Field Blog #2 St. Helen's

On October 9th, I went to St. Helen's to spend 2 hours in a second grade classroom.  I was looking forward to seeing the difference between how it was set up and the atmosphere compared to the Kindergarden classroom. The classroom was still colorful and bright with many pictures and academic posters on the wall. The addition to the classroom was a cursive alphabet that was on the wall. This suggested to me that the students would be learning cursive sometime throughout the year. Unlike the kindergarden classroom, the 2nd grade room had a more specific alphabet around the room that included grid lines. I would assume that they would become picky with the neatness of the letters.
I could tell by how the students behaved that the teacher had good control of the classroom. One thing that stuck out to me particularly was when the students were passing out papers. At one point, all the students but maybe a few were passing out papers and initially to me I thought it was going to be chaotic. I was surprised when I saw that all the students were able to stand up, move around, and remain completely quiet without the teacher having to say a word. The students knew the right way to behave without the teacher saying anything and thats how I want my classroom to be.
I noticed though, that the kids seemed to move around in their chairs a lot. I myself was even getting a little uncomfortable. This rose the question do kids needs breaks during the school day? After awhile, the teacher played a game with the kids. The kids needed that. They seemed more engaged and once the game was over the settled back into their seats and were ready to learn again.
Another thing the teacher did in the classroom that I liked during the math lesson was, when she asked a question she would wait a few seconds longer even if people had their hands up ready to answer the question. Granting these few extra seconds, she gave other kids the opportunity to think about the question and figure it out.
Once it came time to do problems on their own, the teacher asked if anyone needed help. The kids that did need help, she moved them to a different table where she helped them learn the material. I liked this because she was able to cover the material with the kids who were not comfortable but at the same time, she was not holding back the other students.
I also liked how she addressed issues regarding students work as a whole. This method of correcting did not make any one feel picked on and that is something I felt as an elementary student. Some students however still were not doing things correctly. The teacher however handled it in a good way. Instead of calling the child out, she went up to them and quietly discussed the issue. Some teachers do not do that and I think that is wrong.
I noticed that the kids had a story for every thing. The stories were unrelated to the discussion but the teacher did a good job of balancing this. You need to show interest in what the kids are saying because they like when you are able to connect with them, but at the same time getting off task can not occur often.