| While at Orchard Elementary School my kindergarten
worked with a 5th grade class in the school. We called this activity
"Learning Buddies." Learning Buddies consisted of planning a lesson for
both the 5th graders and the kindergarteners to complete together.
The students had a buddy that they were with each week and they developed
a strong bond by the time I worked with them. I worked with three
other teachers for learning buddies time, My mentor teacher, the 5th grade
teacher, and his student teacher. I myself created one lesson
during my solo weeks (PC 4a) as we take turns planning every other
week. |
|
|
| Above are two pictures of the lesson that I planned.
The spring poems were to be created collaborativly in each buddy pairing.
(PC 2a2) The students had a great time. The first picture
shows two girls, both new to school working together. The older girl
had a bit of a rough time getting used to learning buddies as her partner
was a non english speaker. Before they began she asked me how to
do it. I gave her some instruction about how to work with the young
girl to help her both understand and participate. By differentiating
the instruction the group was successful. (PC 2b) |
|
|
| The above pictures are from two other learning buddies
experiences that I had. The first photo is of Mr. Dugan the student
teacher from the 5th grade class. He was teaching his lesson on whales.
The second photo is of a presenter that we had about Maple Sugaring.
Also in the photo is Mrs. Whitney, a woman from the neighborhood who is
our class grandmother. She came in and helped out two days a week
during my solo time. (PC 4a) |
| Working with the teachers for learning buddies was
a wonderful experience for me. Besides getting a chance to learn
more teaching styles, it also allowed me to work with a wonderful group
of 5th graders. Everytime they came in the dynamics in the room changed
dramatically. It gave each students some one-on-one time with
with other mentor students as well, which is a boost to some of the students
who aren't thriving in a large class. (PC 2a3) I hope to form
a relationship with another class when I have my own classroom, as I have
seen the results work in a classroom. (PC 4e) I also remember
working with learning buddies during my own school experience and it was
the best part of the week. |
|