Joanna Munoz

Reflection Observing at McDaniel

June 19, 2014

On Thursday Ta’nia, Yunni, and I went to go visit McDaniel learning center. At McDaniel’s we were not going to teach but we were going to observe. When I thought about going to observe at McDaniels I thought that I was actually going to deal with children that actually looked like they were disabled but I realized that wasn’t the case. The children actually looked really normal just that their way of learning was rather slow. Some children did act a certain way, like there was a kid in the elementary school room that would yell randomly, at any given moment. There was always a teacher by his side to help him comprehend all the work. In the elementary school room they always gave the children a five minute break after twenty minutes of working, which I thought was actually really nice because if the students have trouble learning and they need to put in all the energy to finish their work they should be rewarded with a little bit of free time. When our group was done observing in the elementary room we moved on to the preschool room. I loved the preschool room! The first thing that caught my attention when I entered was that there was cloth hanging under the lights. I asked the teacher why and she said so it wouldn’t be so bright in the class room. Right when I got there all I wanted to do was play with the kids! There were two little boys playing in the kitchen and I went to go join them. We made sandwiches together, had a little picnic, it was super fun! Later on I met Gabby, the sweetest little girl ever. We built a puzzle together and she also made me a card. It was really sweet. What thing that I noticed about every classroom was that there was always more than three teachers in a classroom. I think that the reason for that is because the students need more help and working in small groups is better for them. If they only had one teacher there would be no way that they could work in small groups. When it was almost time for the morning group to leave we all walked over to the gym and found two YMCA zumba instructors there. The two ladies went there to teach a zumba class to all the kids. It was really cool to see all the children dance and just have a good time. By the time zumba class was over it was time for the morning group to leave and for us to say goodbye. Going to McDaniel was my favorite trip! It was a really nice experience to just sit back and just have fun with the kids and not have to prepare a lesson plan or teach an actual lesson. I learned many new things about why children behave the way they do and how much the classroom set up means to students. Going to McDaniel was the best experience ever!