Day One: Mrs. Noble's Kindergarten Class

Today was my first day in my second field experience at CofC. I have been assigned to Harbor View Elementary School on James Island in Mrs. Noble's kindergarten class. I was very excited for today and very relieved that the school is located so close to downtown, where I live. This school is quite different in many ways from CDA. It is culturally very different because the majority of all students are white, whereas CDA was almost entirely African American students. In both cases, though, neither of the schools have much exposure to cultural diversity to offer its students.
The first thing I noticed about the classroom as I entered was how large the room is. There is room for tables, centers, carpet space, and desks, and plenty of room to move. There is also a lot of wall space, which someone the teacher has found ways to cover with images and words to support her students' learning. In the room that I am assigned to with Sam, there is one lead teacher, an asssistant teacher, and a student teacher (a senior from CofC). When we arrives the students were working on morning daily work that was working on writing letters and coloring corresponding picutres on an assignment sheet.
As the teacher got organized she called all the children to the carpet. They sang a song I have heard before called, "Rise and Shine," which is a song they sing every morning as part of their routine. Then the morning announcements were read over the loudspeaker and the class said the pledge of allegance and sang the national athem. The students also recited Harbor View's Creed, similar to what the students at CDA did when I observed the 3rd grade class. I was very impressed with the kindergarteners knowing all the words and being able to memorize such a long Creed as well as know some more difficult words. When they were done they read a story with the teacher and then sang another song becuase the teacher thought they were having trouble sitting still. They use a sticker system in the class, where they lose their sticker for the day if they are misbehaving, but if, by the end of they day, they still have their sticker then the teacher adds a sticker to their chart. Each student has their own chart and when they reach 5, 10, and then fill the whole chart with stickers, each time they get to choose a prize from the class "treasure chest". I like the idea of having a treasure chest as long as the prizes are something educationally related. It actually reminds me of the dentist's office when i was little.
The student teacher sent through a daily cander center with them as well, where they document the day, and do "a-bead-a-day" and the 100 day count. Each day one student gets to be a special helper with the calender which I think is helpful in assessing students through observation while still being able to teach a lesson. It makes sure each child is getting some individualized help and assesses what they know related to the calendar and math. The students then were sent to PE in a different room with a different teacher, whom did not wish for Sam and I to observe (strange?). I hope that we will have the opportunity to observe at least one day of PE. When the students returned to the room the student teacher ready to the students and then they were placed into special centers, which included, a listening center, a book center (not very popular), a computer center, a games and puzzle center, a house center, blocks center, and puppet center. I was ver entertained by some of the girls, who decided to put on a puppet show. At this time the teachers also selected a group fo students to do math with the assistant, and a group to work on English with Mrs. Noble.
The students then proceeded to lunch, where the "hot lunch" meal options were PB&J and Pizza (Pizza by far was the most popular). At this school the teachers and assistant teachers are required to sit with their class and eat lunch with them in the cafeteria, which for me is strange, because I have never had that in my own schooling.
Overall, I enjoyed my first day. The class seemed organized and almost as though they got through more than the class I observed at CDA. I think the teacher may be a little bit better organized and by bringing the students to the carpet they are less likely to be sitting facing eachother in groups where they would be more likely to talk to one another. I was ver impressed with the things I have seen so far, in regards to what they are learning. I am especially amazed what kindergarteners know about computers! And the behavior of the class was also rather controlled, so I hope to observe how this teacher handles classroom management and hopefully pick up some ideas that I can use in my own class someday. I had a great morning in Kindergarten and look forward to learning more next Wednesday, when it won't be a half day!

Field II Goals

  
     In my second field opportunity there are three areas (of many) that I would like to focus on, which include, clarity in communicating a lesson (simplify), classroom management, and observational skills in order to help me assess. In my first field I felt like I was not always "in the driver's seat" when teacher my lesson and that much of the lesson was lost due to my lack of classroom management skills, a confusing way of presenting the lesson topic, and because it was a shorter field, the abilities of the students was not too clear to me until after teaching my lessons.
     I think in the way I approach my writing, oral presentations, and teaching lessons, I need to work on my clarity and simplifying the point I want to make. I need to be more to the point and shorten things to make sure that the lesson I teach is completed in the amount of time I have, to ensure it is learned. Reflection at the end of a lesson I think is also important.
    Classroom management is somewhere I would love to come up with some creative and unique ways to approach. I don't think kids respond to a teacher yelling at them or telling them to be quiet, plus those are negative ways of dealing with it. I think having a way that is very different might get their attention. 
    Lastly, my observational skills of students is an area I would like to focus on for improvement. I want to be more aware of not just their academic strengths but their social, behavioral, emotional, and motor development. This is just one area of the assessing process I hope to work on through becoming more aware of everyone in the classroom and making it a daily habit when I am observing in the classroom.

Diversity Topic Revisited

In my Language and Literacy class last semester I posted to the wiki an article on the debate that started in Oakland, CA in regards to Ebonics and it’s place in the classroom. As I have started to read Delpit’s book, I found the following quote that ties in with that subject that I do not plan to write on for my paper, 

but I feel is also important.

Children have the right to their own culture, their own language, their own culture. We must fight cultural hegemony and fight the system by insisting that children be allowed to express themselves in their own language style. It is not they, the children, who must change, but the schools. To push children to do anything else is repressive and reactionary (Delpit, 2006, p. 37).

I agree somewhat with this quote that we, as teachers, should not try and change a child’s culture and set of beliefs, however, I think we need to make sure children also have the tools to be successful in a world where people are not always tolerant of other cultures and those of the minority. In order to do so teaching children about culture and why it is important to do things, such as speak, write, and read, in a formal English manner is important. It is not that the way that their culture speaks (for example) is wrong but because of biases they need to have the ability to communicate in ways that others are more accustomed to in both higher education and for later in life when they are in the work setting.

Ebonics is one example of this, where I think that teachers should not suggest to their students that the way they might speak at home is necessarily wrong, but that there are certain settings where different levels of formality are appropriate, very similar to youth slang. Another example of this might be how you talk to your friends when you are casually hanging out verses how you behave and your language in a school atmosphere. In my own experience I have not been exposed to many situations where the cultural language is very diverse in a school setting. However, I do remember that when I was observing in the head start 4’s/5’s class in North Charleston early last semester, there was an African American boy in the class who was wearing a shirt that said something on it that I did not know the meaning of, and nor did the head classroom teacher who happened to be white. The head teacher asked one of the assistant teachers, who was African American, what it meant and she did know. I can remember both teachers laughing about it because it was a “black term” as they called it. The lead teacher said something about how it was important for her to know what these terms meant and how it was a good thing that she had an assistant who understood “the lingo”. In some ways I feel that speaking in Ebonics is almost having an accent in some ways (like a southern accent or a New York accent) because it is part of who you are and very hard to change. It is part of some people's identity and should not be looked at as negative but as simply part of a culture. Below are some links to articles I have read related to Ebonics and classroom diversity.

http://www.pbs.org/kcts/preciouschildren/diversity/index.html

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3935/is_199901/ai_n8828933/

http://www.cal.org/topics/dialects/aae.html

The Importance of Teachers' Communication Skills in E.C.E

This semester as a co-requisite I am taking comm 104, a public speaking course, and after 2 classes I have noticed that there is a strong tie to public speaking and teaching and have found the foundational ideas to be valuable knowledge especially for an early childhood teacher. We have discussed that there are many jobs that require good leadership skills (one of which happens to be a teacher) and in order to be a leader a person needs to develop their persuasive speaking skills. If a person is not persuasive then they cannot convince people to follow their lead and believe what they are speaking about. In order to teach a child the child has to believe in their teacher, trust them, and view what they are saying as authentic. We briefly discussed the importance of eye contact, authenticity, and enthusiasm when addressing an audience. There are also three attititudes that I think a teacher should be aware in regards to the rational affect they can have on each through their teaching.  These three areas are: attitude, beliefs, and values. 


Attitudes are the easiest positions a teacher can have an influence on, where students have taken a position on an idea or belief but you are not entirely certain. Most of people's attitudes are based on little evidence and more so on a few experiences. A position that is a little more difficult to influence are a student's beliefs which are formed from attitudes that the child has held for a long time and which have been reinforced through experience. It is at the these level of beliefs that we start to distinguish cultures from one another. And lastly the most difficult level or position to change in a student are their values, which are their long enduring beliefs that have become a major part of who they are. Parents and even grandparents affect children's values and raise them a certain way, reinforcing ideas on a daily basis, and therefore it is not a teacher's role to try and change such values but instead to open their students' attitudes up to different beliefs and values. I found that this ties into the reading I have done thus far in the Delpit book. Like in the Delpit book, in public speaking we have discussed tendencies to develop biases due to our beliefs and values of our culture. In both my my EDEE courses and public speaking course, their is an emphasis on looking at things through someone else's eyes, whether it be the students or the audience (and in many cases it is both). 


Lastly, I found part of our discussion on Thursday in comm 104 to be helpful knowledge, where the professor laid out for us the "cues of influence" or the order of how we influence people we are trying to persuade or convince of an idea. In order from first to last these steps include:
1. Comparison (similarities between them and the speaker makes it easier for them to be convinced).
2. liking (do they like the person who is speaking/trying to persuade them).
3. authority (the greater the authority the speaker has over them the easier they are persuaded-parallel to the "power" discussed in the Delpit book).
4. Commitment and Consistency (the speaker must be confident and they, themselves, must believe what they are saying).
5. Scarcity (the more scarce something is the more a person wants it and it becomes more valuable).


Lastly it is important to know that when speaking we not only do so verbally but through our body language. We communicate even stronger messages which affect our audience more so than the words we are saying. In some cases people may give off two messages, making their point less authentic and causing the audience to question them. Children are likely to pick up on their teacher's body language. So, just something to beware of.


Last, for my public speaking class we each took a typography test to help our professor understand our biological tendencies which affect how we communicate. I think it is important for a teacher to understand both themselves and how they communicate and also how their students communicate. This might even be a great way to assess your students or get to know them better in the beginning of the year if they have a form of this test designed more for young children (not sure if they do?). Here is the link:

http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp

EDEE 636: Field Two

On the first day of class we did several actvities that helped me think about what the word prfoessionalism means. I found this very helpful because I have had less experience in the classroom environment than others. Most of the information I have from experience I draw from my own experience as a student when I was unaware and not focused on the teacher and his/her demeanor. I do remember those things that a teacher did to make my school experience either a positive or a negative one and when thinking of professionalism and the "do's" and "don't's" it was helpful to think back to my own experience. To me being a teacher almost seems like living two lives: a prefessional and a personal that do overlap some, but where slightly different behavior is considered acceptable. Being a teacher is a more formal role, where you are constantly under the spotlight and serving as a role model, whereas your private life is more informal. I think teaching will make me more aware of what I am doing, both my good and bad habits, and hopefully in turn I will be able to better myself through teaching by following the idea of, "practice what you preach". There are many different dimensions to teaching which include not only academic/intellectual development, but also physical growth, developing morals and values, emotional growth, social growth, and behavioral growth in early childhood education. From my recent experience this past week over at ECDC in the 3's room, I am very aware of the social issues that are already evolving at age three, with kids excluding others, manipulating, slight bullying, and some 3 yr-olds desire to fit in. Because each child brings his own her own social and behavioral personality into the classroom, as a teacher I know I will have to learn how to manage a classroom, problem solve, discipline, and work on building respect among children. This will mean I need to be professional in how I handle these issues, and not only know right from wrong, but also how to model and indicate this to the students in my classroom. Teachers are more than just educators in the intellectual sense, espcially in early childhood education, and that is why professionalism in the classroom is so important.

Reevaluating why I want to be an Early Childhood Teacher: Field Two

When I decided I wanted to make a major career change after holding jobs in the fashion industry in both buying and design, I thought back to other work experiences that I had, which were more fulfilling to me and that I could see contributing positively to my life. After having taught tennis and coaching every summer since the middle of high school through college and loving every minute of it, I thought that there might be a parallel to that and teaching. With my background in art and people (sociology and anthropology), I thought some of those skills from my BA degree would serve as unique teaching tools in the classroom. When teaching tennis I always loved motivating and coaching people and finding ways to make it fun for every kid, whether they we self-motivated and wanted to be there or whether their parents had signed them up for the summer. Watching those kids improve, learn, and grow throughout the summer was so exciting for me. I was always amazed that I could have that kind of an impact on someone. I got experience teaching private one-on-one lessons as well as clinics with as many as 15 kids on my court at a time, and enjoyed both experiences differently. Like in a classroom where a community of learners is built, the kids i taught bonded through both struggles and successes and it was always hard when the summer came to an end, which I am certain is similar to the feeling a teacher gets at the end of the year when her class moves on to the next grade.

Although in some ways deciding to work toward my MAT degree in Early Childhood Education was a risk, it was a risk that I am now ressured was the right decision for me. After one semester, I have learned so much and actually find myself really interested in what we are learning. The courses made me think in a way i have never thought before and pushed me to places I had never been in my past academic endevors. I had so many great hands on experiences that got me out of the classroom, observing, and even experiencing teaching for the first time. At times I was nervous and unsure of myself but I believe I am slowly building my confidence as I learn more and know I will continue to do so as i gain experience. The highlight of my first semester was working with the third grade class at Charleston Development Academy for my first field experience. It was really great to see how eager the kids were to learn and how appreciative they were of Liza and I, who were observing this classroom. Even though I was only in this class for five weeks, I felt I got to know a few of the kids personally, which was really neat. Working one-on-one with one student I watched as he started to understand word family patterns with vowels and a lightbulb went on. It was amazing to see especially after watching his frustration get the best of him as he struggled to keep up with his classmates! Surprisingly I also enjoyed teaching to the entire class as well. Public speaking is something that makes me very anxious but I have found it easier to speak in front of children as apposed to adults/peers. This semester I am hoping to further develope my public speaking skills in my communications course. I am really looking forward to learning more this semester about how to be an effective teacher and how I can strenghten my weaknesses and use my strengths to my advantage in the classroom. With my experience in working in the 2's and 3's (this semester the 2's) at ECDC, I think my experience working in a third grade and wherever I am placed this semester, is giving me a broad range of experience.