First Day of Observation :-)
Today was the first day that I observed for my Teaching in Learning Communities II class. We are observing in the Cherry Hill School District which is not that far from where I live. The school is a middle school called Rosa International School. It is not a regular middle school that you would find in your own town instead it is an International Baccalaureate Organization. This means that they aim to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect. It is really a different school to observe at which is very interesting. Also their grade levels are called LC1 thru LC8 in which LC stands for Learning Community. What the student learns in Language Arts will also be talked about during Math. This is really neat how what they learn in one class is talked about throughout the whole day in other classes. I am observing a 6th grade Language Arts teacher. I didn’t get to sit down with her yet and observe however I did meet her and she seems very caring and informative. The school also promotes community service and has many different ways of learning. Another thing that I found out was that the teachers get an hour a day to sit down with other teachers of their Learning Community so they are able to keep up with what everyone is teaching. The teachers are then able to discuss what was taught in other classes. The teachers also get a half hour of their own time to do their prep. Along with all of these breaks, the teacher also gets a half hour lunch break. It is a different way of learning and teaching which seems to be working out very well in the school district. The principal told us that they ranked # 2 in reading and #3 in math for the NJ state tests. That is an amazing accomplishment. I believe that alot of the schools around the area should try this method in their school system because it seems like it is successful. If anyone would like the check out the website click here.
-Brittani
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