Blog #7

In my service learning I do see the teachers addressing the standards in their classroom. In my 1st grade classroom I sat in on reading time. At this time he had the students grab their language art books and sit in a circle on the ground. They would turn to the first page of the story and before they started to read the teacher asked the students to take a minute and look at the illustration and the title of the story. He then asked the students to think about what they thought the story will be about and why. He set a timer and once the one minute was up he had the students turn to their partner and share with each other. After 2 minutes he had the children turn back around and asked who would like to share their thoughts. This simple activity in the beginning helped establish and jump start the children's critical thinking.

 I saw every teacher implement the objectives and were giving students the opportunity to engage with their peers about their thoughts on the subjects they were about to learn, through simple activities that didn't take up a lot of time. I saw every subject addressed in the classroom with just as much effort as the previous subject. When speaking to a teacher from the salt lake district, she felt that her school pushes her and her fellow teachers too much to get the standardized teaching into their classroom. She felt her students do not seem very engaged especially when they have to learn math and science. She believes they need to take a step back and let her and her fellow teachers have more control over their lessons and how they can teach their students. She at times thinks of moving districts because she feels the salt lake city district only cares about the numbers they produce on the standardized tests that brings them in more money. I never felt that way with the teachers in the canyons school district. They all had control over their lessons and they were very hands on and fun with every subject they were teaching.