Positive Classroom Environment

    My service learning has taught me quite a bit about what it is to have a positive classroom environment. In the second grade, I have really learned a lot form the teacher. He helps each child feel special and celebrates their accomplishments. One of the ways that he has helped recognize a child's skills is to spotlight their achievements at the end of each week. Students who turn in homework, listened or participated well in class, were a good friend, or finished their levels on their Lexia accounts are all given special achievement awards. He makes sure that each student has had a chance to be spotlighted over the month, and sends out fun pictures to all the parents of the students holding their awards. As a parent, I know my child absolutely loves this, and he can't wait to show me his award and how hard he has been working. I have also noticed what a great job the teacher has done at getting to know each individual student. He knows what interests them and how best to help them learn. He gives them high fives and often praises their good behavior, or points out others who are modeling the behavior he wants in the class.
    Another really great thing I noticed in my other service learning classroom, is the way the teacher has set up routines and a productive environment by giving the students great communication tools! He has taught his students different hand signals, so that he can know what each student needs by the raise of a hand. If during a lesson, a student doesn't understand, they can raise a hand and he can know that they have a specific question and don't just need to use the restroom. I think this is fantastic. He is able to give instruction and answer questions, and then help the students who need a pencil sharpened or allow students to use the restroom after giving the class instructions on a lesson. I also really admire how he is handling the tough situation of having students continue to talk during instruction time. He had to have a sub for a week, and now that he is back, students have been having a hard time being respectful and listening to instructions. Instead of continually calling after the students to be quite, he is talking to them about good classroom habits. Instructing them on why its important to listen to directions, what that looks like, and reminding them that they need to break the bad habits in order to learn the good ones. He is also focusing on the class as a whole, so that all the students are involved in the process and can help their peers at their tables stay on task as well, rather then continually calling out to students with poor behavior.

Learning Theories

     During my 5th grade class room service-learning, I have seen the teacher most often use the Cognitivism learning theory.  During the hour that I am there helping, most often the class is working on math. Because this is a 5th grade class, they are working on harder math concepts that take more thought and problem solving skills. This month they are focusing on fractions, how to simplify, multiply and divide.

    In order to help the students best accomplish these harder math problems and truly understand how to apply the steps, the teacher most often breaks things down into smaller parts. By breaking things down into multiple steps and elaborating things that might be confusing, the students are better able to follow the process. I also really enjoyed some of his examples. The teacher is a soft ball coach, and he showed the students the steps involved in throwing a pitch. By breaking down something they can visually see, and integrating that with the steps in breaking down and simplifying the fraction, the students were able to see the importance of each step. I feel like the students really caught on and enjoyed the example. It also pulls into play the idea of multiple learning intelligence by showing students visual representation, allowing whole body interaction, and showing how its important to break down steps. The teacher also walked them through the steps on the white board, allowing visual learners to see and understand as well. In the end, multiple learning intelligence were used to be sure the information reached the students in a variety of ways.

Service Learning at Springside Elementary

    My journey into service learning is taking place at Springside Elementary. Is a beautiful new school, it was just built in 2016. It is nestled in the center of a quickly growing new housing development, called Legacy Farms, in Saratoga Springs. It is a quickly growing school due to all of the new homes being built around it and the families with children moving in. There are approximately 1,055 students, and 40 incredible teachers at Springside Elementary. This is also the school where my children attend school, and I couldn't be happier about it! 

    For my service learning, I will be working with students in both 5th grade and 2nd grade. In trying to decide which grade levels I would like to teach in the future, I felt it best to get a mix of opportunities and experiences during my service learning time. Each of these classes are filled with amazing students who are a pleasure to work with. The older 5th grade class is where I will have opportunities to assist the students during their math time. I will be walking around the room addressing questions and helping individual students understand the various new math techniques they will be learning. For the 2nd grade service learning I will have an opportunity to work with students individually, in small groups and as a whole class as they work on various reading and mathematics activities. 

   Service learning is a valuable opportunity for University students who are interested in pursuing a degree in Elementary Education. During this service learning, I will be required to complete 20 hrs of service in a classroom setting. This can be doing a variety of different activities, but it is mainly to give students like me, an opportunity to see what life is like inside a classroom. In doing this, I will have the opportunity to learn and gauge for myself if this is where I belong, and the major I wish to peruse. I will also get to interact with these students and perhaps figure out what age students I might feel most comfortable teaching in the future.