Elementary School Observation

I had the opportunity to visit an Elementary School media center this past week. Since my main observation site is a high school, I wanted the opportunity to see what a teacher-librarian’s roles were in these younger grade levels. It was an entirely different atmosphere: I noticed the layout of the media center placed the most emphasis on helping students access the resources the facility had to offer.  There were large signs indicating popular authors on the shelves, the computers were located in a separate, spacious area, and the nonfiction section had signs on each shelf listing the Dewey Decimal numbers and the subjects students could find within each range of numbers.  Students seemed to have no trouble navigating the collection, and I was impressed with the students’ ability to research independently and use the computers for different educational activities.  In some ways, these younger students appeared to have stronger research skills than many of the high school students with whom I’ve interacted this semester.

The librarian, Mrs. Frost, was energetic and enthusiastic about her job.  She explained that she viewed herself not only as a librarian, but a valuable member of the school’s support staff.  Mrs. Frost explained the importance of volunteering for school functions and ensuring the school understood the importance of the media center and its specialist.  Her schedule, to my surprise, was quite flexible for an Elementary School librarian –– she had a flexible schedule for the first half of every day and worked on a fixed schedule the last half of the day.  Every week, this schedule would alternate.  I found it to be confusing, and Mrs. Frost admitted that it could be difficult to get used to. Because of this, she emphasized the importance of planning ahead and always being prepared to adapt to each day’s requirements.

Although the media center was small, I thought it was quite welcoming.  Mrs. Frost explained that they had renovated recently, and the space was much larger than what she had to work with before.  During my observations, I helped check books in and out, learned about budgeting and the demographics of the school and community, and aided Mrs. Frost in planning the school’s upcoming Farm Day event.  I felt as if I was very “hands-on” in this observation, which is something that I haven’t had the opportunity to do in even my main field experience site.  Mrs. Frost was helpful and supportive, and she invited me to come back to volunteer whenever I had the opportunity.  I think I’ll take her up on the offer.

 

School Improvement Plans

 

 

One of the many responsibilities of my supervisor is leading the School Improvement Team, where they create the School Improvement Plan (SIP).  The team meets quite frequently to discuss the school’s vision and mission, and then they create a document, the actual SIP, to present to the rest of the school system by the end of the year.  My supervisor works on the plan quite a bit, so I have had the opportunity to see how the team really works, as well as the results of the SIT’s many meetings.

According to the rough draft of the SIP, the school’s vision for the next year is to incorporate more technology into each classroom, helping students become well-informed 21st Century learners.  The initial plan is to implement the many functions of Google Drive within the school, including Docs, Presentations, Forms, and more.  Using this concept, my supervisor came up with an extremely creative way to present this plan, which I believe will be an effective way to inform the School System of what they plan to do.

First, my supervisor will request that PCs are available for all those attending the presentation event.  Then, the presentation will include the faculty and staff following along through Google Drive, discovering the SIP while learning how to utilize these useful tools.  The idea is that if educators are comfortable using the tools, they will be more likely to include them in class lessons.  Plus, educators will be able to serve the students and teach them about these technological resources more effectively. My supervisor believes this presentation style will not only convey their information effectively, but it will also provide an educational experience for all involved.

 

First Classroom Observation

Today, I had the opportunity to complete my first classroom observation for the semester.  The teacher a observed, Mrs. Johnson, teaches one Freshman English class and two AP Language classes.  I observed the Freshman English class, which was beginning a new unit on short stories today.

This was, by far, the best observation experience I ever had.  Mrs. Johnson was enthusiastic and engaging, and she showed compassion for each of her students.  The first thing I noticed was the way she treated all her students as individuals; it was evident that she has gotten to know each unique personality.  She adapted her lesson to many different learning styles, and  the students seemed interested in the lesson. I observed the following activities:

• Students took a quiz on mysteries (closing the unit on this genre)
• Students played a “Sherlock” game in order to relax after working diligently on the quiz
• Mrs. Johnson and the students reviewed literary terms together using study cards and a presentation
• Instructor gave a unique introduction to short stories that caught students’ interest
• Instructor passed out copies of a story and read it aloud. Students followed along on their handouts
• The story was a cliffhanger, which was a word they added to their vocabulary list
• Students participated in a poll to determine what they thought the ending would be
• Students used leftover class time to read books they chose

This class and instructor were simply amazing! I was only there for two hours, but I felt as if I learned so much from Mrs. Johnson. After class, I stayed and spoke to her about a few things I learned in my Reading and Literacy class, for I noticed Mrs. Johnson implemented much of what I’ve learned into her classroom.  If I have time, I hope to visit Mrs. Johnson’s Freshman English class again.