Kaylee Clark 12/4/13

Context of Learning

I am doing my social studies practicum in Mrs. De Jongs Kindergarten classroom at Lincoln Elementary. Lincoln Elementary is a Pre-K to 3rd grade school. The district has two other elementary schools. They are Madison and Jefferson elementary. Lincoln is almost 100% Caucasian. There are a few students that are Hispanic, African American, and Chinese. Most students are in the middle class economic standing. There is some variance to upper and lower class, though. About 15% of the students at the school receive free or reduced lunches. There are three students in Mrs. De Jongs classroom that receive free or reduced lunches. I have visited Mrs. De Jongs classroom two times. She co-teaches with Mrs. Visser. This is a very interesting and unique situation. Mrs. De Jong teaches every morning, and Mrs. Visser teaches every afternoon. I will be in the classroom every morning, so I will mainly be working with Mrs. De Jong. Their classroom is pretty large. The carpet area is in the front near the white board. The students sit at tables that are labeled by colors. There are four to five students at each table. This works out well. The tables are close together, so Mrs. De Jong is able to assist students and keep the rest of the class managed. Books and other supplies are dispersed around the room. There is one rainbow table in the back of the room where the teachers work one on one with students or in small groups. Students spend a lot of time at the carpet area, and move to their tables when working on individual work. I have not been in the classroom when students have been doing group work. Mrs. De Jong says she normally groups children by ability level. When students have partners, it is usually by random. There is one student that is on an academic IEP, and one student on a speech IEP. There are three additional students with speech needs, two students with a behavior goal, and one who will soon be on a behavioral goal. I was very surprised when Mrs. De Jong told me this. I could not tell that she had such a diverse group of learners and needs. I could tell that one boy had a behavior goal but nothing else. The one student with a behavior goal had an additional award system that the other students did not have. Mrs. De Jong said that this student was soon going to get assessed for an IEP. None of the students left the room while I was there, so they must spend most of their time in the general education room. It surprised me that so many students had IEPs or goals and they were only in Kindergarten. There isnt a one to one associate with any of the students. They do have a classroom associate for two hours a day. This associate works in two Kindergarten Classrooms. She helps with whatever the teacher needs from her. While I was there she put stuff in students mailboxes, took students out for one on one work, and worked on a project

with a group of students. Mrs. De Jong and Mrs. Visser try to differentiate instruction for the students that need extra help. They try to offer one on one assistance to the students on IEPs whenever possible. Also, they lower or change the expectations for those students. They make the expectations to what the student can complete individually. Mrs. De Jong does so many things for classroom management. She says this is one of the most challenging classes she has ever had before. Each week, Mrs. De Jong and Mrs. Visser come up with a goal they want the students to work on. This week the goal was for students to be good listeners. If the teacher catches a student reaching the goal, they receive a ticket. The student then puts their name on the ticket, and puts it in a bucket for a drawing at the end of the week. Students also have sticker charts. If the teacher catches them doing something good, that is different than the goal, the student receives a sticker. Once the student gets ten stickers, they get to either pick out of the prize box or take the class stuffed animal home for the night. For a whole class management system, they have stars they have to get. When the whole class does something really good, they get a star. Once they get ten stars, they pick a ping-pong ball that has something fun for students to do. Some examples are watch a movie, class party, or pajama day. This week, if they get ten stars, they get to put up the class Christmas tree. Mrs. De Jong also uses a lot of clapping and songs to keep the students on task and working hard.

The classroom management is something I really loved about this classroom. I think having such a variety of different reward systems is really beneficial for students that age. They always have goals to work for. If some students arent motivated by the whole class rewards, they can be motivated by the ticket system or the sticker system. While I was in the classroom, the students responded really well to all the classroom management strategies. Mrs. De Jong used a different saying, song, chant, or clap every time she did something. This was both awesome to see, and a little overwhelming. It is going to be hard for me to catch on to all of those cues. Mrs. De Jong said she would help me learn some of the strategies she uses, so that I can effectively teach the classroom. I am excited to begin teaching the Kindergarteners. This will be my first time working with students this age. Mrs. De Jong has been extremely helpful. I will be teaching the students about Gingerbread Men. We will be connecting this to Social Studies by teaching maps and the use of money to buy things. Students do not know very much about either of those topics. The only knowledge they may have is from schemas they made at home.