CDFS 4023

Weekly Journal Entry

Name: Taryn Ramsey

Agency/Organization: Good Elementary
Month #: 1, Week 3 January 24-29, 2022
_____________________________________________________________________
Describe daily activities for the week. Comment on experiences that were particularly helpful to
you. Be informative and give specific descriptions and examples such as shadowing, home visits,
or agency meetings.
On Friday, January 28, I arrived in Ms. Slate-Quinlan’s (Ms. Q’s) classroom. When I
arrived, fourth grade was operating in a dark classroom as Ms. Q demonstrated
techniques using the overhead camera. In this class, they were learning how to draw
different shapes with stencils. They were decently calm, though discovered that making
cubes can be tricky even with a stencil. Ms. Q’s approach was to give a demonstration,
give to check for understanding and practice, then moving on to a new concept. I
learned with them to help my understanding of where they were at and to help build
towards teaching a lesson myself. As we practiced together, I thought about how some
children may discover a passion for drawing with precision and accuracy and decide to
become an architect. We ended the class with studio time, where students could freely
create or work on an unfinished project. One student made an origami basketball hoop!
The next class was fifth grade, which began with a challenge to speak in a British
accent. This was a smaller class, albeit being a bit more challenging. At first, I wondered
if it was because they were ready for lunchtime - which is definitely not out of the
question, but also not the full story. Ms. Q had the students engage in an ‘imagination
work out’ where they created something out of a few squiggly lines. It was challenging to
get the students to engage and be kind. Compared to the classes I visited last week, the
Friday fifth grade class was significantly less advanced. Ms. Q organized a group
project for them to do, but also made it optional to work alone. I could see a bit of panic
in a few student’s eyes when she introduced the idea, that was relieved when she noted
that they could work alone. Over the course of the class, I began to wonder if a few
students had behavioral issues. This was confirmed by Ms. Q when class ended - it
turns out that all of the students with behavioral issues were placed in the same class,
and all seemed to have a similar elective schedule. Each class that followed (pre-k,
kindergarten, first, second) had similar issues, with the added buffer of language. I was
able to communicate enough to engage with students who did not speak English, but it
was definitely a struggle. However, it encouraged me to want to become stronger in
Spanish, and confirmed the necessity to learn it.