Children are the future. That’s what almost every teacher replies with when asked why they started to teach. I felt the same way so I decided to do my internship at Sunshine Elementary School. I interned in a second grade classroom and got to experience other parts of elementary education as well. During my time at my internship I was determined to learn two strategies for teaching reading, two strategies for teaching mathematics and three strategies for managing a classroom. I met each goal in the time I spent at Sunshine and most importantly, I decided on whether I felt capable to teach second grade or not.
Reading is one of the most essential skills in the human repertoire. However, teaching it can be harder than it seems, especially to …show more content…
Math is a difficult subject to teach young children, but I observed two which most children benefitted from. One of the strategies used to excite the children in their pursuit of numeric knowledge is math centers. Math centers consisted of three or more station in which the children participated in, which were all related to mathematics in some way. Some examples of the stations were Math centered computer games, which had to be teacher approved; worksheets students would complete with the teacher in a small group, math focused board games, and independent practice sheets. The students were most often excited by the use of games and at first needed help learning how to play. However, as time went by in the school year, they became proficient in how to play and would move up to higher levelled games as their lessons changed. The worksheets and practice pages ensured that that week’s lessons would be understood and processed into their long term memories. Another math strategy used was homework. While the students did not enjoy this one as much it still helped them comprehend new material. After completing lessons, students would be required to go home and complete homework sheets to prove they understood the lesson. The teacher could then look and see if further teaching of the lesson would be necessary or if full comprehension was …show more content…
During my internship, I observed three classroom management techniques that I believed maintained order in the classroom, without creating an authoritarian lead classroom. The first technique I observed was show and tell. While this may not have seemed like a classroom management skill to me at first, further observation enlightened me to its benefits. In some situations, the teacher would need only a few moments to prepare all of his/her materials for the next lesson. By allowing students to bring an item for show and tell, the teacher could create a calm atmosphere for the students while they prepared whatever needed. Students enjoyed show and tell so it was often perceived as an reward for them. Another process used to manage the classroom was SunBucks. This was meant to represent a monetary system. It was specifically tailored to the younger children. Whenever they were noticed doing something positively regarded, they earned a SunBuck. These Sunbucks could then be used to buy rewards. The scientific approach was that this was using Pavlovian training, which rewards behaviors seen as positive and discourages negative behaviors. This was slowly reinforcing good behavior in the children, without them being aware of it. Finally, the last classroom management skill I observed was the Pin System. Similar to the colored card system, when a student misbehaved they had to move
Reading is one of the most essential skills in the human repertoire. However, teaching it can be harder than it seems, especially to …show more content…
Math is a difficult subject to teach young children, but I observed two which most children benefitted from. One of the strategies used to excite the children in their pursuit of numeric knowledge is math centers. Math centers consisted of three or more station in which the children participated in, which were all related to mathematics in some way. Some examples of the stations were Math centered computer games, which had to be teacher approved; worksheets students would complete with the teacher in a small group, math focused board games, and independent practice sheets. The students were most often excited by the use of games and at first needed help learning how to play. However, as time went by in the school year, they became proficient in how to play and would move up to higher levelled games as their lessons changed. The worksheets and practice pages ensured that that week’s lessons would be understood and processed into their long term memories. Another math strategy used was homework. While the students did not enjoy this one as much it still helped them comprehend new material. After completing lessons, students would be required to go home and complete homework sheets to prove they understood the lesson. The teacher could then look and see if further teaching of the lesson would be necessary or if full comprehension was …show more content…
During my internship, I observed three classroom management techniques that I believed maintained order in the classroom, without creating an authoritarian lead classroom. The first technique I observed was show and tell. While this may not have seemed like a classroom management skill to me at first, further observation enlightened me to its benefits. In some situations, the teacher would need only a few moments to prepare all of his/her materials for the next lesson. By allowing students to bring an item for show and tell, the teacher could create a calm atmosphere for the students while they prepared whatever needed. Students enjoyed show and tell so it was often perceived as an reward for them. Another process used to manage the classroom was SunBucks. This was meant to represent a monetary system. It was specifically tailored to the younger children. Whenever they were noticed doing something positively regarded, they earned a SunBuck. These Sunbucks could then be used to buy rewards. The scientific approach was that this was using Pavlovian training, which rewards behaviors seen as positive and discourages negative behaviors. This was slowly reinforcing good behavior in the children, without them being aware of it. Finally, the last classroom management skill I observed was the Pin System. Similar to the colored card system, when a student misbehaved they had to move