in a different language and should not demand children to translate for other children. I think the English-speaking boy feels uncomfortable speaking in Chinese because others in the class have teased him about it and it makes him different from the others.

            I am not more aware than ever about different children’s feelings and the way they handle these situations in the classroom. The children may be very proud of their culture and language, but certain judgments by classmates and teachers can really put them on the spot and make them uncomfortable. Teachers must not assume anything and we should not treat any students differently than others.

            If I were this teacher I would treat this situation as a diversity lesson. I would have activities encouraging all students to work together and to respect one another. I know that the students who are bowing to Chinese students and saying things to them do not intend to be mean to them, but because they are assuming something about them they are. I will do my best to use these kinds of opportunities to teach acceptance of different races and cultures in my classroom.  It is important that all students feel comfortable while at school, thus providing them with a good environment to learn and grow as students and children.