What Makes a Classroom Work?

Today was my first day of volunteering at Westside Elementary in Springville, Utah. I had the wonderful opportunity to observe the 5th grade classroom of Mrs. Paynter. I have had a little bit of experience working in a classroom, but it was with grades Pre-K through 2nd, so I was of course thrilled to have the opportunity to have the chance to observe and work in a 5th grade classroom.

I could tell right away that Mrs. Paynter LOVES her job. I never once saw her get frustrated or upset with her students, even when a couple of them spoke out of turn or were not doing what they were supposed to. She has so much energy and I can tell that she has a great experience with all of her students. She was so willing to let me do whatever I needed to get the most of my experience, and I was thrilled about that. I was really impressed at how well she was able to change her path if what she was doing did not work right away. She just approached what they were discussing in a different way, checked for understanding, and made sure everyone was on the same page before moving on. I also loved how she gave the students the chance to explore and make mistakes before she taught them how to do their new math chapter. She let them use their previous knowledge, make connections, and see where it went. I loved how she gave them the chance to see what they could figure out on their own instead of just coming out and telling them how to do it.

Another thing I was really impressed with was how easily she approached all three of the modalities in all of her teaching. The first time I noticed it was when they started doing vocab at the beginning of class. She had small groups come back to her table while the others worked on homework and she would introduce the vocab words and discuss why they are pronounced the way they are and how they related to what they are studying in class. Then, when everyone was back in their seats, she went over the words they just learned and asked how they were similar to other words they knew. After that, the class played an activity where she handed out cards with the new vocab words on them, and each student with a partner had to talk together about the word they were given and then draw a picture they thought would represent their vocabulary word on the board. Then as a class, they went through all the pictures and decided what they were of and why. It was great because they discussed it first so the auditory listeners had the chance to listen, then the kinsetic learners were able to be hands on and create their own version of the word, and then the visual learners were able to see each vocab word represented in many different forms and see how they all are similar. 

The three modalities were also shown in her math lesson when she not only had each student write out the math problems in their math workbooks, but discuss and explore the math with a partner, and then she visually drew out each math problem with tables on the board for everyone to see. It was incredible to see how easy the lessons were to follow, but also how they were approached in many different ways to make sure that everyone was able to understand and be on the same page. 

It was a really great experience to be there and observe a classroom like this. I know every teacher is different, as well as their methods, but I truly believe that Mrs. Paynter is one of the best. I hope that someday I can love my students the way she does, let my students know that I am there for them, and be the one who can help them see how wonderful learning can be.