fieldxpproject-blog

[fieldxpproject-blog]

One of the students during recess refused to play one of the other kid’s games and they both came to the teacher in frustration and the teacher resolved the issue but at the end of the day she had a Q n A discussion with the class about how everyone doesn't need to be friends with each other. She accomplished this with critical thinking questions like “ do you guys think that I like every single person who works at the school?”. The openness of her classroom was shocking but I could tell that it was effective when I saw how the students interacted afterward because they (unprompted) apologized and hugged each other.   

THE INTERVIEW

Classroom management Qs

Q:What are some of your favorite classroom management strategies?

Whole brain teaching where information is delivered  to students in short “chunks.” Kids then teach what they have just learned to their partners this also includes structures like lining up and class hand signals.

Q:How do you arrange classroom seating effectively to compliment your lesson plan?

I section kids based on whether or not kids are Non groupers or groupers. Needy kids sit on the front of the class and only 1 person sitting next to them. Kids who are groupers sit in groups of 4 or 3. I changed seating at least 5 times throughout the first 2 months

Instructional Planning & Delivery Qs

Q:How far in advance do you plan for your lessons? What strategies do you use to make them effective?

I plan at least one month ahead, an effective lesson is taught through mini-lessons introducing a new concept and then you let the kids work with partners/groups to work on a project.

Q:Describe your lesson plans from your first year of teaching. How have they changed?

I learned that kids need hands-on learning and visuals especially for ESOL and SPED kids. I also use more stations because you can differentiate the learning styles and types via rotation through stations.

Q:What strategies do you use to ensure that all students participate?

You need to give the kids high expectations with structure and then they will participate because you respect them enough to give them high expectations and believe in them.

Student Engagement Qs

Q:How can you tell if a lesson has been effective? What do you do if you feel it was not effective?

In a perfect world, I would always do an exit ticket, or have them do the exit ticket as morning work the next day and then evaluate their progress.

Q:How do you ensure that each student understands and/or grasps the material?

I will make stations with small group instructions, quick checks and exit tickets, core extensions and then I will remediate with the students who don’t get the lesson.

Creative & Critical Thinking Qs

Q:How do you guide the students towards the right answer without spoon-feeding it to them?

I try not to spoon feed but in some circumstances I will Spoon feed in the beginning of the school year to build their confidence (because they may not have the best home life where they are not encouraged) then it will pay off later when it comes down to crunch time they will have the confidence to try harder.

Q:How do you encourage creativity while still ensuring that students properly meet all of the learning requirements for a particular lesson?

I set up different stations and different hands-on activities /projects with tech/ computers and different aspects of learning especially with the higher up kids so that they don’t get bored, I keep them very hands-on and I always to relate it to the real world.  I also built projects with stem education resources (pop-ups scissors glue etc.)

Differentiation and students with special needs Qs

Q:How do you handle a student who is overly disruptive in class?

You need strict rules, don’t back down, be consistent and loving

Q:What kinds of accommodations do you provide for students with special needs or an IEP? What makes them effective?

Small group one on one, read the questions aloud, give them extra time, and I give them a different test that isn’t watered down but instead of 4 choices, you have 2. You gotta Make sure that you read each student’s IEP’S because you need to know how you should be properly accommodating them. Most of the accommodations are not so different from what you will do for  ESOL accommodations.

[fieldxpproject-blog]

Classroom organization and management; 

Her classroom management strategies were very strict, criticism of the students was very direct and open. SHe used multiple types of hand signals for different types of instruction such as raising hands, whiteboards, 5-1 fingers, and if kids were supposed to be silent and another kid spoke up everyone was supposed to point at that kid with their fist. The fists were the most interesting to me because the teacher had developed a socialized discipline where the violator's peers would address the infraction creating a visual social contract in the classroom.

Instructional planning and delivery; 

The teacher lessons were structured as a mix of question and answer lecture discussions, group work, and various stations. The stations and Q n A ‘ Lectures seemed to be the most effective because it would make the students have hand-on work where they built study guides and other learning elements that engaged the students in critical thinking styles of learning. In the group however it seemed that the students often had a hard time coming together as a group and focusing on what they wanted to accomplish. 

Student engagement;

Students would be asked questions and they had to either raise their hands use whiteboards and at the end of the day, the teacher would use popsicle sticks with kids names to call them out ensuring that everyone answered a question and had a chance to reflect on the day. Remediation with students was often required because many of the students came into the 3rd grade without the necessary 2nd-grade math skills. Exit tickets and morning warm-up worksheets were also a piece of student engagement and if they didn't finish the worksheet from the day before they would have to complete it along with the next morning's warm-up sheet. Group instruction seemed to be a staple learning teaching strategy in the classroom as the students from 3rd grade special ED and the other 2 3rd grade classrooms would actually mix together for the stem education block and this was very interesting to see multiple classes switching students to work on various projects.

Creative and critical thinking; 

Stations were the backbone of the critical thinking questions because it would ask the students to build a structure out of given materials and in addition it had to meet several requirements like it had to be at least 3 feet tall, so students needed to realize that they would need a ruler (which was not given) and they had to send a representative from their group to the teacher to ask for a ruler. In addition to that, the teacher would not spoon feed an answer to a student if they asked a question that was somewhat obvious, she would engage with the student and ask them critical thinking questions where they would follow and ultimately be able to answer their own questions based on clues. 

Differentiation and students with special needs;

The stations would engage the students with kinesthetic, visual and auditory learning strategies. When it came to ESOL, SPED or kids who had low IQ’s the teacher would check up on the student to makes sure they were following along and made sure that they understood the information that was being taught. Students in the SPED program were also brought into the classroom for some learning blocks of the day where they would interact and work with the other kids and for those who needed it the teacher gave the slightly different projects where they could showcase their talents in the group work. I was very impressed with how smoothly the instruction went with an additional amount of SPed students in the classroom, albeit another teacher was there to assist but it was, for the most part, a regular and normal process. 

[fieldxpproject-blog]

In reflection of the Interview, I realized there was a lot of things that were not obvious when I was in the classroom. For example, the classroom management strategies were not so obviously carried out (she was very sneaky when rearranging students and disciplining them by calling them out in class on it). 

She also went in depth about how learning stations for topics and I'm now in love with these mini-project lessons as a result because it keeps the kids moving and if they don't like or enjoy a station the rotations are often enough for them to not have a chance to be bored. It also keeps the kids on their toes and they feel like they need to do their work quickly before they have to rotate.

THE INTERVIEW

Classroom management Qs

Q:What are some of your favorite classroom management strategies?

Whole brain teaching where information is delivered  to students in short “chunks.” Kids then teach what they have just learned to their partners this also includes structures like lining up and class hand signals.

Q:How do you arrange classroom seating effectively to compliment your lesson plan?

I section kids based on whether or not kids are Non groupers or groupers. Needy kids sit on the front of the class and only 1 person sitting next to them. Kids who are groupers sit in groups of 4 or 3. I changed seating at least 5 times throughout the first 2 months

Instructional Planning & Delivery Qs

Q:How far in advance do you plan for your lessons? What strategies do you use to make them effective?

I plan at least one month ahead, an effective lesson is taught through mini-lessons introducing a new concept and then you let the kids work with partners/groups to work on a project.

Q:Describe your lesson plans from your first year of teaching. How have they changed?

I learned that kids need hands-on learning and visuals especially for ESOL and SPED kids. I also use more stations because you can differentiate the learning styles and types via rotation through stations.

Q:What strategies do you use to ensure that all students participate?

You need to give the kids high expectations with structure and then they will participate because you respect them enough to give them high expectations and believe in them.

Student Engagement Qs

Q:How can you tell if a lesson has been effective? What do you do if you feel it was not effective?

In a perfect world, I would always do an exit ticket, or have them do the exit ticket as morning work the next day and then evaluate their progress.

Q:How do you ensure that each student understands and/or grasps the material?

I will make stations with small group instructions, quick checks and exit tickets, core extensions and then I will remediate with the students who don’t get the lesson.

Creative & Critical Thinking Qs

Q:How do you guide the students towards the right answer without spoon-feeding it to them?

I try not to spoon feed but in some circumstances I will Spoon feed in the beginning of the school year to build their confidence (because they may not have the best home life where they are not encouraged) then it will pay off later when it comes down to crunch time they will have the confidence to try harder.

Q:How do you encourage creativity while still ensuring that students properly meet all of the learning requirements for a particular lesson?

I set up different stations and different hands-on activities /projects with tech/ computers and different aspects of learning especially with the higher up kids so that they don’t get bored, I keep them very hands-on and I always to relate it to the real world.  I also built projects with stem education resources (pop-ups scissors glue etc.)

Differentiation and students with special needs Qs

Q:How do you handle a student who is overly disruptive in class?

You need strict rules, don’t back down, be consistent and loving

Q:What kinds of accommodations do you provide for students with special needs or an IEP? What makes them effective?

Small group one on one, read the questions aloud, give them extra time, and I give them a different test that isn’t watered down but instead of 4 choices, you have 2. You gotta Make sure that you read each student’s IEP’S because you need to know how you should be properly accommodating them. Most of the accommodations are not so different from what you will do for  ESOL accommodations.

[fieldxpproject-blog]

THE INTERVIEW

Classroom management Qs

Q:What are some of your favorite classroom management strategies?

Whole brain teaching where information is delivered  to students in short “chunks.” Kids then teach what they have just learned to their partners this also includes structures like lining up and class hand signals.

Q:How do you arrange classroom seating effectively to compliment your lesson plan?

I section kids based on whether or not kids are Non groupers or groupers. Needy kids sit on the front of the class and only 1 person sitting next to them. Kids who are groupers sit in groups of 4 or 3. I changed seating at least 5 times throughout the first 2 months

Instructional Planning & Delivery Qs

Q:How far in advance do you plan for your lessons? What strategies do you use to make them effective?

I plan at least one month ahead, an effective lesson is taught through mini-lessons introducing a new concept and then you let the kids work with partners/groups to work on a project.

Q:Describe your lesson plans from your first year of teaching. How have they changed?

I learned that kids need hands-on learning and visuals especially for ESOL and SPED kids. I also use more stations because you can differentiate the learning styles and types via rotation through stations.

Q:What strategies do you use to ensure that all students participate?

You need to give the kids high expectations with structure and then they will participate because you respect them enough to give them high expectations and believe in them.

Student Engagement Qs

Q:How can you tell if a lesson has been effective? What do you do if you feel it was not effective?

In a perfect world, I would always do an exit ticket, or have them do the exit ticket as morning work the next day and then evaluate their progress.

Q:How do you ensure that each student understands and/or grasps the material?

I will make stations with small group instructions, quick checks and exit tickets, core extensions and then I will remediate with the students who don’t get the lesson.

Creative & Critical Thinking Qs

Q:How do you guide the students towards the right answer without spoon-feeding it to them?

I try not to spoon feed but in some circumstances I will Spoon feed in the beginning of the school year to build their confidence (because they may not have the best home life where they are not encouraged) then it will pay off later when it comes down to crunch time they will have the confidence to try harder.

Q:How do you encourage creativity while still ensuring that students properly meet all of the learning requirements for a particular lesson?

I set up different stations and different hands-on activities /projects with tech/ computers and different aspects of learning especially with the higher up kids so that they don't get bored, I keep them very hands-on and I always to relate it to the real world.  I also built projects with stem education resources (pop-ups scissors glue etc.)

Differentiation and students with special needs Qs

Q:How do you handle a student who is overly disruptive in class?

You need strict rules, don't back down, be consistent and loving

Q:What kinds of accommodations do you provide for students with special needs or an IEP? What makes them effective?

Small group one on one, read the questions aloud, give them extra time, and I give them a different test that isn't watered down but instead of 4 choices, you have 2. You gotta Make sure that you read each student's IEP’S because you need to know how you should be properly accommodating them. Most of the accommodations are not so different from what you will do for  ESOL accommodations.

[fieldxpproject-blog]

This was how the classroom was set up