Carly Welch

14 October 2016
Professor Sjoerdsma
IJ 4
This week was definitely interesting. Mrs. Barber was on vacation
this whole week and having a substitute was an eye opener to what
classroom management can look like, and how poorly behaved the
students act when Mrs. Barber is around. Since working with Mrs.
Barber, I wondered if the students acted the way they did because
they knew that they could get away with it.
Mrs. Barber has a somewhat of a hands-off approach to teaching.
She will set up activities and stations for the students, but she wont
refocus the group and she wont interrupt the madness that sometimes
occurs. I am unsure if that is because of the age of the students, or if
that is what she learned was effective pedagogy in her early childhood
masters program. I have often wondered if the students acted out and
acted defiant because they know there wont be consequences, but I
also dont know if I just have higher expectations for them than I
should.
While having a substitute in the classroom, the students were
quiet, respectful, and not one child got moved to slow down, or
teachers choice. The substitute teacher, Mrs. Sporte was a veteran
teacher. She taught at Plymouth Christian for 30 years and has been

substituting part-time since retiring in 2000. The children were

respectful; they raised their hands to answer questions that Mrs.
Sporte asked (which they never do when Mrs. Barber ask questions
they just blurt out answers or random thoughts). In addition, the
centers ran more smoothly than I have ever seen with Mrs. Barber. The
students spoke in a quiet, inside voice, and they remained on task. In
addition, they transitioned well from one activity to the next. Mrs. Diaz,
the teacher in the adjoining kindergarten classroom came over and
said that she hadnt heard our class once. She said that that was the
first time that she hadnt heard Mrs. Babers class since this school
year started.
Although Mrs. Baber said that I would have a lot of the
responsibility, Mrs. Sporte has me do mostly managerial work. This
week was not at all what I had hoped, or expected. I was hoping that I
would be stretched and that I would be put outside of my comfort
zone, but unfortunately the substitute didnt feel comfortable letting
me do much. One job that I was able to do was to proctor the unit two
math test. I look forward to doing this weekly, and look forward to
working one-on-one with each student.
Tuesday through Thursday I administered the chapter-two math
test. The class average was 88%. I was thrilled because of the vast
abilities and backgrounds that the students come from. Something that
I noticed while working individually with each student on the test was

that most of the students had a hard time concentrating and remaining
on task. I also dont know how well of an indicator the test are of
understanding because some of the students knew the math portion of
the test, but they either put the answer in the wrong place, or they
misunderstood the directions that were read aloud to themcausing
them to get the question wrong.
According to Woolfolk, Learning is supported by frequent testing
using cumulative questions that ask students to apply and integrate
knowledge (p. 584). However, I sometimes wonder how constructive
these frequent tests are for kindergarten students. Woolfolk continues,
Tests are also valuable in motivating and guiding students learning.
There is research evidence that frequent testing encourages learning
and retention. In fact, taking more frequent tests improves learning,
even if there is no feedback from the testbad teaching, but a
powerful result (p. 558).
Some of the students are getting more than half of the questions
wrong, while others are getting perfect scores, or scores in the middle
to high 90s. Seeing these results leads me to wonder: if there were
more means for representation for the test taking, would there be a
more consistent grade? I understand that in every class that you are
going to have students who have higher abilities than others, but at
what point do you just accept that, and at when do you stop trying to

make the outcomes more consistent? Are the students who are failing
really improving their learning, even with poor results?

Woolfolk, A. (2013). Educational psychology (12th ed., pp. 428-469).

N.p.: Pearson.