njohnson's blog

Math Centers (lesson on how to read a clock): The students are broken up into their "center groups" (groups of 5-6 kids). For math, there are three different centers: one group works on math activities on the computer. Another group works at the back table with Ms. B doing activities in the workbook. And the last group works with me on a worksheet and then play games of Concentration, matching up pictures of clock faces with their written out time in numbers. V is completing his worksheet and yells to Ms. Barba "A is making fun of me, saying that I'm going on a date with M." A complains that it's not true and that is was really another classmate, N, who was saying that. Ms. B says that V and A should not sit together and that A needs to keep her comments to herself because she has been getting into a lot of trouble lately with gossipping. Right as Center Time is finishing up, the students are asked to return to their seats in order to move onto Writing. A and N are sitting next to each other when suddenly N yells "Ms. B, A is trying to stab me with her pencil!". A calmly says that that's not true. Ms. B yells "cut it out, A. You've been having a bad time with lying lately and I can tell when you're lying. Show me your hands." A shows her hands to Ms. B and her hands are empty. It's important to note that Ms. B is standing on the other side of the table where A is seated while this is happening. Nothing is physically forceful in the sense that Ms. B is not in physical contact with A. A says "I wasn't poking him" and Ms.

The overall theme that I noticed today that was striking to me were my own conceptions of "ability" as it pertains to the classroom. I see ability in the classroom in two ways: the first is the teacher's perception of what the students are capable of and the second is what the students themselves feel that they are capable of. 

Nicole Johnson

Field Notes, 2/6/13

Morris Heights Elementary School, 2nd Grade, Ms. B

Social Studies

-       Do: “We will read about places and we will compare and contrast them”

-       Compare and contrast à compare, bring hands in together; contrast, spread them apart

-       Ven diagram

-       Social Studies book p. 90

-       Region

-       Teacher reads, students follow with fingers. Cardinal directions. “Never Eat Soggy Waffles”

-       Where is the equator on the earth? It’s a line that keeps South and North.

-       They cut?! “It’s not really cut but it looks like it splits the globe in half”

-       Venn diagram with Tropical Rain Forest and Mountain Region

-       T is sent to sit at another table because he was hitting his book. He is not allowed to talk or contribute. “Close your book, you’re done”

-       Cold calling

-       “I will not answer If you’re calling out”

During a Curriculum and Pedagogy Seminar last semester we were required to teach a lesson in our field placement. I was placed in a first grade classroom at Bayside School with fifty first graders and two teachers. These are my field notes from that experience. 

Lesson Objectives: To teach students how to write a list, why lists are used, and to provide them with prompts to write lists of their own 

Number of students: Four

Four students gather at a table towards the back of the room while the rest of the class is split up into other stations that they will be working at for the next twenty minutes. Behind our table is the computer cluster where stuents are working quietly on reading and math activities. Next to us is a group of three students reading a large poetry picture book outloud to each other. There are not enough teachers for each station to have a supervisor so the computer cluster and the poetry cluster are working independently. On the other side of the room, two separate groups of students (about 6 kids each) work with each of the head teachers on writing and vocabulary. There is another group of four students in the library nook doing independent reading.