Blog Entry #6

An area of diversity that is given to study deeper during the Graphic Organizer, and found in my service-learning classroom is Exceptional Students. There is a child with mild to moderate autism. Anyone on the outside wouldn't know any difference when looking at him, but while I would work one-on-one with him, I could tell that he is an exceptional student. The teacher explains to the other student that sometimes he gets an extra minute to complete tasks. While the students are on the rug during Math or English lecture time, and they are required to face a certain way and look at the teacher, this exceptional student isn't directed which way to face, but just asked to sit on the rug. 

The teacher doesn't differentiate the content for this student, but the Process and Products. The other day, while creating a mini book, the students were asked to cut the 4 squares out, place them in order and then glue them on. The teacher offered for this exceptional student to use glue or tape. He was instructed to do it the same way as the other students, but wasn't required to use the same process.

Blog Entry #5 Assignment

The evidence that I have seen in my Service Learning placement includes examples of the following:

The children in the first grade class with whom I work have ample time to work on math problems, with their math books and problems that are specifically designed for first graders. They also have designated time to discuss and learn about science. This is correlated to Sputnik and the implications from the Space Race that began when the Soviet Union was the first country to successfully launch a satellite into space in 1957. The next year, 1958, the US successfully launched their first satellite, named Explorer. The US felt they were behind in technology, math and science. This spurred implementation of more focus of math and science starting young in elementary school.

Another example of Brown v Board, that it is unconstitutional to separate black and white children in a public educational situation,  can be seen in the diversity among children in my Service Learning placement. I spend my time at an elementary school that is very diverse in ethnicity. In my first grade class by itself, there is 1 Hispanic, 1 Hawaiian and 1 Native American. As I walk the halls of the school, I have seen many African American, many Hispanic, and many Asian children. This is a prime example of the results of Brown v. Board.

Blog Entry #4 

In my concept map, I included in the creativity section to allow the students to create scenarios and situations for the learning, addition and subtraction to take place. I have seen my cooperating teacher, Mrs. Holden engage the learners in many meaningful ways. These include:  1. While teaching the first graders simple subtraction, she used the smart board and allowed the children to move around laminated pictures of cookies. Multiple kids were allowed to come to the board to add and "eat" the cookies, then the entire class would count how many cookies were taken away. 

In my concept map, under fun and games, I included to have the students encourage and cheer on other students when they have a success. 2. I saw this in the classroom, when after a small field trip, to say thank you to the volunteers, she asked the class which cheer they would like to give for each parent/volunteer. This gave the students choices and options and taught them to show gratitude and respect.

3. While teaching number order, the teacher created a game that each student worked on with another student. They would roll some dice, and then look at the number chart on their desk. If they saw the number, they would cross it out with a dry erase marker. It appeared more as a fun activity to the students rather than a math exercise.

A non-engaging exercise I witnessed was learning phonetics, while the children were sitting on the rug. The assistant teacher was showing screens on the white board, but lecturing to the students what all the words meant and how to create them. The teacher wasn't asking any questions, and if she did, she answered them herself. Very shortly, the kids were bored, picking on each other and not paying attention.  

To make this phonetics lesson more engaging, I would have laminated words, and letter groups that children can hold and come to the front. All the students can direct where each child can stand to create different words and sounds. Or another idea is to have the children, while sitting at the rug, to raise their hands and answer questions of words and sentences that have those word orders.

Blog Entry  #3   

• Describe a time your cooperative teacher has offered choice to students.  
• What has your cooperative teacher done to make students feel loved and safe?
• What clear routines are established in the classroom?  How do they support a productive learning environment?

This week in my service learning with the first grade class, I was able to accompany them on a field trip, walking from the school to the public library. Before we left the school, the teacher Mrs. Holden, gave the students a choice of who was to be their walking buddy. When one boy was left alone, she gave further options of him walking with her in the front or he could walk with another teacher at the back of the line. 

Some clear routines that are established in class are when they are crossing the street. Each child is to raise their hand and touch their lips to remind them to keep quiet. This is connected to our learning of Maslow's Hierarchy and the level of safety. Mrs. Holden wanted to keep the children safe, and have them appear taller and larger by raising their hand so cars can be aware that people are crossing the street. 

Along with helping them feel safe, she made them feel loved by using technology and taking pictures of them along the way. This helps the students to know they are important and she wants to remember these times.

Another routine she has established is when they have returned from recess, after they each get a drink, they immediately return to their desk, allowing them to be productive and ready to learn. They know that they are expected to sit down and pull out their math books. 

Blog Entry #2

The teacher in my service-learning placement seems to use Behaviorism the most. She has a rug that has spaced apart dots for the children to sit on during different parts of the day which include giving instruction, reading stories, going over math problems. This rug controls the environment that the children are not in too close proximity, which is an example of her controlling the environment. She does not call on, or even acknowledge student's questions until they have raised their hand. She reinforces not having negative behavior by immediately having the students sit at their desk, with their heads down for 1 minute when they have acted out negatively. 

She address the developmental levels of the individual learning preferences by explaining the activity they are working on, such as counting the dots on dominoes. Then she walked around to see what learning level the children are on, and spent extra time at the desks of those that were struggling. She did a great job of verbally explaining the activity, letting the kids handle the papers and dominoes, and visually giving them an example of what they should do by her doing it two or three times. One student has autism, so she slows down the process for him to grasp what is expected, but at the same time expects him to do the assignment. 

The school where I intend to complete my service learning is West Side Elementary in Springville.  The school is a Title 1 school, with low income families, and the teachers receive a stipend due to this. It is the west side of Springville, and the boundaries include the poorest parts of Springville.

I will be working with Mrs. Natalie Holden, a first grade teacher. Her class has 19 students, which include 12 boys and 7 girls. Of these 1 is Hispanic, 1 Hawaiian, 1 Native American and the rest are Caucasian. . This is the least diverse class that she has ever taught.

Service Learning is very important to spend time in the classroom, observing the teacher interact with the student. I will be in the classroom for 20 hours, assisting in groups and one on one. This will help me to see if I want to become a teacher, learn useful tools for my future classroom, and contribute to the teaching community. 

It's 11 am, here in Kiev, Ukraine and I wanted to say hi! After not sleeping for about 24 hours, and 15 hours of traveling, I arrived at the Kiev airport. I met a Ukrainian guy who was just returning home from Alaska, and he was happy to meet and help me and speak English. His father was meeting him at the airport, so they found the bus and saved a seat to take us to the train station. I then met a friend named Victor Merkulov, He earlier agreed to meet me, and then he helped me buy train tickets. We made sure they were on the RIGHT day! :) Because last year when traveling around Ukraine, the tickets were on the day before we traveled, and my mom and I had to share a place to sleep on a traine, bleh!

We then ordered a taxi to take us to Anya and Kolya Bogdan's house. Kolya was my zone leader in Gorlovka then my AP when I was in Kharkov. Anya is the daughter of Sergei and Lena Agarkov, who live in Gorlovka and whenever I visit them, they treat me like a queen! :) The taxi was 53 Griven, but the taxi driver would have charged probably 200 griven if it was I, an American, that ordered it. The currency right now is 8 griven to 1 dollar.

We arrived, had some delicious food, I was crazy tired, but at the same time had passed that stage so I had energy, and their cute little 3 year old daughter put on a model show for us. Her language is so hard to understand, I told her that she is speaking Chinese, but she is fun, and in the nightly prayer she said thank you for letting aunt Robyn come. :)

I am so so excited to be here, and Ukraine is so wonderful! I didn't have any major mishaps getting here. On the 10 hour flight from SLC to Paris, I sat next to a man from an Indian/French Island who was a born again Christian and said he had never met a Mormon in real life! He asked many questions, which was great, but kept interrupting me to ask other questions. It was a good experience, even though I struggled to understand his English.

Okay, I'm off to start another adventurous day! Love you!!

Robyn Alise