Teacher's Lounge Mentality

“The Teacher’s Lounge”
If I have learned one thing this semester is it that teachers are humans also and not God sent from Heaven. I remember when I was in grade school I used to think that teachers could do no wrong. I also thought that they were geniuses in school and college, now I definitely know the truth. I have observed a little bit of the “teacher’s lounge” theory this semester while observing at Brooklet Elementary School.
Some of the things I have seen at BES were very minor instances. I would consider what I have seen more of venting than gossip. My clinical supervisor, Mrs. Wright, is a team teacher. She switches homerooms with another teacher everyday at eleven o’clock. Almost every time we get finished taking the students to exploratory we meet her team teacher in the hallway. Mrs. Wright almost always makes a comment like, we are having some trouble with this student today, or such and such is having a bad morning. I really do not see a problem with Mrs. Wright discussing her students with her team teacher because they are also her students. If she were talking about them to other teachers or parents that would be unethical but I do not think that she is doing anything wrong.
Another instance I have observed from my clinical supervisor is her not feeling her best. All semester Mrs. Wright has been experiencing stomach issues and complains often. A few times she has even told me she didn’t want to be at school. When she first told me that I was definitely shocked to hear her say that she did not want to be there. During the teacher interview she told me there are days that she wanted to be anywhere but at the school but she had to suck it up and do her job. I can completely see what Mrs. Wright was saying. Even during observations this semester there were a couple of mornings when I did not want to get up and go, but when I did get there and saw the students all of those feelings went away.
Overall I haven’t seen or heard any discussing of the students mental capabilities or learning problems. I have only heard discussions about student behaviors. Also I think that teachers should always have the best attitude possible while working with the students. I realize that some days are worse than others, but if the students sense that we do not want to be there, neither will they.

Reflection on a Teacher's Instruction

Prefixes, Root Words, and Suffixes

On Thursday, September 18th, in Mrs. Wright’s fifth grade classroom we did a class wide activity using the smart board. I am actually not sure how well using the smart board works. I think that it may distract the students. I do think it is a very good visual learning tool, but the students got so excited and talkative. Mrs. Wright found a website online called www.brainpop.com. On this site there is a short animated video that the students can watch to aid in teaching prefixes, root words, and suffixes. I think prefixes, root words, and suffixes are important to teach to students because it is a tool to help the students decipher new words and their definitions; not just now but also in the future.
The first thing Mrs. Wright did was tell the students that they could sit anywhere in the classroom as long as they could see and could pay attention. This was interesting to me because it gave the students some freedom. Also the command gave the students some responsibility is picking somewhere that fit both of Mrs. Wright’s stipulations. Mrs. Wright then played the video completely through one time and allowed the students to watch the movie without interruptions. I feel that letting the students watch the video and soak up the information was a very good teaching tactic. Not interrupting the movie probably also helped the students to keep their train of thought and pay attention to the video, which moved the new information into their short term memory.
After the video, Mrs. Wright, asked each student to take out a piece of notebook paper and a pencil. She then replayed the video from the beginning, but this time she told the students she would be stopping it on key information that they would need to write down. She stopped the video on the definition for prefix, suffix, and root word. Immediately after the definitions for each word, came examples of each type. The characters in the video then put all three together to form one word. Mrs. Wright then paused the video and called on one student to go to the board and write the definition for the new word. For example, the word unsuccessful; a student got to go to the board and write that that meant “not successful. By the students getting to participate in this visual imagery activity they used an effective learning strategy. Also engaging the students in fun, hands on activity facilitates in moving the information into their long-term memory.
This activity took place on Thursday and today (Tuesday) Mrs. Wright reviewed this concept with the class. Over half of the students answered all of the questions correctly. The students were so excited to answer the questions because they knew the correct answer. I really enjoyed this activity and will use it in my classroom in some form.

First Blog Assignment

This is my first semester in the Teacher Education Program at Georgia Southern University. I am a Curriculum student, and I have been placed at Stilson Elementary School. I am working in Mrs. Langes classroom with third grade students. This semester we have to complete twenty hours of observation and complete a "read-aloud". The "read-aloud" is where I choose a book that is appropriate for third grade and read it aloud to the classroom. I am very excited about my upcoming semester!