Integration, Observing, Teaching, Oh My!

Having the chance to go spend an entire day at a school as an elementary education student was amazing. For 350, we observed in a classroom for an entire day to see how things worked and what a normal day looked like. I observed and learned many new strategies that I will want to implement into my future classroom. For 410, we had a discussion on integration and what we thought about the whole integration process.

I learned so many new things, but I want to talk about just a few that I felt were very important for furthering my education and being a teacher soon. The observation really gave me the opportunity to see that integrating technology and other subjects together can be a seamless process that comes naturally. I had the privilege of observing a teacher that integrated beautifully. If I wouldn’t have been walking around and seeing what the students were taking a part of, then I wouldn’t have known when the next subject was being taught because everything connected and was taught without gaps. It was so rewarding to be able to see integration take place and not even realize it, then come into class the next day for 410 and realize what was happening. I know that this teacher worked hard in making her classroom this way, but I also know that there will be days when things don’t go smoothly because of other circumstances.

Being able to make connections with my observations and how I want to teach in the future was powerful. It’s nice to be able to see ways that different teachers do things and pull new ideas from them. Making the connection that the students don’t need to know that they are actually learning science, history, and language arts all at the same time brought a sense of comfort to me because that can hinder a student’s learning. I remember being told it was history time when I was a student and dreading it because it was not my favorite. However, if history would have been integrated into language arts, that I enjoyed, I would have felt better about it.

Being in an actual classroom and learning what integration is ties into all our NCTCS. I could see how I need to demonstrate leadership as the teacher, respect all my students, know what I teach before I teach it, differentiate, and reflect. Even after graduation, when I’m in my own classroom, these standards should be a basis for what I believe and how I teach. In my future classroom, I want integration to be as smooth as it can be. I know this will take lots of practice, but seeing it take place gives me hope. I want my students to not worry about the actual subject they are learning. I want them to just be excited that they are learning new things because the things that don’t particularly enjoy may be something that I integrated and tied with something else.

For my outside research this week, I wanted to research ways in which I could manage my classroom. The classroom I observed was very well managed. I learned a few of the strategies that the teacher used, but I wanted to research and dig deep into ways that classroom management is handled. This article has many good strategies that can help in managing a classroom.

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/big-and-small-classroom-management-strategies-todd-finley