Blog Entry #3

• Describe a time your cooperative teacher has offered choice to students: Very often my cooperative teacher gives choices to her students, so it’s a little hard to just pick one. However, I’ve seen that most often she will give choices after taking a test of some sorts. Often the choices are an online math game, silent reading, or completing unfinished work. I think when you give your students certain choices that they can choose from it helps them stay on task because it's a little bit like they got to choose what they wanted to do instead of you telling them. 
• What does the cooperative teacher do to encourage a positive classroom community: She has many different reward systems. The two main ones that she uses are dots and points. Each student has 3 white dots on their desk. When she notices that a certain student is on task she will direct them to fill in one of their dots (they just use a black whiteboard marker to fill it in). If all 3 of them are filled in by the end of the day then they will receive a reward. The second reward system she uses is points. Up on her board in the top right corner, she has two different rows. One that says “class” and the other one that says her name. Throughout the day if the class is being noisy and not on task she will give herself a point. If the class is doing there work quietly she will give them a point. By using these reward systems it helps to keep the classroom a positive learning space as well as building the classroom community.
• What clear routines are established in the classroom? How do they support a productive learning environment: Every day she will write on the board what they are going to be doing at certain times. 9:00 Math, 10:30 science, 1:00 lunch etc. I would consider this a certain kind of routine. The second routine I usually see is Monday-Thursday they have a certain place that they go every day. Whether that’s PE, Art, Music, etc. The last routine they have is every Friday they have a fun day. This is basically for those students that have finished all of there work for the week can then for the last 30 minutes of school just play with there friends in the classroom or play on their computers. These are just 3 of the main routines that I have seen. I have only observed one full day (but many half days) so I can’t completely explain all of there routines, except the ones I said above.