Blog Post #5

My service learning has been done at the school where my children are students. We live in an area that has a very diverse population. We have several families that the children have entered school, at various grades, as Spanish speaking only. There are a variety of things that are being done to help these students. Just last year, a volunteer named Crongi was named the volunteer of the year for the state of Utah and was recognized for his efforts in helping the students are our school. He comes daily to help our Spanish speaking students learn English.
One thing the school does is to print letters home in both English and Spanish, as many of the parents are only Spanish speaking, it is important that they are made aware of the things going on inside the school.
Other efforts to help Spanish speaking students, is having special small groups. Here there are three to four Spanish speaking students who are pulled and worked with in a group setting so the kids are able to learn from each other as well as the teacher.

Blog Post #4

Engaged learning is a huge strength for one of the teachers I have observed. He does class transformations where he decorates his classroom in a specific theme and then creates activities that revolve around that theme.
For one of his transformations, he made his classroom look like a pirate ship. He welcomed the class Monday morning dressed in head to toe captain attire.
Another transformation he did was a Monsters University theme. He used pringle cans and turned them into scare cans. There were five learning activities that the students were to complete. After each one was done, they could add a level to their scream can. When they were totally done the scream can was full. One of the days was 'Writers Inc.' there were five doors hung, each with a title above it: prewrite, draft, revise, revise, edit and publish.
For the entire weeks transformation there were monsters inc themed writing, reading, math and art activities. The kids loved every minute of the week.

Blog Post #3

The teacher that I have been learning from is great to show off the students work in the classroom. The teacher will collect art projects and assignments from other teachers and display the work on a bulletin board in the classroom, or in the hall for others to see. The teacher then collects the work and compiles it in a folder so that each student has a file of their accomplishments and projects from their school year. I love how this shows the great things they have done through the year and at each time throughout different times of the year.
I think the most important thing that my cooperative teacher has done to make their students feel loved and safe is to get to know them. Getting to know the student, their siblings in the school, their likes and dislikes. Letting the students know that they are accepted for who they are is the best way to show love.
I love going into a class that has a positive feeling. There is a classroom at school that has the most uplifting feeling. The mood in the class is always positive and happy. The class is designed and set up to let positive energy flow. There are several different seating areas, and seating types. Setting up a classroom that embraces a positive energy is a great start to a positive school year.