First taste of the real thing

Today we went to Boiling Springs Elementary School to observe a second grade classroom for the first time. We have spent the past month talking about and hearing about what our lives are going to be like as teachers and what we are going to have to do. Today we got to see a glimpse of what we will actually be doing and what it looks like to be a teacher in a classroom.
    When we first got into the classroom the kids were just switching classes and getting ready for math. As the students were coming in and getting settled, I noticed that some kids were fooling around, taking a long time to get ready for class and didn't have all their materials out that they needed. One girl was in her seat, had her note book and pencil out and was ready to go. I liked how the teacher noticed it and said "kaylen (not really her name) thank you for being prepared and ready to go, you can go get a piece of candy out of the bin; guys you do this every day, you know what you need out on your desk, why can't you all be like kaylen." The teacher had a bin of candy that was sitting on her desk that she gave to kids when they did something good. I think this is a great way to reward a student. This will motivate the students to work hard, pay attention, and cooperate. This was also praising the student who was ready to go and instead of yelling at the kids that were not prepared, she just asked why can't you all be like kaylen who is prepared and ready to go.
   When the teacher was teaching the math lesson, she first did review problems and everyone was just answering out loud. Next she would write down a problem and say okay now you solve this on your own and then she would walk around the class to see how the students were doing. Next she would go back to her desk and call on people to help explain how they got the answer. I really liked how she did this and it really showed how she is applying the common core because not only is she teaching her students but she's reviewing so it re-jogs their memory and then she gives them problems to do alone and walks around the classroom so she can see how each of them are doing, not just as a class, but how they are personally doing.
  The last thing they did was split into three groups. One group was playing math games on the iPods, one was playing a card game, and the other was working in a group with her. She had a small group setting so she could really see who was understanding it and who wasn't. This gives her more time to work individually with each student and allows her to help the students who need more work than others.
  I was really surprised by how they actually used the iPods to play math games on them and they knew exactly what they were doing. Maybe all this talk about technology is actually real :/ Another thing I found crazy is that the math the students are learning now, is what we are learning in our math class right now. It confuses me so I can't imagine how confused the second graders must be especially since they learned a whole different way of adding and subtracting last year.
   This was a really good experience and I am glad we got to see how a teacher runs her classroom with the common core. I am really excited to see how the middle school and high schools visits go!