First Day!

Its my first week of fieldwork! Today I met all the kids and got to read with them, as well as learn some social studies. I get to meet all these happy little kids, with smiling bright faces, and the teacher I am with is great too! I'm at Vineyard Elementary in a fourth grade class, and it is a great one for sure! I was able to see what a typical day is like for a teacher. I was slightly surprised in the fact that there was never a dull moment. Mrs. M was always doing something, whether it was helping a child understand what they were supposed to be doing, or finding ways for them to quiet down, or grading assignments and testing kids! She is really involved with all the students. She teaches all of the subjects in one day, so she has to be really prepared with things to be doing. She also is really good at teaching the kids in all ways so they can learn.

            First off, I wanted to watch the kids a little bit to tell what kind of learners they were. It was kind of difficult, because I cant just watch to see if they like to learn through hearing or learn through looking. What I could see was the way that some people sat. Some were fidgety while reading, and others were completely still. I took that as signs toward kinesthetic. As I said, Mrs. M was great at teaching in a variety of ways. With reading, she had them read on their own for a bit in their heads (visual), and then we went around a read out loud with some of the kids that needed it (audio). We also went to the corner and she gave everyone a book and they read together on the floor. The way that I really saw her appeal to the kinesthetic learners was with social studies. There was a video presentation (for auditory and visual learners) and then there was a globe and map drawing activity. The students had to make their own maps with rulers, paper and pencil crayons. Even though I couldn’t necessarily tell what type of learners each of the students were, it was good to see that Mrs. M covered all of her bases!