Blog 8

Blog 8

350-
This was a really interesting week for my 350 class. We had the chance to take a class trip to a low performing school and spend the entire day there. The school has a lot of strategies in place to raise their school scores in their school improvement plan. They have succeeded a lot and achieved a significant amount of growth, which is the main goal for every school. Having the opportunity to experience this classroom was challenging, intimidating, sad at times, but overall so so worth it. I left with a heavy heart because of the sweet little souls I encountered. Not all of the kids were well behaved at all, and a lot of them had serious behavioral issues. It just opened my eyes to the amount of poverty that truly is out there and how helpless children can be to their life circumstances. Working at a school like this is no easy feat, but to get to be a smiling and caring face in these kids lives must be absolutely beyond rewarding. I'm really thankful I got to have this experience and am grateful that this school is taking so many steps to get better every day. The teacher I got to observe was very loving and attentive to her kids. You could tell she earned their respect by being a firm, and kind presence. Kids thrive when they feel important and this teacher made a great effort to do that. Right away I connected this class to NC teaching standard number 2. This standard says that teachers establish a respectful environment for a diverse population of students. This standard also says that teachers are to embrace diversity in the school community and in the world. This teacher was an amazing example to me of embracing diversity and I hope to be a teacher like that. She gives them all individual attention and there was one boy in particular that truly never wanted to leave her side. She later said, "oh yeah that little boy is precious, I call him my little leech!" She just went out of her way in so many ways for these kids and it just really felt special to witness.
I did my outside research on: "What is really the difference between high- and low-performing schools?"
http://schoolleader.typepad.com/school-leader/2016/01/what-i-see-in-low-performing-schools.html
"The bottom line is that, if you work in a low-performing, high-poverty school, the stakes are simply higher to improve student learning." I really agree with this and am thankful for all the current and future teachers that work in these schools. 


410-
We are still continuing our topic of integration and I saw this demonstrated exceedingly well in the classroom I observed. The teacher I observed blended subjects and topics effortlessly and smoothly. My professor says this takes a lot of hard work and practice/ trial and error to get good at! I can't wait to have more real life practice with integration and watch teachers put this idea into action. I think its such a beautiful thing to be passionate about children receiving a whole and all-inclusive education that prepares them for the real world and for further education. 
This website told me 11 ways that blended learning can be incorporated into a kindergarten classroom. 
http://web.learnbop.com/blog/11-ways-to-incorporate-blended-learning-into-kindergarten

"There are a number of learning opportunities when technology is integrated effectively into the classroom: learning can be individualized, students can collaborate, and teachers become facilitators. Recognizing this, I opted to give blended learning a try in my own kindergarten classroom. And indeed, by the end of the year, my five and six year olds were able to operate computers independently, created projects together, and were developing some basic coding skills."