Re: Moving from middle to elem. help!
    Posted by: Paris on 6/22/16
    () Comments

    Centers refers to learning centers. Learning centers
    are "stations" located throughout the classroom that
    are focused on a specific developmental activity.
    Many of these stations are based on literacy. Students
    generally choose which centers and how much time to
    spend at each center. Center participation may be
    more scripted, for example in the case of story time,
    all the students will converge in the story book center
    as the teacher reads a story. One classroom might
    have a limited number of iPads, in your example so the
    iPads are located in a center, or dispersed among
    different centers for specific activities. A science
    center might be using an ipad for time delayed
    photography of plants growing or might be in a math
    (numbers) center for playing a specific math game or
    learning program. Centers get more use in earlier
    grades (K-3) and less use in older grades (4-6) where
    students are expected to spend more time at their
    desks as centers become fewer and smaller.
    Generally, what happens as students advance in
    grades is the number of literacy centers decreases
    and your centers consist of "corners" where you may
    have a library corner, a technology/computer corner
    and a science corner.
    The idea is that students will self direct their learning
    through natural curiosity and individual interests as
    guided by the limitations of the learning center. The
    plant growth learning center above may have clover
    growing in egg shell cartons that the students did as a
    scripted activity (a scripted activity is just that, a
    whole class activity that the students are guided
    through doing). The rest of the learning center will
    consist of an iPad doing time capture (students can
    review the time capture and make their
    expressions/reflections in their desk journal), a table
    on the wall for students to record some data such as
    plant height (either by drawing or using a ruler also at
    the learning station) and watering their plants. The
    teacher might make observations daily that some
    students plants are looking really thirsty. That's the
    learning center it's one activity with a limited number
    of tasks, and focused objectives.
    Some learning centers are static, such as a library
    center, students select a book to read and then
    complete a worksheet and journal expression. The
    worksheet asks what book they read, what was the
    main character, what happened in the story and how
    did it end. This type of center doesn't change.
    Dynamic learning centers like the science center
    above have a specific unit objective and then are
    changed when the unit changes. A library learning
    center stays the same (static) but an independent
    reading center may be dynamic, and focused on
    plants for instance. The center will have a few
    selections on plants or gardening (borrowed from the
    school or public library) and then students will
    complete some activity. This activity might be a
    prerequisite for the student to plant their own clover
    seeds in the science center or some other activity.
    When the unit changes (from plants to dinosaurs)
    then the reading selections in the dynamic
    independent reading center change.
    A good guideline is that at least half of a classrooms
    learning centers should be literacy focused. A
    classroom should always have one teacher guided or
    direct teaching center (some classrooms call this
    "desk time")
    My classroom has 13 learning centers:
    6 of them are literacy (independent reading, library,
    poetry, writing, storybook, listening).
    1 theater center(this could be considered literacy, but
    my classroom is required to have one "art" center
    even though my students have an art period).
    2 math centers (puzzles and games).
    1 science center
    1 research center (this is my computer corner, I have 4
    chromebooks)
    1 global culture center (this is my video center).
    1 Teacher center
    Each of my instructional blocks are 30 minutes each.
    We start the day with announcements and attendance
    (15 minutes), followed by guided instruction for one
    lesson block (30 minutes). We then spend 3 lesson
    blocks in learning center (90 minutes), then have
    morning recess (15 minutes). After recess they have
    art or music, and then PE (2 blocks each, but really
    about 45 minutes each). Afterwards I pick them up
    and we have reading time (this is required), students
    may either read independently at their desks,
    participate in my story reading or use a pass to the
    library (this is a reward system, students who break
    classroom rules can lose a library pass). Then they
    have lunch followed by afternoon recess (45 minutes
    total). After recess we have 1 lesson block of guided
    instruction 30 minutes) followed by 3 blocks in
    learning centers (90 minutes). We finish the day with
    bridging (15 minutes).

    The main difference is that elementary classrooms are
    self-contained and not departmentalized. You have
    the same group of students all day. Elementary
    teachers generally teach reading, language arts,
    science, math, and social studies. The priority is
    reading and literacy development, which is the focus
    of most elementary education assessment (usually in
    grades 3 and 5). If students can't recall a historical
    date that's not going to matter to many
    administrators. If a student isn't at or above grade
    level in reading however than questions need to be
    answered and interventions need to be put in place.
    Reading is everything. If your students are reading at
    or above grade level than an elementary teacher is
    doing their job and they can use that to pretty much
    dismiss everything else.
    Specialist teachers usually teach PE and art (including
    music). The teacher will walk their students to the
    gym and the art or music room and then pick them up,
    which together become the elementary teacher's
    conference period. They then take their students to
    lunch and recess which becomes the elementary
    teacher's lunch period. My school has two recess
    periods, but some have only one and some schools
    don't have recess at all.

    On 6/21/16, Making a change wrote:
    > I'm making the change from 7th/8th grade to an
    elem position that will
    > require me to work with teachers and students of all
    6 grades (k-5). To get
    > a better idea of how elem functions, would anyone
    mind telling me some
    > basic things about how elem is structured
    differently? Or what the biggest
    > surprises were if you transitioned form middle to
    Elem? I remember a little
    > about calendar and outclasses from when I was an
    elem library aide but
    > that was a long time ago and being a classroom
    teacher is way different. I
    > want to avoid sticking my foot in my mouth when I
    begin doing pd in
    > August. I've been reading blogs of how teachers
    manage 1 iPad classes in
    > elem and they are dropping lingo about centers and
    such and secondary
    > centers are different!


    Posts on this thread, including this one

  • Moving from middle to elem. help!, 6/21/16, by Making a change.
  • Re: Moving from middle to elem. help!, 6/22/16, by Paris.
  • Re: Moving from middle to elem. help!, 9/04/16, by Suggested resource...Oldie.