Mrs. Owens encourages students to be respectful. She has arranged the students' desks into eight rows of four desks each. Each row is a team. When a student is respectful or answers a question correctly, that student gets to go up to the white board, choose a marker, and give their team a point. This system allows the students to choose to participate, to follow the rules, and to pay attention to gain points. They then get to walk up to the front of the class, choose a marker, and give their team a point. At this age, students love any opportunity to write on the whiteboard. This gives them the chance to do that. 

      2.   What clear routines are established in the classroom?  How do they support a productive learning environment? 

Mrs. Owens has the daily schedule posted on the whiteboard every day. This establishes routine and allows for the students to remind themselves of the routine by looking at the schedule. Every Thursday they go to a specialty class such as P.E., computers, and/or the library. When students know the schedule of each day of the week, they know what to expect and they become comfortable with the schedule. When I was in elementary school I always wanted to know what was next. With the schedule posted I would be aware and know how to prepare for the next subject. If we were doing history and I got bored I would know that there was only 10 more minutes left until the next subject so I would persevere and focus better on the task at hand.

      3.   How does your cooperative teacher recognize students’ skills?   

Teachers know what their students are best at. They see their homework they turn in, watch them complete in-class assignments, and see how they interact with others. I had the opportunity to time the entire class on their reading fluency. This allowed me to take notes on their speed, comprehension, vocabulary, and word correction for the teacher to see. I was able to recognize skill sets  in students as I worked with them on reading and math and viewed their artwork. No student is the same and Mrs. Owens definitely recognizes that. She encourages each student to do their best and to reach their potential. With students that may need extra help, she is in touch with their parents to communicate and work together to help the student succeed in the best way possible. 

Mrs. Owens has been teaching for twelve years now. She has lots of experience in the classroom and with teaching curriculum to fourth graders specifically. She uses a good variety of learning preferences when teaching her students. While teaching a history lesson about incorporating the landmarks of Utah into a treasure map, she used multiple learning preferences. She first demonstrated on the board while explaining the assignment and what was required. That was good use of visual as well as auditory. Then she had the class draw and create their own treasure maps following her instructions. The students were using the kinesthetic preference to complete the assignment. This lesson appeals to many different kinds of learners.

I was very impressed with her use of the individual learning preferences. I think she uses the visual preference the most. She writes on the board, she draws on the board, and she demonstrates and explains assignments using the projected camera for students to follow along. I think visual is important because students like to copy examples and see what they are supposed to do and what is required of them.