I spent time in the classrooms in the Tamassee-Salem area
yesterday. My first stop was
Tamassee-Salem Elementary.
I visited a self-contained special education classroom, and
the students were all on task. Students
were in one of three groupings when I entered to observe instruction: one group
was working with the teacher, another small group was working with the
classroom instructional assistant, and the remaining students were working independently
on classroom computers. All of the
students were young men, and they were obviously engaged and serious about the
task at hand. The group working with the classroom teacher
was using some game show strategies (spinner on the Smartboard, “life lines,”
and tokens) to review vocabulary, story elements, details, and overall
understanding of a reading selection.
The assistant worked with a smaller number of students and concentrated on
reading and vocabulary, too. The
students on the computers had individual games to reinforce their
learning. I was amazed … all of the boys
were working so hard.
My next stop was second grade. Students were making a transition in math as
I entered and took my seat. The class
very quickly, by size, gathered at the front.
The teacher read a great story about a young man prone to some mischief. The story character had a substitute teacher, but she used
raisin bread to teach math. That’s
exactly what these second grade students were to do next.
Very orderly by gender up from the reading circle and got a worksheet and two napkins. The teacher distributed a piece of raisin
bread and they started counting raisins.
This became a lesson in fractions:
How many pieces of bread were there in the loaf?
What fraction was one slice to the entire number in the loaf of bread? How many raisins were in each slice? What was the total number of raisins? What a great lesson, and the end product was
edible for these second graders.
My final stop was first grade math. The students were using their Everyday
Mathematics Reference Book to complete a scavenger hunt. Then it was off to complete some activities
in their Everyday Mathematics Journal. I
always like seeing the Everyday Mathematics activities, and these students were
doing things related to probability and patterns. They had to think, and each student was hard
at work as I exited the classroom.
I made the short trek to Tamassee-Salem Middle/High
School. My first stop was English
I. I arrived a little early, and the
students were finishing up a quiz. As
the students moved into the lesson, they reviewed vocabulary words with
negative connotations. The students are
reading a book, The Contender, which
seems to be perfect for 9th graders.
I perused their journal topics on the novel study guide: dealing with adversity, coping strategies,
jealousy, regret, dreams/aspirations, and bullying were among the prompts. Great topic prompts for high schoolers. I exited as they discussed Chapter 11 and
planned to move on to Chapter 12.
I popped into an economics class. The students had been studying the concepts
of supply and demand. They were focusing
on supply, and the teacher did a simulation of a focus group and the pricing of products (DVDs, Blu-Ray Player, IPod Nano seemed to be good examples). They shared the amount they would be willing
to pay with an imaginary $300, and they determined a class average. What was the difference between cost and
average cost they were willing to pay?
It was a good lesson, and the class was ending for the period.
I entered a sixth grade science class next. I was running a little behind so I wasn’t
able to see the complete construction of the barometers they were building, but I did get to hear the
water cycle rap. One student was really
into it. The bell rang, and they were
off to their next class.
My final visit was in sixth grade language arts class. Students entered and completed a review
activity with spelling, punctuation, subject-verb agreement, etc. They were getting ready to
work with their vocabulary prior to the lunch period when I exited.
It was a beautiful drive to/from the schools, and I really
enjoyed seeing students and teachers in action.
Yesterday I reached my goal of visiting in 100 classrooms before Spring Break, and today I will be traveling to Westminster Elementary and West-Oak Middle.
