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Teaching is the Career for Me

As I have gone through this class, although all of it was enjoyable for me, the service learning component of the class was by far my favorite. I had the opportunity to work with a fourth grade class at Forbes Elementary School and it has been absolutely wonderful. I love the kids and I love the teacher I am observing. As I have learned from her and the students I have come to the firm decision that this is something I love doing and that it is a career path I know I want to take. As you know, I am a special Ed major and was not able to get into observing a Special Ed class so I have been observing a neurotypical class. This has made me think about the decision ahead I have to make. I know I want to teach elementary school, I just now have to do some observing in a special ed classroom to make sure that I want to do special ed elementary. In that way this service learning has influenced my decision. My next steps are to continue in the path that I am on with a special education deg...
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Making Connections

Connecting my learning to my service learning has been an incredible experience. I realized when I was about to start service learning I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to help the students when they asked questions, or I wouldn't be able to help the teacher. As I went through my service learning, things would come up and I would have a way to help a student in a way that they could understand because of a lesson we had in this class. It's been awesome! Blogging (although I stared late) has definitely helped me to notice more specific things in my service learning. It has allowed me to reflect further on what and how the teacher is teaching and also how different situations in the classroom have been handled. These blogs have given me more opportunities to reflect and because of that it is more likely that I will remember these specific experiences when I am doing my own teaching in the future. There is for sure growth from my first blog post to now. I knew nothing ab...
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Standards of Learning in a Fourth Grade Classroom

In my service learning I have actually had the opportunity to spend some time with the teacher of the class i'm observing as well as other fourth grade teachers at Forbes. While I have talked with them I have been able to hear them planning which standards they are supposed to teach. In the classroom I am in Math standards are really stressed. If a student is not meeting the required Math standard then they are given extra time to meet with an aid to help them meet that standard. The social studies standard is also stressed and is being met, most of the students in the classroom I am observing understand social studies fairly well.  Science is also a very important standard for fourth graders, however part of the curriculum that is supposed to be taught is ways to classify rocks. For some reason it has been very hard for all of the fourth grade teachers to find a way to teach this to their students so this has not been taught. All of the teachers are working hard to include everyt...
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Diversity Makes a Delightful Classroom

There is a lot of racial and cultural diversity in my service learning classroom. Therefore a lot of students come from different backgrounds and learn in different ways. The teacher is very good at creating a safe space for everyone and letting them all learn at the same level. However she also adds different styles of teaching into all of her lessons giving everyone the chance to learn in their own way. Yesterday the teacher taught the same concept by having the students read a short book, students listening to a recording reading the book, and she then applied the concept verbally and visually for the students. It works very well for each student in her classroom. This is how the teacher differentiates in her classroom. She plans accordingly so that she can put as many learning techniques into her lessons without slowing the class down. She makes it clear that each of the students are capable of so much which also helps in giving each student equal opportunity to learn in her class...
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How Far We Have Come

Because I had some issues with setting up my service learning I had to switch to a different school. I am now working with a neurotypical fourth grade class at Forbes Elementary School and it is wonderful! And in getting to know my students further, I cannot explain how grateful I am for the countless people of history who took the effort to fight against discrimination and segregation in schools. There is a great amount of support for English Learners in the classroom I am working in. There is one boy in the class who speaks Spanish as a first language so he has had to learn English and because of the extra help and programs there are for him in and outside the classroom he has improved immensely. This support comes from many legislative acts and decisions, but the main one in my opinion is the No Child Left Behind Act which has now been updated to the Every Student Succeeds Act. These acts have allowed any child from any background, culture, or of any race to receive an education wh...
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Constructed by Constructivism

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Constructivism is a learning theory which I like to call "real world" or "hands on experience." This learning theory relates ways of learning to real world problems or simply gets the students more involved so that the learning applies to and stays with them. In my personal opinion I believe that Constructivism is the most effective and important learning theory. Not enough curriculum today applies to real world experiences, and so much of school is just sitting in a classroom when students should instead be having hands on learning experiences. In my own experience I have always learned better this way. For example, I have always had a very hard time grasping a lot of science concepts, but once we did an actual lab or experiment where these concepts were applied I found myself able to understand. As for real world experiences in learning I was able to do an elementary school internship in high school which gave me the opportunity to investigate my future career. T...
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Service Learning and Dan W. Peterson School. Facts and Findings.

Service learning is such a wonderful opportunity. I had the opportunity to do service learning my senior year in high school with a Kindergarten class and I absolutely loved it! Since my major is special education for these service learning hours I decided it would be best to observe in a special needs classroom. This will help me really know if this is what I want to do as a career. For a long time there was not very many schooling options for children with special needs, Dan W. Peterson school is one of the many current schools that have worked hard to give these incredible children a place to get there education. The school is located in American Fork right across from the hospital in a neighborhood of adorable houses. The school has many fields to play on, a great playground and great classrooms! I was talking to one of the counselors at the school and her face beamed as she talked about the children I would be working with and how wonderful and smart they are. She made me very e...
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