Field observation week two!

This week was my second week at Parker elementary school!  Unfortunately, Monday the school was closed due to Columbus day so I wasn't able to observe but I did get to see my first graders on Wednesday! This week the nerves were not so bad....I was very comfortable this time around. As the day progressed I was starting to get the feel of activities that took place throughout the day. This past observation I sat in on writing work shop where kids were taught the format of a letter, a note, and a short story.  The students were given the option to pick between the three and an illustration needed to be included.  I sat with a few students and found that most kids had no trouble vocalizing what they wanted to write for their stories but I found that had an extremely had time translating the words onto paper.  Most students drew the illustrations before attempting to write their stories, letters, lists.  I feel that in order to make this writing workshop more beneficial to students they should be required to do the actual writing before making an illustration. I feel most kids use the allotted class time to draw and don't get to write a single sentence.   After Writers workshop students were assigned classroom jobs that consisted of a line leader, book shelf organizer, paper passer outter and etc. Something as little as classroom jobs really got excited the kids and they felt honored to be able to help around the classroom.  The kids had music today where they played various types of drums during class.  Overall, week two went great! I'm looking forward to next week!