Tracing a Teachers Shadow Shadowing someone is when one is given the opportunity to view another person in their professional setting, preferably one that interests them as a future career. In this shadow project I was assigned to a teacher named Ms. Lazzara. Ms. Lazzara is a first grade teacher at Buffalo Public School 89 also known as Dr. Lydia T. Wright School of Excellence. This school was named after Dr. Lydia T. Wright, the first African American pediatrician in Buffalo. She was also the first African American person to serve on the Buffalo Board of Education from 1962-1967. Although, the Buffalo Public School 89 has a poverty level of ninety-six to ninety-eight percent, mainly consisting of the minority groups, the school’s mission is to develop self-motivated and reflective learners who are capable of doing anything they want to do. This school was designed to believe in having a safe environment for students, differentiating instructions as implemented to ensure the mastery of core subjects, recognizing diversity and value of the individuals, expressing education as a shared responsibility with students, family, and staff, and lastly, the environment in this school will promote student confidence and self-esteem. Receiving this fortunate opportunity at the Buffalo Public School 89 has really helped me to perceive what my future career may appear to be by tracing the steps of a real life teacher. In order for Ms. Lazzara to perform well she needs to comprehend the students’ needs and be aware of the diversity within her own classroom. As the class moved to a different subject, so did the students. The students were called up by table numbers to the rug for reading time. Ms. Lazzara called up each table to the rug depending on their behavior while seated. She read aloud a book and allowed one of the students, who volunteered, to turn the pages. Ms. Lazzara would pause when an unknown word appeared or to even describe to the class what happened in that scene. During that time, she was able to teach the students four different words for the term “sleep.” Ms. Lazzara had many group activities throughout the day. One main group activity that they had was Leap Frog Time. The students were divided into normal groups, where each member varied in reading and writing levels. I was able to work with one group who had to read a story and write down the title, main idea, favorite part, and explain why it was their favorite part. I noticed that in the group I had, the students were very similar in their weaknesses of spelling, then there were two students who were not able to concentrate on the given assignment; they were easily distracted. Eventually, they got the work completed. Not only did Ms. Lazzara teach the students the basic subjects in different ways, but she also introduced diversity to the class. The classroom was filled with posters of a variety of cultural differences. She had a wall with important African American leaders (Martin Luther King, Barack Obama, Rosa Parks, etc); she also expressed the differences of celebrating Hanukah and Christmas. The classroom had a corner dedicated to all kinds of books, which some introduced and valued the different aspects of cultures. Ms. Lazzara showed a lot of passion teaching her students. She loves teaching her first grade class because her students show their hard work and progress in becoming better readers. The one thing she struggles with is the short attention span of her students, which she feels is a bigger challenge to maintain for a child at that age. She is able to let them move forward knowing that they have accomplished learning how to read. Ms. Lazzara states that she “enjoys seeing her students’ blossom throughout the years.” Understanding the many challenges she and her students face, she must find a way to properly educate her student to each of their abilities. Ms. Lazzara begins planning her lessons during the summer vacation and finalizes the lessons a week prior to teaching it. She uses a variety of technology and materials to help her students understand the lessons better. For instance, the students were introduced to the suffix “ent” and “est.” Once they thought of a word ending in that suffix, they were allowed to come and write it on the smart board. When the classed transitioned to Leap Frog time, the students were all reading and writing, but at different stations with different materials. One group used a tape recorder radio to read the story out loud; this group was able to work the radio properly, whether it was using the play, rewind, stop, or fast forward buttons or simply inserting the disk and turning it on. Another group sat at four computers reading a short online story book and answering questions. The third group sat at a table and each had their own leap frog books and headphones which read the story to them with extra noise effects, so they can have a better understanding. As for the last group, Ms. Lazzara sat down with this group and helped them go over reading and writing assignments from a previous class. I was not able to record all of the books the students read that day. These are all considered to be models of cooperative learning, where students work in small groups, learning the material, sharing the work and helping one another complete assignments. Towards the end of Leap Frog Time she would check the students’ work and pin it up on the classroom walls. At the beginning of each of these activities, Ms. Lazzara reminded the students on how to use each of the materials they were using. Throughout these activities I realize the amount of content knowledge Ms. Lazzara had about her students. She knew each of them very well. She was able to point out the ones who are struggling, the ones who are average, and the couple that are considered to be excelled. She mentioned two of the students in the classroom are advanced in reading. These two first grade students are reading at a third grade level. Ms. Lazzara had planned to do something about it because the material seems too easy for them, so she was hoping to place them at a different class level for reading and writing. Overall, I was impressed to hear the amount of knowledge she was able to tell me about each child specifically. Ms. Lazzara also showed a great amount of content knowledge in the subjects she was teaching. She was able to introduce the material and teach it to the students in a way that every child would understand. This is a sense of pedagogy, meaning, how to teach. The day was filled with Piaget’s Preoperational stage, where the children do a lot of hands on work and group activities. Ms. Lazzara mentioned how her first grade class has a very short attention span, in order to keep them interested she puts together lesson plans and activities and gives out a reward to the students who behave and perform well. Prizes will always help keep young students motivated to do their best, this is an example of extrinsic. Ms. Lazzara refers to this as the “ticket box.” When a student does something well or answers a difficult question correctly, she sends them to put their name in the ticket box. At the end of the day, she pulls out one of the names and that child gets the biggest prize. Ms. Lazzara has very good classroom management skills, although her students’ have a short attention span, she is still able to get most of their attention. The classroom produced a handbook of rules that they went over, so that every student can understand the meaning. This is an example of Kounin’s preventive planning. Ms. Lazzara also reviews books by Harry Wong, an author whose books discuss classroom management skills, right before the school year begins. It was great to hear that a current teacher such as Ms. Lazzara would be referring to Wong in her daily life, someone who has been recently introduced to me in the classroom. The different classroom management skills she uses are clapping her hands, switching off the lights, or counting to three to get the students’ attention. Ms. Lazzara and the rest of the school uses a system in which there are three card colors, yellow, green, and red, in order to discipline the students. This is considered to be a way of explicit curriculum, which is, the behavior, attitudes, and knowledge that a school intends to teach students. The yellow is when the student is at good standing, the green is when the child has been misbehaving, and the red is when the child has been disrespectful all day. If the students do not act appropriately they are sent to change their card color. For example, two males were isolated from the classroom, their desks were not in groups and they sat all the way in the front because of their wrong actions. One of the boys was not doing what he was told, so Ms. Lazzara sent him to change his card; after, he was still not behaving the way he should be, so he was sent for the second time to change his card. He continued to disrupt the class; Ms. Lazzara stopped the lesson and called his parent in front of the entire class. In my opinion, I thought this was not handled appropriately. Ms. Lazzara should have waited until the class went to lunch or another activity to call the child’s parent because it is disruptive, taking time out of the other students’ learning, and also embarrassing for the child. Ms. Lazzara organized the room to have the students’ desks in groups mixed with boys and girls; each student had their name tags taped to their desk. She refers to each group with a number (1, 2, and 3). She would do some activities where the students have to share materials and help each other before asking her for help. The classroom is decorated with the students work and motivational posters. They also have a word wall, a book area, “very important person” wall, alphabets, numbers, 1-2-3 rules, calendar, leapfrog area, writing area, group rules, computers, a ticket box, and a list of classroom helpers. The students use all of these during the different class times. On that day, their learning experience was mainly based on English language arts, math, and forty five minutes devoted to Fun Friday. In English language arts, the students were learning new vocabulary, reading, and writing. A handful of the students were struggling mainly in the reading and writing areas. Ms. Lazzara’s technique to help the students was letting them use sources from their notes and the ability to use their neighbors for additional help. This is an example of scaffolding, which is:
“an approach to teaching based on the students current level of understanding and ability; the teacher varies the amount of help given (for example, clues, encouragement, or suggestions) to students based on their moment-to- moment understanding of the material being learned” (Parkay & Stanford 210).
On the other hand the students were introduced to the subject of math where they learned the different shapes in geometry. They were able to use Piaget’s preoperational stage of hands on experience. In Piaget’s preoperational stage, children from two through seven use language and symbols to think of people outside the immediate environment. Ms. Lazzara gave the students a diagram where they had to fill in the spots with the shapes provides. Most of the students were able to fill in the spots using different shapes in certain places. Ms. Lazzara uses this activity because it is a better method for the children to comprehend the different shapes that can be seen around them. After a long and hard working day, the children were given a great amount of time to relax and be entertained by a movie. Allowing the students to watch a movie let Ms. Lazzara correct tests and organize things for the next lesson plan and activity. Those who were behaving well were able to fully to participate in Fun Friday. Those who were not, were on time out for the first fifteen minutes. When the time was up, the students went back to their seats quietly and got ready for the next lesson which was on nouns. The class was given a “To Do Now” where they had to think and write down four different nouns using a person, place, thing, or animal. Once they had four different nouns listed on their sheet of paper, Ms. Lazzara picked out names from a jar and called on the selected students. She then wrote down their examples on the board and had the class circle four different nouns that were on the board. Then the students had to construct a sentence using the ones they had chosen. She went around seeing if each student’s sentence had capitalization, noun, and a period. After this activity, the students were given a worksheet which Ms. Lazzara had them read out loud the rules in unison. In the middle of the day, Ms. Lazzara gave the students a ten question spelling exam with a bonus question. She did not pronounce the words clearly for her students to comprehend. She kept getting annoyed because she had to repeat the words. Ms. Lazzara explained to me that the school has a system they called “PALS,” which is constantly testing the students, at least once a week. Ms. Lazzara keeps records of the students’ work in her grade book, on the school system online and separate folders for each student. Ms. Lazzara also gives homework assignments which are signed by the students’ parents to show that they looked over it and/or helped them. Ms. Lazzara was upset with the class because only one student did the assignment. There are three different rubrics Ms. Lazzara follows; they are math, writing, and a how am I doing rubrics. She uses this to see her students’ weaknesses and strengths along with what she should work on more for her students to improve. At the end of the day, Ms. Lazzara and I had the time to talk individually. She explained to me her opinion of the pros and cons on being a teacher. Ms. Lazzara describes the advantages of teaching are how she enjoys seeing kids grow into better individuals, being able to work with children in general, and creating positive relationships with each of her students. On the other hand, Ms. Lazzara dislikes that today’s teaching is much more different than when she first started. Before teaching first grade, she taught fourth grade, she explained to me how teaching fourth grade was much easier because the children do not need as much attention as younger children. Ms. Lazzara then added how there is too many large classes and not enough aides. She brought to my attention the daily routine she and her class goes through. Ms. Lazzara normally comes in early so that her students can place their things in the class and get breakfast before class begins. There are also times Ms. Lazzara stays after for parent teacher conferences, committee work, grade level meetings, and planning for the next day.
The classroom climate was very well put together. I was able to see the students work productively even through the few minor issues that occurred. The groups were determined to finish the given assignment. The classroom was open and Ms. Lazzara carried a warm relationship between her and her students. Most of the students were respectful towards each other and they were able to have some kind of entertainment and humor. Most importantly, Ms. Lazzara showed that she had very high expectations for her students.
Spending an entire day with Ms. Lazzara has taught me that becoming a teacher is not an easy job. Teachers are busy preparing plans for each class which can take a lot of time out of their days. This work can become overwhelming because teachers want to be able to produce the best work they can to keep their students engaged and keep the lessons effective. My passion for teaching has become even greater after this experience. The students were so welcoming and open with me. When it was time to leave a few of the students asked if I will be back again that Monday, unfortunately I said no, they seemed sad and gave me hugs, repeatedly. At that moment my heart knew where I belonged, which is in a first grade classroom.
Dr. Lydia T. Wright’s Buffalo Public School 89 is a well assembled and educated school. The experienced I had here was definitely one to remember. The environment was comfortable to be in and shadowing Ms. Lazzara was a great experience. I’m thankful for being able to shadow a well experienced teacher and the opportunity to apply what I have learned from Ms. Lazzara in my future classrooms. I’ve learned that teaching is not for everyone, you must have a great amount of patience, dedication, and passion to become a successful instructor. One of the few things I disagreed with the format Ms. Lazzara dealt with inappropriate behavior is unjust and unprofessional. An alternative consequence to such behavior would be to approach with the issues by not consuming class time or focusing all of the attention on one particular student. The opportunity that has been given to me has provided me with an insight of the future that my life holds, an insight that satisfies me internally.