I have to say that this field experience class was my absolute favorite one. I loved being at Summerville Elementary, and I believe that I learned a great deal from my cooperating teacher and her students. I will take away with me many ideas from her classroom that I will use in mine. I was amazed to see how well the setup of her classroom corresponded with the lessons I saw her teach. For instance, I remember one time when she was teaching a lesson on patterns and she used the pattern that she had created in the class calender to show how patterns can be made. There was just so much thought that I think she really put into how she set up her room before school even started. I think that as a teacher, I will also try to think about how to set up my room so that it correlates with some of the lessons that I will plan to teach throughout the school year.
Throughout the semester we have talked in great leangth about the importance of connecting with your studen ts and their families. I definitly think that Ms. Patte has done a great job with getting to know her students and getting to know their families. I have heard her talk about regularly calling the students parents to talk about both good and bad things. Grant and Ray spoke about how informal conferences like these can be easily done through a phone chat or email if it is easier for the parent. Ms. Patte always seems to be well aware of what is going on in her students home lives which makes me think that she has spent a lot of time getting to know her student's families.
I was amazed to see how much the students' writing skills had improved by the last day we were in the classroom. It was remarkable to see how most of them had gone from not being able to write a full word, to now being able to write complete sentences!!
I have really really enjoyed my experience in the kindergarten class this semester. I hope to continue to stay in touch with Ms. Patte as she is a great resource to have.
Liza, I am so glad to hear that your experiences at SES were so positive :). It is so impressive to see such a great teacher in action. It sounds like you took away some great ideas and lessons for your future classroom. I think one of the most important lessons a lot of us learned in Field 3 is that the little things do matter when it comes to communicating with the families. Taking just a couple of minutes each day to make a phone call or write a note really goes a long way! I also enjoyed seeing the student's writing as the semester went on. The first week we were there, some students had difficulty even writing their names. I would love to go back to our classrooms in April or May and see the progress they have made! It shows how important this kindergarten year is.
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