Ms. R. and the Third Grade
After a considerable amount of time watching all of the teachers in the computer lab, I decided that Ms. R, a third grade teacher, would be the lucky teacher I would observe explicitly. Therefore, on Friday, the twenty-ninth day of October, I spent six hours in room 28 watching, observing, and learning how Ms. R’s third grade class was run. All in all, my experience will never be forgotten and the important concepts I have been taught will remain with me for the duration of my college experience, as well as in my future classroom. I have realized that by watching other teachers, I learn more about myself as a teacher. For example, every time Ms. R would do something or respond to a situation, I caught myself mentally wondering what I would do in a similar situation. For the most part, Ms. R. and I have very similar personalities and our actions match. This simple fact made my experience worthwhile because I learned more about myself as a teacher, not as a college student.
First, Ms. R believes that education should be discovered, not lectured. For instance, Ms. R. transformed the entrance to her classroom into a bat cave. She covered the front door with brown paper and hung brown papered stalactites and stalagmites in the first five feet of the room. As the children entered and stared in amazement at the transformation, one student said, “What are those pointy things hanging from the ceiling?” Another student commented, “What are the pointy things on the bottom called?” Now, Ms. R. could have plainly given them the answer. However, instead she wrote stalactites and stalagmites on the white board. She then turned to the two students whose questions created this activity, and told them to look in the dictionary and encyclopedia to figure out which one was the pointy thing on the ground and which one hangs from the ceiling. Without hesitation, the two boys grabbed their reference books and busily flipped through the books to find the answer. The students’ eagerness and instant response proved to me that this was probably something they were familiar with and maybe they even did this discovery learning often. Ms. R. even labeled these two boys her researchers. I noticed that when she said this, both of them felt important and felt like they really had a job to do. It was great! Needless to say, the “researchers” found the answers and it was after they had found the answer that I realized another teaching style that Ms. R possesses. She had the boys come up to the front of the classroom and explain their findings with their classmates. Student-led learning is amazing to watch. Their classmates were attentive and listening to each word they uttered. I believe this was a lot more effective rather than if Ms. R would have just provided a satisfying answer.
As the day continued on, I noticed two other instances where Vygotsky’s idea of group work was apparent. The first instance was intertwined with English. The class was discussing the similarities and differences of bats by using Venn Diagrams. On the overhead, she had two pictures of two different kinds of bats, and as a class they filled out their Venn Diagrams by using sight. Now, this is where the group work came in. After they completed one diagram together, she put them into teams of three. After the groups were established, she told all of the groups the two pictures they now needed to compare and contrast. This allowed students to talk to each other and come to agreements. Ms. R. would walk around periodically making sure the group work was being effective. I noticed that the groups got into discussions and they were actually teaching each other to prove their points. Even though this took longer than when they did it on the overhead, I believe that more was being taught and therefore they were retaining more information. Remember the famous quote that says something to the effect of, you learn the most by teaching? Well, this statement rang true in this third grade classroom. The second instance corresponded with mathematics. Ms. R. handed each student a bag with about fifteen photocopied pictures of bats. This time she arranged ten groups of two. She also handed out a recording sheet. The only instructions she gave to her pupils was to sort the bats into five different categories. Again, I noticed that communication took place and along with discovery learning, the students busily completed their task. One group even got into a dispute over what was considered long ears and what was considered short ears. When this happened, I thought for sure the teacher was going to solve the problem. However, all she did was walk over to the group, asked what the problem was, and then asked how they should fix it. Apologies were then exchanged and a compromise was reached within seconds. I then had to ask Ms. R. how she did that. I wanted to know how she trained her students to be that independent. She explained to me, that by giving students power and by letting them have a voice it gives them pride and they feel that they are in control of their class time. She even referred to her class as a democracy and by watching I have noticed that democratic method in action.
Not only does Ms. R. have a discovery, group learning approach, but she also strongly believes in cooperative learning. I know this because she explained to me that through cooperative learning she makes her seating charts. She groups her students very carefully and makes sure that cooperative learning can take place. She does this by mixing her students based on their ability level. She has rows of three and each row has one of the over achievers, one slower student, and one middle student. She explained to me that this year it works rather nice to have this arrangement. She seats them this way so that everyone can help each other and I have noticed that it is an effective way to seat students. I noticed that the over achievers become the teachers, and the other two learn more because students can relate to one another better than teachers sometimes can, in my opinion. Ms. R. also told me that another advantage is that the slower students stay on track and do better being around a positive influence. I now know how important a seating arrangement really is at the elementary level, and I will take cooperative learning into consideration when blueprinting my layout.
My final thoughts deal with Ms. R’s teaching style in accordance with behaviorism. Ms. R. implemented what is known as the Froot Loop system for rewards and punishment. Now, I am not exactly clear on how the entire system works, but if the student is caught doing something good, for instance, while I was there, one student helped a classmate clean up his crayons that he split over the floor. Ms. R. then stated the child’s name and said, Froot Loop. The student then went over to his cubby, pulled out a jar, and placed one froot loop inside. Now, just as the students can receive froot loops, they can also have a froot loop taken away. To illustrate, I will explain the story about the girl and her book. After the third graders had finished their spelling test, they were supposed to read a book silently. Well, this girl decided that she was not going to read a book, but instead she was going to get out some toys and play with them. At first Ms. R. went over to her desk and quietly asked the little girl what she was suppose to be doing. The little girl disdainfully said that she was supposed to be reading a book. Ms. R. asked her if she could then do this task. The little girl nodded, put away her toys, and got out her book. However, that only lasted for about six seconds. When Ms. R. turned her back, the little girl got out her toys again. Well, Ms. R. noticed this misbehavior for the second time and as a result she went over to the girl and said, please take away a froot loop. The sad little girl went over to her cubby, and removed one froot loop from the jar. The whole point of this is that if at the end of the week, the students jar is full of froot loops they receive a class dollar. Ms. R. explained that at the end of the year, they have an auction on different supplies and they can only use their money to purchase them. Therefore, obviously the more money they have the better chance they have of buying desirable items. I asked her if she liked this system of rewards. She said that although it is more work for her, to keep track of the froot loops and the money, she said it works well and that the students really enjoy it. She also said the auction is good for them to learn skills they can apply to real-life. For instance, you can only spend money that you have; otherwise you will go into debt. I personally, do not think I could pull this off. I would forget about the jars and forget to give out money. Therefore, I need to pick another system that would work better for me. Something less complicated would be my preference.
The bottom line is that Ms. R. cares for her students and has experience teaching. She also explained to me that after teaching for twenty-five years, she is finally starting to figure out what works best for her. Ms. R. told me that I should learn as much as I can in college, but that the real experience comes from trial and error with my own students. I know this is true. I also have learned that all of the theorists studied in class hold great insight and that most teachers do not just adopt one philosophy. I believe that a classroom cannot be strictly Piagetian or strictly Vygotsky, but rather a teacher needs to pick apart all of the theories and incorporate the segments of each theory that work best for him/her. Even though observing and reflecting on other teachers excites me, I cannot wait for the day when I have my own classroom in which I can practice my own learning theories and practices.
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