Our trip is going by incredibly fast and we all have had incredible experiences learning not only academically but street smarts and things we did not know about ourselves. Monteverde although a very safe town you still need to keep your wits about you and stay smart about where you are walking. We went to Santa Elena School Friday and I noticed several things about not only the teaching style but the kids in general. We saw a video of a third grade teacher in Dr. Durrington’s class about managing classrooms and defining chaos. The classroom we saw a video of was considered “organized chaos.” The children were loud and clearly communicating, but also on task and knew the exact assignment they were to be doing. Again this was considered organized chaos; children were on task, but yet loud. In Santa Elena I found that it was unorganized and the children knew what to do, however I observed kids in the back of the classroom way off task (poking each other, menacing with their backpack). The closer it came to be break time the louder the children got. Also even when the teacher was teaching the lesson most children was not engaged and not listening. This is the case in most classrooms I have seen where it’s a large class and the teacher loses the children’s attention. The second thing I observed was the assignment the children were learning was being taught wrong. The teacher was teaching about the family tree and she started with the mom and the dad in one class and then in the older grades she began with the grandmother and the grandfather. The lesson was inconsistent.
Also the classroom had 40 minutes to learn this lesson about their family tree. 40 minutes was not nearly enough time for the students to learn. The family tree lesson included the teacher drawing extensive details of the family (mother, father, uncle, aunt…) and then having the students repeat the names. Then after this the students themselves had to draw and write each family member in their notebooks. I found that three of the students right in my area were getting extremely frustrated trying to just draw the actual tree and had not even started their lesson. I found a lot of things that the teacher could have done differently and also I as a teacher could improve on and in 40 minutes how it’s so important to have your lessons planned out ahead of time. There are many things I observed from Santa Elena when we visited but these were the main points that I pulled out.
Also the classroom had 40 minutes to learn this lesson about their family tree. 40 minutes was not nearly enough time for the students to learn. The family tree lesson included the teacher drawing extensive details of the family (mother, father, uncle, aunt…) and then having the students repeat the names. Then after this the students themselves had to draw and write each family member in their notebooks. I found that three of the students right in my area were getting extremely frustrated trying to just draw the actual tree and had not even started their lesson. I found a lot of things that the teacher could have done differently and also I as a teacher could improve on and in 40 minutes how it’s so important to have your lessons planned out ahead of time. There are many things I observed from Santa Elena when we visited but these were the main points that I pulled out.
seems like you're learning a lot, thats awesome!
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