Observation Hours: Class 5

This was my last visit to Mrs. Lytle's first grade class. I was very sad to have it all come to an end because I was really enjoying seeing the class during these visits. The question that I had walking into the class was what are the students going to do since it is the day before Halloween? I remember when I was in elementary school we always did something fun to celebrate the holiday. From what I saw not much had changed. One thing I did not do much of this class was take notes. I wanted to work hands on with the children and also get a chance to see what they were all doing for the day. When I arrived the students were coming back from computer class. When they got back from computer class the students were reviewing words that they had practiced previously. They only did this for a little bit of time because they had to get to the fun activities they were going to do in honor of Halloween. The class and the rest of the school did many various activities to celebrate Halloween. Since I was only there for a short period of the day I didn't get to see many of the activities they participated in. However, I had the chance to see a few. First, they had the chance to work on their iPads to study words they had already learned also, they got to practice Halloween words that had the sounds of previous words. I found this to useful to the class because they had the chance to study old words and sounds they already knew, but had the chance to make it fun by adding in words relating to Halloween. After this activity was completed, the class had the chance to make Halloween pictures to bring home and show their families. The teacher let each student pick 10 stickers to add to the pictures they had already drawn. Many of the students really wanted to show me what they had drawn and I saw that they all were very creative and had very different ideas of what they wanted to draw. You can tell they all had an open mind and wanted to take time and draw something they took pride in. After they completed this activity it was time for them to get ready for recess and also to get ready for the parade they had the chance to attend later. Every student in the school had the chance to walk around in their costume and show what they were going to be for Halloween. Many of the students in the class really wanted to show me what they were going to be and just tell me small stories about their families and what they were going to do Halloween. It felt great to do this since I knew this was going to be my last visit of the year with the class. In conclusion, I had a great time spending my 10 hours with Mrs. Lytle and her first grade class. They all showed me that teaching is definitely the right career for myself. I hope one day by the end of the year I have the chance to go back and see the class because I enjoyed every second of being there. The students and Mrs. Lytle made this experience very enjoyable and I am glad I had the chance to take part in the classroom.