Now, I am in a general education 1st grade class. I love this age group! They are a tad bit younger then my dream grade (2nd) but they are absolutely wonderful. My mentor teacher has incredible behavior management in her classroom. The kids are quite, they listen when she is talking, and they behave the same when she is not around! I can't wait to try out some lessons with these kids, that way I can take advantage of their good behavior. I will be in this placement until the end of the school year (approx. 16 weeks).
On Wednesday, I spent most of the day observing the students and taking notes. I tried to get a good feel for the way the classroom was run, and which students could potentially use a little extra help. On Thursday, my mentor teacher let me jump right on. I tested a bunch of kids on their sight words (words that they can read without having to sound them out) and grades some quizes from the day before (report cards were due today-Friday, so my mentor teacher needed some assistance with assessments). I also got to go through and read/grade all of their journal entires, and write little notes back to them. First graders choose the most random things to write about!
I think I am going to use this semester to try out some of the concepts of "Whole Brain Teaching" which is something that I would really like to incorporate in my own classroom some day. The teacher whose videos I watch about this method teaches first grade, so it will give me a chance to try out exactly what I have seen her done in her videos. My mentor teacher is all about me trying whatever I want. She said that now is the time to find out what works and what doesn't because no one will ever know that it failed!
Here is the link to the first whole brain teaching video that I watched:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaweXw03kQI
I can't wait to try out some of these concepts in my class!
No comments:
Post a Comment