Observations: First Day of School

   In today's observations, I took notice of the classroom. The classroom that the freshman were in was very welcoming, fun, and silly. There was a row of ducks on the top of the cabinets, llama and frog cutouts randomly posted all over the room, a calendar with student birthdays and school events, and photographs of the teachers outside of school. There was also an LGBT+ flag hanging in this room. This gave the classroom a more comfortable feeling and allowed the students to see their teachers as people with lives outside of the classroom. It also showed the students that this was a safe space that accepted them. 
   I noticed that my cooperating teacher interacted with the freshman differently than with the juniors. With the freshman he worked more humor and exaggerated reactions. I took this to be him trying to build relationships with the students by showing them that he has feelings and thoughts and is just like anyone else. I have found in my own experiences that humor is a great way to get students to feel comfortable with you. With his juniors, he had already built relationships with most of them so while he was still comical, it was clear that he had less to prove; they were already mostly comfortable with him. 
   My favorite part about today would most definitely be the community builders. From a Kahoot quiz about my cooperating teacher, to "snowball" fight get-to-know-you's, to pulling random index cards with questions, they were all engaging. The students loved every community builder and there were lots of laughs. You could feel the first-day tension leaving the students as they had fun getting to know each other, their teacher, and the practicum students. I look forward to the rest of the first week.

Comments

  1. What's Up With Welsh?September 6, 2019 at 5:35 PM

    Cheyenne, I am glad that you've had such a great experience in your first day of observations! We both met the same teacher in 407, and from what I can tell, he's a wonderful teacher! Like my experience, it seems that your teacher was able to build a strong foundation of classroom community, and as my experience from today has shown, this is so critical for the development of the beginning of the year, and the rest of the year. I also love your attention to detail of the environment, for the classroom environment is very important--how will it affect students? How will students respond to it? It is a place they can learn while being themselves? These are all things to consider as educators, and I look forward to seeing how your field work will shape you as an educator.

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  2. Heather K 445 BlogSeptember 8, 2019 at 11:59 AM

    I'm glas you had such a great time your first day! I love that your teacher used kahoot as a getting to know you activity but I'm curious as to how they used kahoot to get to know other students? I know students tend to love kahoot so its definitely a very useful classroom strategy when used right. I'm just wondering how your teacher used it as an opener (so that way maybe I can use it someday). I also like that it seemed as though your teacher used different activities for classes! As my teacher only has seniors, I did not get to see the difference of interacting with different age groups.

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  3. BumblingwithapurposeSeptember 9, 2019 at 2:28 PM

    Cheyenne,
    I also took notice of the ducks and the pictures of Mrs. Ryan, Mr. Ryan, and Mr. Ramos posted on the walls. I thought this was awesome! I do not recall any of my high school teachers having photos of themselves outside of school on the walls--with the exception of that one awesome English teacher who wore a kitschy tie with pictures of his sons on it :) Mrs. Ryan told us that the vibe of the classroom is supposed to be like your crazy aunts house, which I think is funny and warm but also, theoretically speaking, subversive. I loved it and am currently plotting ways to make my own classroom both warm and welcoming with slightly disjointed decor. I am glad you had such a meaningful first day!

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  4. Prof BensonSeptember 11, 2019 at 4:59 AM

    A great first day! Yes when working with 9th graders, it requires a bit more care and attention, as they are bringing with them a TON of anxiety and excitement about being in HS. They don't know the school or teachers, so that relationship building work is crucial. So glad you got to see this in action.

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