What Does A Good School Look Like?

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FieldBlogPost8-GESU

Today was my last day of field observation at Gesu Elementary School. It was a Friday, and it was the day before Halloween, so we did a lot of fun Halloween activities. When I got there, I had a great conversation with the lady in the front office. It is always a good thing to be outgoing because you never know what kind of connections they may have. When I walked into the classroom, the kids were making Halloween birthday/get well cards. They were making the cards for the custodian at Gesu, Mr. Eugene, who is currently sick. While they were making the cards, Mrs. Nemeth had me and another student observer, Haley, look up educational Halloween games on the iPads for the kids to play. The next class then eventually came in and they had to take their bone/muscle test. She gave them the test, which looked like a model of a skeleton where the kids had to name the bones and muscles, Along with the model of the skeleton, she wrong additional questions on the chalk board. When the kids take tests, Mrs. Nemeth asks for complete silence and all eyes on their own papers. If she sees a kid look around or talk, she will move them to another desk. It is very proper of her to do this because then the kids will learn to study and take in information on their own for evaluations. After the test, that class made their Halloween birthday/get well cards. While they did that, Mrs. Nemeth had me and Haley go to the bookstore to get orange paper. We then went to the meeting room and made a giant jack-o-lantern because Mrs. Nemeth was planning to play pin the nose of the jack-o-lantern later in the day. When I returned to the classroom, the next class was in for reading. They were sharing all the things they found and learned on the word they looked up Wednesday. Some of the stuff was very interesting!
Two important things Mrs. Nemeth stressed today was that technology is huge and you must be flexible. We were on the iPads a lot and there are so many forms of technology around her classroom that are helpful, such as microscopes, iPads, the document camera, etc. You must be flexible on days like Friday. There are so many things going on and it seemed very hectic because of Halloween, but it seemed like Mrs. Nemeth had everything under control no matter what and was going with the flow, but still managed to have a lot of activities planned.
Overall, my experience at Gesu was unforgettable. I was able to not only learn from Mrs. Nemeth, but also from the kids. Before the experience, I was just thinking I wanted to get my feet wet and see how things were at an elementary level. By the end, I seemed to really enjoy the atmosphere and the way the kids acted towards me. I made many connections within the school and am very grateful I got to work with the kids and help out Mrs. Nemeth!

FieldBlogPost7-GESU

Every day at Gesu is another opportunity to learn more I feel like. It was rainy outside today, so the kids had indoor recess. I had a lot of fun hanging out with the kids and playing heads up 7 up. They were so energetic! For some reason, when they stay inside they get more talkative I feel like. Mrs. Nemeth told me that conferences were coming up. Their conferences are just like any other conference. The only difference is that the kid writes a letter to their parents about their progress and what they think. Mrs. Nemeth does this so the conference is still all about the kid and not parents and teacher. When the first class started, they began by sharing some of their food pyramids that they made on the document camera. A document camera is kind of like a more advanced overhead. The food chains were super creative and I loved seeing that! After they all shared, they took time to review for their test, which is on Friday. Mrs. Nemeth told me that she always gives the kids about a weeks notice for a test because the kids are also very busy. To review for the test, they played an online game on the smart board where they had to put all the bones a skeleton. It was on a very convenient website called ABCya.com. After that, the kids got on the iPads and took bone and muscle quizzes and played games on Brain Pop. In reading, I made a poster with 8 Halloween words on it. I then lettered them from A-H. We gave each kid a letter and they had to research the word and write down fun facts on a notecard. Mrs. Nemeth touched on one important thing today with the kids. They went on to talk about missing assignments and how important being prepared in. Being prepared reflects your grade! Also, the kids who were prepared for the day got candy. Lastly, the most important thing that I learned today would be that you must be patient! if you are not patient, there could be a lot of chaos in a classroom. Mrs. Nemeth is very patient with her kids and that is a very admirable trait in a teacher!

FieldBlogPost6-GESU

I decided to go over the minimum amount of hours for this project because I wanted more experience. My sixth day at Gesu was great! I was out of my seat almost the whole time! I got to make a bar graph on excel with owl pellet information and I got to teach the kids how to make the graph. Then, Mrs. Nemeth showed them how to make a graph on Microsoft Word. I got to help a boy look at his rick in a microscope. I went to the copy room and put the walky talky's back on the chargers and then went to count the Halloween raffle prizes so Mrs. Nemeth would know how many winners to choose. As I walked through the hall ways, every single teacher smiled at me and said hi! All of the kids that are in Mrs. Nemeth's class when I was there said hi and waved to me in the hall ways also. The kids definitely seemed more outgoing towards me every day. When I got back to the class, Mrs. Nemeth announced they were having a bone quiz on Friday. I thought it was good that she told them 4 days in advance! After science, they had reading. The kids read a biography on Washington Irving. After they read that, they read his story, The Legend of Sleep Hollow. I had to eave in the middle of that, but regardless, my day was great!

FieldBlogPost5-GESU

My fifth day I had to arrive at Gesu a little bit late. When I walked in the room, science class was going on. They were talking about the owl pellet dissection and they all said hi to me. When I sat down, Mrs. Nemeth had me help three kids with an owl pellet dissection because they were absent the previous day. All of the other kids then got in their groups and discussed what they found.Then they created a chart/graph with all of their data from the owl pellet. I got to walk around the room and check on the kids and ask about their numbers. The kids seemed very open and comfortable in the classroom. It was a Friday again, so of course the kids had a lot to say other than science. They got a little hyper at times too. After they talked about their data, I got to go to the front of the room and teach them about food pyramids and food webs. After I was done, they got to make their own food pyramid. It was a good feeling to know that the kids understood what I taught.
I learned two new cool things today. One thing I learned is that there is a great opportunity for me to get more involved with helping with after school care. Also, she showed me eMaze. It was a website that is like an art gallery. You can make your own power point and it is in 3D. Overall, I had a short day, but I got to help and teach a decent amount! I can't wait for more work on Monday!

FieldBlogPost- Shaker Heights High School

Going to Shaker Heights High School was personally a very big change for me after going to Mayfield Middle School and doing all my placement work at Gesu in a fourth grade classroom. It wasn't a bad change necessarily, I enjoyed my time at the high school. When I got there, we were welcomed by two admission directors who talked to us about the school and high school education. One thing they touched on that was big was the IB classes. I was not too familiar with these classes and still am not really, because I never had it at any schools I went to. I know that it is offered for early childhood students and it is called PYP. Middle school kids it is called MYP. When you get to high school, it is called DP. IB classes are for more enriched learners and connect issues talked about in class to all around the world. The other thing they told us that I thought was interesting was that Shaker has about 130 clubs/organizations students can do to get involved. That is A LOT! I don't even think my high school had half of that many clubs/organizations.
The first classroom I sat in on was an engineering class taught by Dr. Marencik. This class was an elective and it was an application course. The classroom was a lot different than a middle school. There was a lot of diversity in the school/classrooms and there weren't a lot of visual aids like there would be in a middle school. The only thing I noticed is that he had a "Learning Objectives" board where he had papers about the project they were currently doing. The students that take this class do group projects all year based on application and being able to create things. When I was there, they were working on a dwelling project. They were to create a dwelling and then make a 3D module. The project was very researched based and then they would build. This allows the kids to be open minded. For example, I saw two kids trying to build a dwelling in outer space. The kids get graded on their logbook, participation, presentation, the physical project, and their final paper. The teacher said in the final paper he likes quality over quantity. Like Mayfield, before we went into a classroom we had to address a question we had. I asked, "what makes a good teacher?" In this class, I could tell the teacher made the students feel comfortable because they weren't afraid to approach him. He also walked around to every table to check up.
In the second classroom, I was in a Social Issues class, but I only got to stay for 15 minutes. It was a very laid back classroom setting. The students sat around in kind of a "U" shape at tables while the teacher was in the middle. At the beginning of the class, they discussed an introduction to a book they started reading. The kids were very open. They talked about obesity and how their are social issues in the food corporation. What makes her a good teacher? She had great open discussions, she challenged the students while involving them well, and it seemed like the kids respected her.

BlogPost8

Bill Ayers talks a lot about building bridges in order to achieve greatness and a comfortable feel in every classroom. I believe that this concept of building bridges means making students feel comfortable. If there is an awkward tension in a classroom, that can't be a good learning environment for any student. It is essential a teacher allows students to be open-minded. A teacher must build a bridge with every student so every student can be open to discussion, learning, etc. I believe that this "bridge" is something that a teacher has to build that allows every student to succeed using the tools and skills that each students has learning through prior experience.
One pattern that I see and often sticks out to me is the students ability to communicate well as they age. Being comfortable to talk and find one's voice is a crucial part of this building bridges. Students should be able to feel comfortable asking questions or being involved in discussions.
In making a lesson plan for a high school world history class, my topic would be the Holocaust. There are a few key things that I would make sure my students understood. First , I would make sure they generally knew that it was all about. I would show a video that gives a good summary of the Holocaust. Next, I would get more in detail with it. I would cover who was involved in this historical event, strategies that were used during, significant people, and the result and what it meant for each country involved. For the United State, this of course meant that our population increased dramatically because so many Jews immigrated over to the U.S.