New Visions Blog 2

Ms. Kavadias, again began the day with math review from Friday's class. The students that participated and came up to the board were given plastic tokens. These tokens were kept in their pencil baskets. At the end of the day the tokens are added up and the group with the most tokens gets a prize. Ms. Kavadias taught for most of the class today, because she was being observed by the principal.
After the class reviewed the math problems together they were asked in groups to walk over to the rug and sit quietly. Many of the students began talking as they sat down, so Mr. Woodward stepped in as asked the children to quiet down. The story the students were reading involved basketball. So Mr. Woodward walked around the class dribbling the basketball and Ms. Kavadias blew her whistle. The students were asked to provide the rest of the class with any information they knew about basketball. They also went over some key words including; aimed, pretended, captain, professional, monitor, and familiar. The students were then asked to return to their seats and Ms. Kavadias began a CLOZE passage. The children were asked to complete this assignment individually and then in groups discuss how they came up with their answer.

New Visions Blog 1

The classroom I am observing is a third grade class. This class is instructed by two teachers, Mr. Woodward and Ms. Kavadias. There are five separate groups of desks clustered together; mostly two boys and two girls in a group. Students have their names at the top of their desks and a a basket with pencils in it in the middle of all their desks. Ms. Kavadias begins the day with some math review and then Mr. Woodward takes over and guides the students through an English lesson. Both teachers are very animated but are able to regain control of the class quite easily when the students begin to get a little loud.
The classroom itself is very colorful. The walls are covered with projects made by the students. For example, there are drawing of what the students want to be when they get older and plants they have grown. There is a world map and greetings from various countries around the world. Ms. Kavadias applied these greetings as an introduction to one of her lessons. It was clear to see that almost all of the students were familiar with how to say these words and where they are from.