Classroom Practicum Experience Report

First of all, I’d like to begin by saying that this practicum experience has been an amazing opportunity and I’ve learned so much through observation, as well as, working hands-on with the students and the teachers. I had the pleasure of getting to work with two amazing teachers at Iron Springs elementary school, a first grade teacher (Mrs. Prince) and a third grade teacher (Ms. Barnhurst). This was a great learning opportunity to compare my two experiences working with different grade levels; I got to see the differences in the children, classroom management, activities, etc. I’d also like to point out that I spent almost double the time with the first grade class than with the third grade class, which had a lot of influence on what I saw and did in each class. My responsibilities within in each class …show more content…
The main difference is seating, where in Mrs. Prince’s room the desks are grouped into tables, while Ms. Barnhurst’s class is organized where the desks almost look like two E’s facing each other with an open path in the middle so all students faced the middle or front of the classroom. Both classes have two tables that are at separate corners of the room that i’ve seen used as places for group reading, a separate place for teachers to grade, a place for a student to go and work by themselves, and a place for individual or group interventions. I’ve noticed that both teachers have taken time to organize a seating arrangement that benefits most, if not all, of the students. For example, the few students that have a little harder time focusing and doing their work are usually on the edges of the class, but towards the front. I believe this is because this is where the students that can be a little more disruptive aren’t as distracting to the rest of the class, compared to if they were in the middle of the