Blog Entry 1

I volunteered in a fourth grade class.  During my time there I noticed how hard it is to keep the students on task!  The class I was volunteering in was especially crazy, the teacher event warned me that her class is the hardest fourth grade class in the school.  I noticed that the teacher would use many different tactics in an attempt to have well behaved class.  One thing that I really liked was the teacher made "Disney dollars".  If a student was good they could earn a Disney dollar and with the "money" earned they could pick out a prize.  Also the teacher would use points for groups.  These points could also be used towards prizes.  Tactics like these are known as positive reinforcement, witch is a way to apply behaviorism.  Also the teacher would use many different ways to teach a lesson such as having the students take notes, watching a movie related to the lesson, or listening to podcasts.  By using many different teaching styles, all types of learners (auditory, kinesthetic, and visual) could better understand the material.

Teachers have to do many things. In addition to teaching lessons, they have to grade homework, quizzes, and tests.  They also have to prepare the next days lessons and activities.  The teacher I was volunteering for is going to teach at a different school in the fall, so she had to start taking things off the walls and packing her classroom.  Teachers also have to be there for their students.  Whenever a student didn't know how to spell a word, the teacher would be there to help. Through this experience I realized the importance of a teachers in their students' lives and how rewarding this job can be.