Haley Sabin

Final Journal

This week I have only been observing in the classroom. On

Monday I observed first grade small group rotations and was able to
talk with the reading interventionist during his prep time. I enjoyed
seeing the small group rotations because it was very different from
how fourth grade does their small group reading. There were three
jobs that the first graders had to complete during small group
reading. The first job was to read 7 books, the books were all very fast
reads and many were finished with this job after about ten minutes.
The second job was to journal, the class had to write about a mouse.
Mrs. Anderson had already given the students sentence starters about
a mouse the students were asked to finish each sentences. The
sentence starters were based on descriptions of a mouse. The third job
was to meet with Mrs. Anderson. During her small group station the
students discussed a picture of the ocean and beach. Many of the
students used their senses to describe the picture such as touch,
smell, and sound. While speaking with the reading interventionist I was
able to hear how he runs his groups and what he does with each group.
The task of the students in all the same and only changes depending
on the reading level of the students, each group is given a word and
they must spell and sound out the word. I thought it was interesting
that he used the same strategy with every group.
Tuesday, I went with the fourth graders to I.J. Holton for their
fourth grade orientation. The students were able to attend sessions on
choir, band and orchestra. Every student was allowed to play an
instrument. At the choir session, the choir teachers for I.J. Holton
taught us a song that they use in their general music class. In both
band and orchestra the students play instruments that were set up in
stations. All of the students then went on a tour of the first floor of the
school; they were shown classroom and the lunchroom. I think every
student enjoyed this trip to his or her future school. Towards the end of
the day I observed a SPED classroom, while observing I was asked to
come to the resource room, which is another SPED for students who
have classes mainly in SPED. I was asked to sit with a student while
she completed her math assignment. She refused to work on the
assignment, I had asked her many times to try the math problems. I
then decided to wait her out and she eventually completed the
assignment. She decided we could work through the math problem
together and she ended up doing a great job. It was difficult but in the
end it was a very rewarding experience.
Wednesday, I was able to observe a second grade classrooms
morning routine. The students all come into the classroom and make a
lunch choice, which is very similar to the way fourth grade chooses
lunch. The students then are able get breakfast that they will eat while
working on their morning work. The students work on a page in a
weekly packet on both literacy and math. When everyone has finished
with their work the teacher goes over the page in the packet they were
supposed to complete. This is something that is done every morning
before starting the day. I was then able to observe a first grade
classroom for math. Math was being taught as a whole group and the
students were using white boards to complete practice problems.
There is a full time Para in this classroom that works with a student
who speaks only French. It was very interesting to watch as the Para
interpreted the math skills. Lastly I observed the third grade classroom
that I completed my six-week clinical with. It was great to see how far
the students have come since I left them a few months ago. The
students were in small group math. There were 3 stations plus the Mrs.
Brandt was pulling students to give them extra support in the math
concept from the new lesson. After small group math the classes then
began working on practice MCA math problems. I was surprised by the
questions that they were practicing, the skills being practiced seemed
like they wouldnt be taught until they were in I.J. Holton or middle
school.
Thursday, I started out in a newcomer ELL group with Mrs.
Davidson. It was very interesting to see the script the teacher must
follow. Mrs. Davidson also created a book about the school and the
supplies they use at school, the students must describe each picture
using complete sentences. I then went to a second grade room with
Mrs. Jannsen for small group reading. It was a very similar set up as the
fourth grade suite, each group was reading a different book based on
their reading level. One thing that was different was Mrs. Jannsen used
talking chips that required the students to answer questions about the
text they were reading. I really liked the use of the talking chips
because it allowed every student to participate in a discussion on the
book. After second grade I observed a reading intervention group with
Mr. Leichtnam. During the reading intervention the students were
working on word blends. The group started with words that began with
Ph, the students were required to spell the word by sounding it out.
The group then moved to words that began with Wh and again
spelled and sounded out the word. After the reading intervention I
assisted a first grade classroom with a science project. The students
are creating dioramas of the habitat of their choice. I helped the
students organize their pictures and cut out the animals that belong in
their diorama. I spent the rest of the afternoon in the SPED classrooms.
I was asked to teach two SPED groups, the first group was practicing
math for the upcoming math MCAs. The second group was a writing
group that required the students to fix sentences by adding capital
letters and periods. This was a great experience to be allowed to be
apart of these groups.
 Friday was my last day at Sumner Elementary. I spent the
beginning of the day teaching Nicoles group of fourth graders as she
was out sick. All three classes are working on factor groups to simplify
fractions and many of them are struggling with finding the correct
common factors. After math I observed my fourth grade group in art
class. The students were working on finishing up projects that needed
to go home that day. I found it interesting how some of the students
were behaving during this time. While they knew that the rules of the
learning suite followed to other classrooms, some students seemed as
if because they were out of the learning suite they didnt have to follow
those rules. I spoke to a few students about staying on task and
listening while I was observing. After art was shared reading, I was
asked to read picture books to the students as a whole group. I read
Picture Day Perfection and Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No
Good, Very Bad Day. While reading Alexander, the students were
very familiar with the story and were speaking the words as I read
them. I had a great time reading to the whole group. The learning suite
then went outside for extra recess to celebrate my last day. I received
gifts and many hugs from the students when we got outside. My
student teaching at Sumner Elementary was an amazing experience
and I am going to miss the school, the staff, and all of the students.