Service Learning at Centennial Elementary

      I am for sure making connections from the course topics to my service learning. Each topic is so written out and explained that it is easy to look for in the classroom. I am able to focus on diversity, engagement, standards, and other topics throughout the service learning. The course is in-depth too, so it is easily understood, making it easy to find examples in the classroom. T he blogs make it easy to articulate what is being asked as well. By being able to keep them in separate posts but all in the same spot, it makes it nice to go back on to specific topics. The process of blogging is something I would like to keep doing. It'd be cool to be able to actually post them too so other teachers can read them, and I can read others.       From my first blog post to the last, I have realized that my growth might have gone down a bit. I am still getting the concepts down, but in my first post I had so many examples and details. I might just...

    I saw many standards being taught in my service learning. On my first day they were presented civilizations that their team had created. They had to tell the class the geography of their area. After that they had to come up with weapons, food, and shelter that relate to the geography. It is showing their understanding of how ancient civilizations had to build from the ground up with what they were giving. Another example was in math. They had fraction of the day every morning. They had to make models of the fraction and also turn them into decimals. That applies to the number system strand and how to i nterpret and compute quotients of fractions standard.      Since I was there for such a short period of time, I couldn't necessarily tell you if she was missing standards. Mrs. Hill did have a calendar on the board though and it shows that they hit all of the subjects everyday. I think it is safe to assume that the teacher made sure she got everything she had ...

      In my classroom there wasn't really that much need for differentiation to help cultural or racial differences. I talked with quite a few students over my time and found out that some didn't have English as their first language or the language that is spoke at home, but they were 6th graders so most of them were proficient or were here from a very young age. There was differentiation for learning styles and disabilities though.     I've mentioned before in my past blogs that there is one student with autism. The teacher has separate assignments for him or only has him do certain parts of the assignments given to everyone. He is also given his relax time where he gets to color in order to get him focused for the next subject. Mrs. Hill really tries so hard to give him the time and material needed but from my perspective it looks very difficult; she has the other 20ish students to spend time on too. So I applaud her a lot for taking time out of her day t...

      In my classroom there is a student that has low functioning autism (in my opinion). It is very difficult to keep him focused, to not speak out, and tends to hit himself and bang his head on the wall/desk when upset. He is integrated in with the rest of the class and only has an aid to help in for a couple hours in the morning. I could see how much of a struggle it was for my cooperating teacher and takes time from the other students. Mrs. Hill does a great job though by creating reward systems for him. She has taken the time to learn about him and has found that he really enjoys drawing. If he finishes an assignment or doesn't disrupt the class for a certain amount of time, she gives him 5 minutes of drawing times. It pushes him to learn while also giving him brain breaks and de-stressing time.      This situation shows the important law Individuals with Disabilities Act, previously known as the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of ...

      I helped out Mrs. Black today in the Special Education program since my regular teacher is on vacation. With these students it is even more important to keep them engaged. It is really difficult to keep them focused long enough to get through an assignment. Mrs. Black has come up with awesome ways to get the students to pay attention though.     The first thing she had me do was helping a student with writing. He had a hard time to sit through long enough to get through one sentence without going on rave about his day. I was really struggling to keep him attentive and I didn't want the teacher to feel like I wasn't capable. She was amazing though and just came over to help and give me tips. One way for writing she does is if they don't like the writing prompt, she lets them right about whatever they like. They aren't at the level yet where it matters what they are writing about, it is more important just to get them spelling out words. Once she told me we ...

      Clear routines are very important for students to have in school. It helps give expectations and to know what to expect for the day. Children work best when they have some kind of structure. Mrs. Hill does a great job of this. She has the schedule posted on her whiteboard and follows it everyday. She starts with Math, and with that there is always a morning  fraction. Next there is English where they have phonics worksheets. After that it is Science where they have daily reading section. For their last subject they have Social Studies where they do reading from a book. There is more done with each subject but it just depends on what lesson they are on. By doing this it allows the students to prepare for what is next.      With structure, it is still beneficial to offer choices to the students. You still have plans and exercises that must be completed everyday, but you can give the students an option on how to do them. Mrs. Hill did this in a...