Blog Post #1-Nicole Gonzalez

For this first blog post, I am going to reflect on my first day at Blue Lakes Elementary. When I walked into Blue Lakes I noticed that you enter the classroom from the outside. That was different for me to see since the elementary school I went to was in doors in a building. My clinical teacher is Mrs. Machado. Mrs. Machado is a 3rd and 4th grade teacher for reading, language arts and math. Due to the time that I am able to go Mrs. Machado is with her 3rd grade students at that time. There are about 5 students in her class, 3 boys and 2 girls. These students are pulled out from their class only during reading and math to come and do their assignments with Mrs. Machado. The majority of her class has ADHD and one student has in Mrs. Machados words a "Mental Disability" (she didn't specify which disability).

Unfortunately, I came to do my hours the day the students were taking a test so I was not able to see the teacher teach a lesson. As the students took their test I was able to observe Mrs. Machado give the test to the student with the mental disability. I noticed that though this students test was the same as everyone else she did not complete all the questions that the other students needed to complete. Mrs. Machado explained to me that this students reading level is very low to the point that she didn't even know all of her letters from the alphabet. This student was held back two years cause of her disability. Mrs. Machado has to modify her assignments and test so that she can understand the material. With the help from the teacher the student was able to complete the test. During that time the other students  couldn't sit still in their chairs but they were still focused on their test. When the students completed their test they handed it in to the teacher and were able to spend the rest of the class time playing educational games on the computer.

After all the students finished their test I was able to ask Mrs. Machado about her classroom and what resources she uses to help her with her lessons. The resources she uses are text books, CD- ROM, computers, powerpoint, projector and smart board. For demonstrations she showed me a small individual board with magnets that she has been using for math called the fraction board. For reading she uses expository text and practices expository writing with her students. She also uses websites like discovery edu, study jam, and youtube. Another website she explained to me was brain pop which is a website with videos that break down different topics from all subjects.

In conclusion, though I was not able to observe a full lesson I was able to observe the class room in what the students call "test mode". Mrs. Machado is a kind and caring teacher who looks for all kinds of ways to help her students reach their full potential. I look forward to learning from her and her students next week when I visit again.​

Blog Post #1-Alexia Mezzini

In my first blog post, I will be talking about my field experience at Blue Lakes Elementary. I was assigned to Ms. Calderon’s 6^th grade Special Education class that consists of a total of five students (Natalia, Elio, Dion, Brian, and David). The school has recently become an academy for students with autism (the only one in Miami-Dade). Although there are no kids with autism in her classroom, Ms. Calderon explained that it has really affected the rest of the school in the sense that it is a lot more disorganized and chaotic. She has a graduate student that comes to help out twice a week but the rest of the time; she is the only one with the students. When I met her for the first time and we began setting up my schedule, she told me “please just come whenever you can, I need as much help as possible.” She was desperate for assistance of any kind and I soon learned why. In her classroom, each student has an IEP. Only two of the students are able to complete most of a task on their own, with minor supervision. On the other hand, the three other students constantly need supervision and help to complete their tasks/assignments.
            My experience so far has been challenging but very positive. Compared to my last semester’s field experience, in which I simply just observed the class with almost no interaction, I know this semester will teach me much more. I have gone twice to the school. The first time it was just to meet the teacher and students. The second time was when I actually got to be part of the class. When I arrived, the four students (one was absent) were sitting in the “reading corner” where they were about to begin listening to a CD that read the book they had chosen. Meanwhile, the teacher was sitting in her desk frantically planning the upcoming month. Natalia, the highest functioning student out of the four, was setting up the CD. Ms. Calderon told me that Natalia helps her out with the other students in the class and with setting up activities. I found her to be very kind and helpful. We went through two picture books and at the end of each book, I asked them questions about it. Before the reading corner, they had been working on math but according to Ms. Calderon, they needed a break. Once we finished the two books, we went back to math. I was in charge of helping two of the students while Natalia worked with the other student.
    We were then interrupted because it was P.E. time. This was the first time I got to see Ms. Calderon interact with her students. Her classroom management skills have been effective in the sense that her students listen and follow her directions. You can tell that they do so out of respect, not fear, and they know that she truly cares about each one of them. The students themselves are very kind-hearted and behave well. Her class joined another class that had three students with autism and we all walked together to the field. The P.E. teacher had not come in that day so we were forced to improvise and create our own activities. It seemed as though they had placed all the students with disabilities in the same time period for P.E. There were other kids with autism there as well; whom I believe had more severe autism with behavioral problems due to constant screaming and crying. The students in Ms. Calderon’s class were able to play the game we had set up, while those with autism were not involved in the game at all. Ms. Calderon was very good at picking up cues from James, one of the kids from the other class, in order to prevent him from shaking back and forth and covering his ears. Although disorganized, P.E. was an effective break for the students.
    When we got back to the classroom, the teacher offered donuts and milk to her students as an incentive to begin working on math. She continued to do her paperwork as I worked on the worksheets with the students. By the end of the day, I was able to learn each student’s capabilities: their strengths and their weaknesses. I got to spend a lot of one-on-one time with each student but did not really get to observe Ms. Calderon actually teaching a lesson. I did pick up some of her tactics for behavior management. These included eye contact, non-verbal communication, ignoring unwanted behavior, using praise/encouragement, and using rewards. She was good at giving directions correctly so her students knew exactly what to do. She had set up different “jobs” that each student had for the week. For example, Brian was the “time-keeper” this week. She was also very good at giving everything they did a purpose. When we were setting up the class to leave, she expressed her appreciation for having been so helpful. It makes me wonder how the day would have progressed if I was not there to assist her students. For the upcoming schedule, I am interested in observing how she interacts with her students during a lesson.

    Below I added Blue Lakes Elementary’s link to their page where they talk more about their “Autism Intensive Communication Academy.” I also added the link to the article “Classroom Management: 7 Tips From An Experienced Teacher,” which I found helpful to keep in mind next time I observe the class.

http://bluelakeselementary.dadeschools.net/autism.html

http://www.specialeducationguide.com/pre-k-12/behavior-and-classroom-management/classroom-management-7-tips-from-an-experienced-teacher/
           

Bring Out The Best: Hellman's Light Mayo

    7:15am The students start to settle down as the morning announcements come on. Some of them talk through it, but this doesn't seem to be a big deal. 

    7:30am Mr. Mayo gets up and takes command of the classroom; AP Physics is about to begin. Before getting into the material he engages the classroom by asking how everyone is doing. Then, he notices a lot of empty seats in the front of his class while many of his students are hiding in the back. He tells the class that he needs those seats filled and gives them time to come towards the front. Those that don't voluntarily move get told which seats they have to move to. He is polite and jokes with the students during this process. He starts off his lesson by pointing the class towards his shirt (he seems to always be wearing some funny and relevant graphic t-shirt) and then uses it as a springboard to jump into his lesson. 

    7:45am After a brief introduction of the material he proceeds to tie the current material to what they covered in the prior week. He asks very directed questions to help guide the class develop the connection between the lectures and is really good at managing the wait-time. After a bit of silence and having looked across the room, he either rephrases the question or asks a new to help the students go in the right direction.Whether a students answer was right or wrong he provides positive reinforcement. 

    This is a typical morning in Mr. Mayo's classroom at Coral Gables Senior High. He has been teaching for many years and currently teaches a variety of classes consisting of AP Physics, IB Physics, AP Calculus, and computer programming. Unfortunately, I have been unable to observe any of his calculus classes, however I do not believe his teaching style would change much from class to class; only the content would change. He chooses to teach by primarily using a "white board" app on his smart board and by engaging the class. He writes down the critical concepts on the board and draws pictures of the content whenever appropriate. He makes sure to tie in the concepts they are learning in class to real world applications. For example they were talking about how we knew the Earth was around 4.5 billion years old which is because of the half-life of uranium. A couple of minutes later, as they're talking about other elements of the periodic table, he mentions how in the past people wanted to learn how to turn lead to gold (alchemy) which we currently know how to do. This lead to a class discussion of why the sticks in lead pencils are referred to as lead. After clearing up some misconceptions he reels the class back from their tangent and continues with the lesson.

    Overall, I think his teaching style is effective, especially for such a difficult class. He tries to keep the engaged through anecdotes, jokes, and goal-directed questions. As an instructor, I can relate to how difficult it may be to use wait-time, as sometimes I end up answering my own questions out of a panic or to save time. In my job, as I only work with four students at a time, I am also able to employ differentiated instruction in order to best teach my students, however given his class size of around 20 students and the nature of the class, this technique isn't really required. Regardless Mr. Mayo manages to keep things light in such a heavy course and has the students best interests in mind.

    

Blog Post 1- Peri Green

I am doing my field experience at Southside Elementary, in a third grade class in which the teacher teaches math and science. Since the teacher only teaches math and science she has two classes who rotate between her and another teacher, whom teaches Language Arts/Reading. Therefore my observations are of two different classes. In the morning, I observe a class with eleven boys and six girls. In the afternoon, I observe a class with 10 girls and seven boys. Both classes are filled with bilingual students. The teacher knows this, and allows her classroom to be a very culturally relevant one by speaking in both Spanish and English, as well as labeling posters around the classroom in both Spanish and English.

In the morning, the teacher starts the lesson off pretty abruptly. She tells the students to take out a homework assignment and goes straight into answering the questions without asking them how they felt about the homework assignment. The students often fall behind and ask questions like "What number are we on?" because the teacher often starts a lesson without asking if the class has acquired the materials needed. There was one incident where the teacher rushed through the answers for the homework assignment, and only answered 1/2 of the questions on the page and then put the homework assignment up to move onto the next activity. This caused a student to yell out, "I wasted my time doing my homework. You didn't even do it all!" The teacher yelled back at the student saying, "Oh well. It's not like you do your homework anyways! This is the first time."

In the afternoon, the teacher started the lesson off with a pop quiz on the homework from the night before. There are four students in the afternoon class who the teacher says had IEPs. They are put in this class to serve as a Least Restrictive Environment (LRE), and have a special education teacher whom sits in the class with them. Prior to the special education teacher arriving, the teacher asked me to copy down the quiz that she had written on the board on a separate sheet of paper so that the students with special needs could just fill on the blanks. Though there are four students with special needs, she only told me that one has dsylexia and that another has anxiety. All four students received there own special copy of the quiz, so that they wouldn't be required to write as much as the other students, considering that it takes them longer to do the assignments.

The students in the morning class and the students in the afternoon class are split up by academic achievement levels. Although the afternoon class, consists of four special education students, it is still considered the more advanced/gifted class. The distinction between the two classes is also noticeable in the way they behave. The first class misbehaves, and act as if they are unaware of the rules. Whereas the second class is on task, and the teacher spends more time teaching new material and less time fixing behavioral issues. A reason for this may be because the students are aware of their distinctions and act accordingly.

I can relate because ever since 4th grade, I was in a magnet/High Achievers class. In this case, I was in what would be considered the afternoon class. However, I had friends who weren't in magnet and were in the general level classes. They would constantly tell me the distinction between their classes and mine. We had less students in our classes, but they had significantly more. We were more well-behaved than them, and we learned more material. Though, this is not to say students in magnet programs are better than those in general education classes, it is to say that students do understand what's expected of them even at an early age. Being in magnet, we were constantly told by teachers that we were essentially better in every aspect than those in general classes. And we simply lived up to the expectations bestowed upon us, just as the classes I am observing do the same.

Blog Post #1

For the spring semester, I am completing my field experience hours at Ludlam Elementary School. Ludlam Elementary is located on 6639 SW 74 Street in South Miami. I am assigned to a first grade class. The school is public and provides educational services to students in Pre-kindergarten through fifth grade where the students are required to wear uniforms. The predominant ethnic group of students at Ludlam Elementary School is Hispanic.

Upon my first visit, I was extremely excited to meet my clincal teacher, her students and to find out exactly what makes Ludlam Elementary School an “A” school. When I entered the front office, each of the ladies working were on the phone and completely disregarded me as I asked where to sign in. Nobody questioned who I was, if I needed help, or checked my identification(s) which I find all extremely problematic and worrisome. When I finally made it to my assigned classroom, the students were at lunch and she was eating at her desk and talking to another college student who is also completing their hours from, I believe, FIU. Right from the get-go, the teacher expresses to me, “Get ready because these students are horrible.”  It was then that I knew this was not going to be the teacher I wanted to resemble as a future educator. It is evident that this teacher has lost all passion for teaching and is worn out.

I have many issues with the way in which she “teaches,” the way her class is run and the way she speaks to her students. So far, I have never seen the teacher do any fun activities with her students, there is no display of student work in the class and there is no classroom management whatsoever. Some of the students fear to ask her certain questions like, “May I use the bathroom?” because she is good for embarrassing them by hollering ‘No!’ for no apparent reason. This is extremely ineffective because students are only allowed to use the in-class bathroom for “#1” and can only use the outside hallway bathroom for anything else. So, since many students are afraid to ask, they are unable to concentrate in class to complete any work given.

My TAL 305 course has educated me that, as a future teacher, to always help students know you are a caring person who knows and understands them and can be trusted to provide a safe, supportive environment. I think it is important to create a classroom climate in which students experience support from their peers and teacher. Students should always view their classroom as a “safe zone.”

Below, I have found an amazing educational video illustrating a first grade class promoting differentiated instruction, ways in which student voice can be elevated, and student choice. I hope you all enjoy it!

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/academic-choice-lesson

Blog One

I will be reflecting on my experience with Ms. Garcia's fifth grade class at Palm Springs North Elementary. Ms. Garcia is responsible for teaching math and science to two different classes. She has her homeroom class in the morning and after lunch they switch over to Mrs. Gonzalez's language arts and social studies class and she gets Ms. Gonzalez's homeroom class. In the morning Ms. Garcia was distracted on the computer therefore, she was not at the door to greet students or parents as they entered the classroom. Still once students walked into class they were familiar with their routines and went straight to starting their day. They were all mainly working on pulling out last night’s homework and talking amongst each other. Once Ms. Garcia was ready to begin class she did not really have a transition for the students, she just began to speak over them. This method was very unsuccessful because as she was going over the homework only half the class was paying any attention. Eventually the students were talking over Ms. Garcia and she raised her voice for everyone to please be quiet and the class settled. A student then asked for help on a question and here you got see some of Ms. Garcia's more effective teaching methods. She began to explain the first step to the students question and once it came to the second step she said, "Now I want one's to teach two's the next step, do not begin until I say". Then she clapped three times the students clapped back and began helping each other. Then after a minute she said, “Switch for the next step”, and the number two’s began to explain the number ones. Then she said “Ok class” and the students were quiet and focused on her. They all went over the question together and agreed on the same answer. The students were very engaged with one another and knew exactly who their partners were and the exercise ran very smoothly. Ms. Garcia had a lot of these simple strategies spread out through class. It seems that Ms. Garcia has instilled transitions and routine well into the classroom but was just having an off morning to start the day. As she continued with her lessons you could tell that Ms. Garcia really knew her students. From the small amount of time I spent observing the class and the teacher just about anyone can easily pick up on the great connections she has made. Ms. Garcia's class was well engaged in their lessons because she attended to their differences. In the moments some students lost focus Ms. Garcia would attend to those students with patience. You can tell that she treated each child as an individual and was familiar with their habits. A perfect example was when she had all the children working on an assignment and a student suddenly put his head down and stopped working completely. As soon as Ms. Garcia realized this she pulled the child aside and said to him, “Robert, remember what you promised? Next time the work was too hard you would not stop trying, you would come to me for help’”.   This really showed me that there is always a reason for misbehavior. Instead of assuming and punishing the student for not doing his work Ms. Garcia had learned Roberts’s habit.  Now that she knows he is acting out because he is giving up she can address the issue in a way that will maximize learning for Robert.

Reflection Blog

For field experience, I am placed in a third grade inclusion class.  When walking to my class with the secretary from the office, she warned me about the difficulties about being in this class.  My first observation was made even before I stepped into Mrs. Browns room.  I realized how the entire school saw these children as difficult to deal with and as a problem.

When I walked into the classroom the students were working on their portfolios for the third grade test at the end of the year.  Mrs. Brown was sitting at her desk while her students sat in silence.  I walked up to her desk to introduce myself and after a few minutes of me standing and talking to her she asked if I wanted to sit.  I accepted the offer and went to pull out the chair from one of the computers.  As I did this, she told me not to and got a student to get me the seat instead.  

As we were talking, she gave me the information of how many students were in the class, that this was an inclusion self contained classroom, how many students were special education (SPED as she called them), how many had IEPs, and other information that would be helpful to learn in the classroom.  

I would say that we were talking for about fifteen minutes and having a really nice and friendly conversation.  However, when it came to the students she did not have this same carefree and fun personality.  She is very strict with the students throughout the day.  She even said to me that she feels the need to be strict with them so that they know that she is serious about what she wants from them.  When the students were done with their portfolios, they were told to put their heads down on their desks.  However when someone didn't listen to these instructions, she would call out their name and raise her voice telling them to put their heads down.  She also continuously used the words "listen", "focus", "quiet" and "stop" during this time.  When it came time to hand in their work, she would get frustrated with the students who didn't write their names and the date on the papers.  Also if they forgot to bring up all their papers, she would let the student know that it was unacceptable.

During the math lesson, she became slightly less stern with the students.  When she asked a question, she allowed them to answer as a class instead of just having one student raise their hand.  She showed a Brain Pop jr. video to get the students engaged in the lesson dealing with perimeter.  However when it came time to working independently on the do now and on the assignment after the lesson took place, she would yet again raise her voice at the students not staying on task.

Although she is very strict with the students in her class, she has been teaching inclusion for eight years and feels that this is the best way for it to be taught.  She feels that the students need a strict classroom in order to learn the material and a daily routine. 

The last thing that I would reflect on, is how both Ms. Brown and the special ed. teacher Ms. Cohen both commented on how I should change majors.  They both said that this work is exhausting and a headache (this was said in class and in front of the students).  Mrs. Brown said that she does this job because she is passionate about student learning but it is very difficult at the same time.  

Blog Post 1: Samantha Beverly

I was placed at Tropical Elementary school. Tropical is a school that seems to be very relaxed but very devoted to special education. On my first day doing field experience, I noticed many special education classes walking together through the halls, I also noticed that many of the general education students reacted in a positive way when seeing the special education classes in the hallway. My clinical teacher is very motherly towards her students, she has great classroom management, and she is able to get students to become very engaged in the tasks at hand. I have been to field experience twice so far, and each time it was a positive experience. I felt welcomed in the classroom as an observer and as a future teacher, my purpose for being in the classroom was adequately explained to the children, and I feel that the tasks I have to accomplish for my university classes are respected and she will allow me to accomplish them. I mention this because I have found that not feeling welcomed in a classroom by the clinical teacher is often hindering to the work that university students can do in a classroom.

I usually come to observe every Friday. Friday at Tropical Elementary is test day. The first Friday I came, it was the day before Valentine's day. That day the children did not do very much testing. The next Friday I came to class, the students took a math test, spelling test, and a vocabulary test. As the students worked on their first worksheet before the tests, they were all on task and engaged in the work that they were doing. other than the occasional talking, I did not observe any behavioral issues in the classroom. Ms. Smith's teaching method seems to be very effective because almost all students are engaged with every task, and all students know the way that things are to be done in the classroom. Hopefully I will be able to observe a lesson sometime in the future. 

Blog Post 1- Berliner

For this first blog post, I will reflect on my experience with Ms. Ramos at the Tropical Elementary School.  To start off, I’ve never seen a school set up like this one before.  Ms. Ramos is the math and science teacher for all grades 1-5.  Where I’m from, in an elementary classroom setting, you have one teacher the whole day for all subjects.  When I first observed her classroom, to teach all different ages throughout the day was mind-blowing to me. 

When I first met Ms. Ramos, she had a very shy and sweet disposition.  But after spending a couple of hours observing her, her quiet disposition warped into a mean and stern persona.  I was shocked to see how she dealt with stress.  A student repeatedly was asking her a question while she was writing an email and instead of saying something like, “wait one second,” she stood up and in front of all the students, started screaming at this student.  I was in astonished.  I felt so bad for the student because if I were the teacher, I would have gone a completely different route.  I would’ve definitely been sweeter and more patient.  By calling this young girl out for repeatedly asking a question, the rest of the class was from then on afraid to ask Ms. Ramos a question.  The children’s faces were terrified.  This definitely made the students do their math exercises in silence and made them get their work done faster, but the rest of the hour; they were petrified to ask any question.  If Ms. Ramos answered in a more welcoming tone, the students wouldn’t have been so afraid of her.  She also would have more than one grade level in her class at time, which confused me.  At one point, the majority of the class was in the fifth grade, but there was a side table with 4 1^st graders doing different work.  I was very confused about that too.  She would work with the first graders at the table while the fifth graders worked on this packet that was going to be due three days later.  

Her room was also very clustered.  Since she teaches grades 1-5 in math, she has to have her classroom appeal to all five-grade levels.  On the white board she has agendas for each grade for what they must accomplish each week, but it gets messy and confusing with all of the grades. 

She gives each grade a packet full of math problems for their level and makes a certain amount due at the end of the week.  This gave the kids a goal to accomplish by the end of every week, but not every student worked on the packet efficiently.  Since she wouldn’t check up on them every so often, the kids would mess around and not get so much work done.  At one point, Ms. Ramos came over to the 1^st graders to go over a problem in the packet and she lifted a random student’s packet and he hadn’t done one problem in the whole packet, which was due a day later.  She called him out for it and set up a meeting to have with his parents and himself to discuss this problem.  I thought that these goals were easily attainable but she didn’t give them enough attention for the students to want to achieve them and get them done.

Blog Post 1: Reflection

For this first blog post, I plan to reflect on my brief experience with my former clinical teacher, Ms. Munnerlyn. I spent just a little over three hours with her between two of her language arts classes at Coral Gables Senior High and felt I was able to get a good gist of her teaching style for both an Honors English class and a General Education class. The same classroom was utilized for both courses. It was well decorated, displaying posters that fostered individuality, kindness, respect, and hard work. In addition, countless textbooks and narrative books lined the walls and around her desk. One would think the individual teaching in that kind of atmosphere would wish to create a comfortable and learning-conducive environment. Interestingly enough, she was exactly the opposite.
Ms. Munnerlyn was a cold, unapproachable teacher who placed great emphasis on competition and punishment. This is the aspect of her teaching that I noticed above all else and wish to focus on now. The first course I sat in on was her Honors English class.

Before I can even begin, I should mention that she showed up 20 minutes late to class. This placed the idea in my mind, and I'm sure many of her students' minds, that she did not care about or place value on their time and learning. When she did arrive, she spent over 30 minutes attempting to gathers grades for her students' journals that they were to complete on a weekly basis. She simply asked those who had done the assignment to raise their hands, then openly announced to the class that those who did not do it got Cs (only 6 students received credit). This was her favorite choice of punishment, the dreaded C. She openly and publicly humiliated students by assigning Cs and/or detentions. Within the course of three hours, she had given more Cs than any other grade, one detention, and took 10 minutes out of class time to call a students parent, all the while sharing this information with a class of 25 other students. I found that this not only intimidated the kids but made them fear her and fear their place in her course. None of them seemed excited to participate or ask questions. I later found out that this was due to a greater reason than just her punitive measures. The day I observed was the day of class presentations in which each group would utilize a PowerPoint and notes to explain Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. There were hints of effective instruction here when she provided groups with proper directions prior to presenting, yet she did not explain the purpose of the activity nor her specifications when grading them. Here is where I found a large issue with her teaching style (besides the obvious rudeness and lack of concern for her students' feelings): she interrupted the groups' presentations constantly, not with constructive feedback or concerns, but she essentially took over the presentation and spoke for them. She did not allow them to share their ideas or possible new connections or information they had learned. Of course her students were not enthusiastic about participating in class because they were not even given the chance to. During the first group, she cut them off after maybe 30 seconds and just reviewed old information on rhythm then had the group take their seats. This was alarming for many reasons, the first of which is that she had students prepare a presentation and did not give them the opportunity to show their work. I think that in the students' mind, these assignments now felt less necessary and important in their learning process, which is something no teacher aims to do. She also never gave positive feedback during these presentations and otherwise. In fact, the only glimpse of kindness I found in her approach was when she complimented students' on their dress or hair, which I also found somewhat inappropriate.

 For the next course, although a different level and curriculum, Ms. Munnerlyn adopted a similar harsh and ineffective style. The kids in the General Ed course did not have to provide presentations, but rather performed individual grammar activities and a whole-class reading of Julius Ceasar. Again, Ms. Munnerlyn revealed her cold demeanor to her class. She consistently told them the grammar activity was easy and they should be getting it, making the students who weren't feel inferior. Yet, I did see an improvement in her during this hour and a half class. She allowed for more questions and contributions from the students. They even suggested the idea of "role playing" during whole-class reading and Ms. Munnerlyn let them try it out and see. She defined difficult vocabulary and began the exploration of new words based on context clues. Students in the General Ed class seemed more attentive and involved and certainly less fearful. I believe that if she had done more of what she did in this course with the Honors course, the kids would have been less anxious and been able to explore their learning more. It was difficult for me to watch her as she followed through with her teaching approaches. I even felt sorry for the kids that they were stuck with her! I truly think that a teacher who visibly cares for their students and is able to employ effective reward and punishment techniques intertwined with proper teaching methods is one who knows what they are doing. Although Ms. Munnerlyn had been at Coral Gables Senior High for quite some time it seemed as though she did not. She seemed disinterested in her student's success or even mine for that matter. As you know, I will be switching instructors for the remainder of the semester and I hope to write about more positive, helpful observations in the following posts.

Non Verbal Communication in the Classroom

Blog two: Determine a goal or two before the field experiences. Possible goals include focusing on a teacher’s questioning style or nonverbal communication. Once you have determined that goal observe and pay attention to those aspects of the your goal while still taking notes in the observation guide. Reflect on the observation and blog about what you observed, i.e. if you chose to focus on non-verbal communication then reflect on the teacher’s interactions with the students and the students’ reaction to the teacher. Non-verbal communication BODY MOVEMENTS, GESTURES AND POSTURES Movements and gestures by the hands, arms, legs, and other parts of the body and face are the most pervasive types of nonverbal messages and the most difficult to control. It is estimated that there are over 200.000 physical signs capable of stimulating meaning in another person (some social scientists state even 700.000). For example, there are 23 distinct eyebrow movements, each capable of stimulating a different meaning. Humans express attitudes toward themselves and vividly through body motions and posture. Bodies movements elucidate true messages about feeling that cannot be masked. Because such avenues of communication are visual, they travel much farther than spoken words and are unaffected by the presence of noise that interrupt, or cancels out speech. People communicate by the way they walk, stand, and sit. We tend to be more relaxed with friends or when addressing those of lower status. Body orientation also indicates status or liking of the other individual. More direct orientation is related to a more positive attitude. Body movements and postures alone have no exact meaning, but they can greatly support or reject the spoken word. It these two means of communication are dichotomized and contradict each other, some result will be a disordered image and most often the nonverbal will dominate. Body movement and gesture in the classroom The variety of ways in which teacher and students walk, stand, or sit can all affect interpersonal perception. The teacher who slouches or twitches when talking to students is not likely to be perceived as a composed person. Conversely, the teacher who always appears unruffled regardless of the circumstances is likely to be perceived as cold and withdrawn. Body postures and movements are frequently indicators of self-confidence, energy, fatigue, or status. In the classroom, students keen to receive body message of enthusiasm or boredom about the subject matter being taught can sense confidence or frustration from the unconscious behaviors of teachers.

REFLECTING ON FIELD EXPERIENCES “Reflection is what allows us to learn from our experiences; it is an assessment of where we have been and where we want to be next.” (Wolf & Siu-Runyan, 1996 in Martin, 1999, p. 33). After completing an observation, reflection will maximize the benefits of the experience. It is crucial to reflect on what is seen and done so that these experiences will have enduring meaning. Simple observations can provide a springboard for questions, analyses and reflections. Planning and implementation of a lesson are followed by reflection. Reflective teachers practice “careful, systematic consideration of practice”, “constantly evaluate their goals and objectives”, and are “keen observers of students (and other teachers)” (Martin, 1999, p. 33). GUIDELINES FOR REFLECTIONS 1. Are my reflections more than simple descriptions?
2. Have I collected useful data?
3. Have I considered (un)successful lesson aspects?
4. Did I examine the conditions/context that may have influenced the lesson's outcome? 5. Did I identify a problem or raise meaningful questions?
6. Have I made comparisons?
7. Have I referenced research or made connections to coursework? 8. Have I analyzed collected data as well as the situation?
9. Have I proposed a testable hypothesis? Blog One: Reflect on a few aspects of an experience. Using the observation notes as your guide, choose one aspect of the teaching observed thus far and reflect deeply on its effectiveness. Think about the students in the class and their reaction. Did they seem engaged? Why or why not? Provide examples. What takes place during teaching?
 What are the goals of different subject areas?
 Which of these goals are most attainable?
 What are (in)effective methods? What makes them (in)effective? What are efficient procedures?