Field Experience

Lately in my classroom, I've been trying to build stronger relationships with the kids and work with them one-on-one more often. A lot of them have problems at home and come to class and still don't receive a lot of individual attention, so I've been trying to provide that for them because I think it's important, even if it's only for a couple minutes. I spend a lot of time doing small group read alouds. I read about 3 books a day to small groups of kids. They really like being read to, and I like the practice.

Technology is a really big part of the way this classroom runs. All of the teacher led lessons are done on the smart board. The kids each have their own school provided ipad to use. They have tons of apps on them and apps for every single subject. They use their ipads to listen to reading, write spelling words, play word games, math practice, math quizzes, and the teachers incorporate them into their guided reading lessons sometimes as well. There's been a few times when the smart board hasn't been working or the ipads are being fixed, and the kids don't really know how to respond. They use the technology so much, that they aren't really able to function the same when they have to use paper and pencil or read from a lesson book. I think they're a little too caught up in the technology, so when I work with them one on one, I try to stay away from ipads and bring them back to basics if I can.