Standards and Accountability

From Ms. Brown's Wednesday schedule, in the morning they do math, then they have art after first recess, after lunch they usually do reading and writing (sometimes on computers) and after last recess they have science before they have P.E.

Ms. Brown said they always have to start the day with math when the kids are the most alert and fresh because the standards for math are very high-much higher than they used to be-and the kids really struggle with it. I had the opportunity on a couple of my visits to work with some of the kids one on one on the math and they've recently been working with fractions as well as how to tell time.
The computer work mixed in with the reading and writing is really beneficial because they have a program called "Lexia" which is a progressive program that lets the kids advance based on how they're understanding concepts and it's all built around playing games.
Science is what I helped with today. They've been working on the concepts of pushing and pulling so we experimented with a STEM kit to learn more about forces. We had some blocks, ramps, and little carts to experiment with changing of speed and distance traveled. We also had some different sized plastic bugs, a target, and a launcher to experiment with projectile forces. The kids had a lot of fun learning this way and I tried to ask them questions about what they learned as we went and let them set up their own experiments. Ms. Brown told me she could hear what I was doing and that I had a very natural way of approaching it and helping the kids. 

I see art addressed when I come into class because Ms. Brown usually hangs up in the hallway the paintings the kids did earlier in the day. Today's painting was of robots because they had been talking about inventors and inventions. 

From my observation, Math, Language Arts, and Science are worked on every day. I haven't seen social studies addressed specifically, but I think this is because there are fewer objectives for first grade for social studies and some of them seem to be able to be addressed along with other things. It's also possible that it is focused on specifically on a day that I'm not there. I also know that P.E. is only once a week, probably because it's not tested the same way that Math, Language Arts, and Science are. 

Ms. Brown does a really good job of teaching the students rather than just teaching to the tests, from my perspective, but there is definitely some stress when there are students who struggle harder to get things. Ms. Brown said she's grateful to have extra helpers in the classroom to work with those kids. Because the standards are high and the curriculum is aggressive, she said it can be really hard for some of the kids to do well on the tests, but she always tries to give extra help where it's needed.