For my tenth hour at Millridge, I sat in on another fourth grade reading class. In this reading class, the teacher had the students watch a video on Veteran’s Day and what it means. The students were preparing for an assembly that they would be attending during the school day the following week. At the assembly, the teacher announced that some of the student’s parents/grandparents would be speaking on what it is like being a Veteran. The students were very interested in the video and learning about Veteran’s Day because it is something that applied to them in their life- their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc.
After watching the video the teacher drew a time line on the board so the students could see how many days were left in their grading quarter. By laying out a time line the students became extremely excited to see how close they were to their break. This caused the students to get loud and start yelling. After quieting the class the teacher explained that they still had a lot of work to get done in the short time frame and that they needed to stay focused. I think that by showing the students the short time line they became very unfocused on the class and what they were expected to do. The teacher had wanted them to focus on writing more letters to the veterans but, instead, the students were loud and talking to each other- clearly not focusing on writing their letters. This classroom seemed out of control and the teacher seemed to lack the ability to keep them focused.
Overall, my experience at Millridge Elementary School was wonderful and I really enjoyed learning from the teachers!