I decide to spend another full day at Paxton
Keeley since I had such a great experience the first time. This trip a
classroom Management lesson and man once the day was over all I wanted to do
was go straight to sleep. The students during C day at Paxton are very
talkative, are distracted easily, doesn’t follow many directions nor do they
every like to clean up and get ready to leave. Each class was louder and
full of more energy then the class before them. At least two students were sent
to the safe seat, many were asked if they wanted think sheets and even a threat
of spending recess inside to finish a project was given. Every student calmed
they didn’t know what they were doing or they talked so much to their friends
that they barely got their projects done. There was a table of 5th
grade girls that talked so much that when it was time for them to finish their
projects they were rushing and didn’t do their best. From time to time myself or
Ms. Stoddart would walk by and tell them they needed to keep working. This
comment would only work for a little while and them they would start to talk
more them work. But when they did work they produced good work. I wasn’t able
to see an example of how to keep students focused completely on their project
but to be honest walking past and tell them to work seemed to be the only thing
that could be done. I felt bad at the end of class when they had to rush to
finish their projects because you could tell they waned them to be awesome but
just didn’t have the time to do what they wanted to. After 5th grade
was kindergarten and no matter how cute they are they are a hand full. They
were the smallest busy bodies I have ever seen. They only wanted to talk, ask
questions and do anything that meant they didn’t have to seat in their seats.
They were working on a snowman picture that involved glue and cutting paper.
Before any instructions were given they started playing with the scissors and
had to be told to give Ms. Stoddart ten instead of five (this seemed like a
really big deal because give me five is the only thing I every remember any
teacher asking for. Once the project was started and the students had something
to do they started to work but was still extremely talkative. They finished
their projects without much problems but when it was time to clean up and had
to add glue dots so I could add glitter to their images. I’m not sure why this
was so hard for them to do but almost every student that came to me had to be
told to go back and add glue to their pictures so I could add glitter to
them. The next couple of classes were okay but they did a lot of talking
and not following instructions. They were not bad enough to take drastic
measures but it was tiring to deal with. When lunch came around all I wanted to
do was get out of the whole school and take a breath. It was so crazy to be
that overwhelmed and need fresh air. I have no idea who Ms. Stoddart does this
every C day.
The classroom is organized very well for
the students. All the supplies are put away and labeled neatly so that if the
students needed to find them they could as well as the teacher or guest that
use the room. When it is project time Ms. Stoddart already has the certain
supplies need out for the students to use. She usually has a table of students
help past out supplies so that she can manage how many students are up and
moving. If it is a really messy supply such as glitter she has the students do
all the steps that are need to be done before using it so that a teacher or
teacher assistant can help the students. She doesn’t hand out all the supplies
at once but almost, as the students need them so that the tables are not too
full with supplies. This is useful because then the students are not
overwhelmed with all the supplies but at the same time they have access to all
the things they need. She also has a plastic tote with pencils, erasers,
markers, color pencils and scissors that is open for everyone to use at the
table. This tote is added to the table before every class and taken away after
every class.
Classroom Management is super important
in any classroom. Ms. Stoddart uses the “give me five” method. This is a way to
get the students listening to her and get their eyes to the front of the room. if
they need more instruction then she ask for ten instead of five which usually
gets the students listening if they didn’t listen the first time. There is a
safe seat in the classroom that is used if the students have not been listening
to the instructions of the classroom they are asked to go to the safe seat and
think about what they did. If this doesn’t work then they are asked if they
want to do a think sheet, most of the time it doesn’t get past them sitting in
the safe seat or really the second time they were asked to do something. Not
many of the students have behavior issues or are to hyper during the classes I
have been in but I did witness one student with extreme emotional issues which
was heart breaking. During the Frank Stella project a student was upset because
the crayons that he was using for his project were not working the way he
wanted them to. She started to get upset and put his head down. When I went
over to see if there was anything I could do to help him he just explained to
me that if he cut this line then the project would fall apart, if he glued a
certain corner then the project would be ruined and so on. I tried to talk to
him and show him that we could do the project together and that if would all
work out. She was not hearing it. Ms. Stoddart had to just cut the image for
him and basically make him glue certain things down. He said he wasn’t going to
take the project home because it was going to get messed up. It hurt my heart
because she told me that he use to walk into the classroom and hide under the
table. All I could think is that someone in his short life has told him
something about his art abilities and now he freaks every time he is doing art
or in the classroom. Ms. Stoddart was telling me that since he wasn’t hurting
anyone nor was he completely disrupting class there was nothing she could do.
She said she usually has to let him have his fit and just wait until he is
ready to work.
As for assessment I haven’t seen how she
assesses the work or even if the students get actual grades in the class. I
wish I would have asked her more about the way she assesses the students but
with all the stuff I was learning if it didn’t stick out to me that I should
have asked. But I could tell that Ms. Stoddart had in mind the standards she
was wanted for her students and the students seemed to never let her down. She
would walk around and if she saw something out of place she
would suggest that they do something else or help them make something
look better without actually doing it herself.
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