1st Grade at Clymore

I had a great observation experience while I was in a first grade class at Clymore. It was interesting to see that the students were learning similar things to what we are teaching in our classroom.

The students knew what to expect as soon as they came into the classroom. They moved their name tags for their lunch choice and choice what kind of language arts activity they would do that morning. It was good to have this routine established because students entered class at different times.

As the day progressed, I got to see how they do reading groups. She played classical music during the whole 90 minute block. The teacher has two resource teachers come in to assist with reading groups. They focus on different skills. One teacher works on taking fluency notes on a student chose book. Another teacher worked with students on a writing assignment. The main teacher worked with a small group to discuss and read a book together. The comprehension questions were similar to what we ask.

For math, they do not have a math program. The teacher uses a variety of internet and other teacher resources to teach math concepts with worksheets and hands-on activities. I can imagine it would be difficult to not have a math program to follow but the students seemed to understand the concepts that were covered.

As for the classroom, it didn't have any of the students' work on the walls which was quite disappointing. She did have work displayed in the hallway which was good. There were lots of posters on the walls that encouraged positive behavior. There were also posters to remind students about reading and writing concepts.

Some things that I might use in my classroom are a wall for WOW words that the students come up with to replace plain words with more vivid ones. I also liked the idea of giving the students a "brain break" which had them getting up out of their seats to either do a quick song or dance to get them ready for the next transition.

Overall, I was pleased with my experience and learned a lot. There were certainly things that I would do differently but there were also things that I would want to try as well.

Emily L'Heureux