February 6th, 2019

My first day at the Willow school was very interesting! I met so many people and that
could be overwhelming but everyone was so welcoming that I felt very comfortable being there.
My cooperating teacher let me do a read aloud and work with small groups of students right off
the bat! I really appreciate how trusting she was with me and how open she was. She explained
everything to me and allowed time for me to ask any question that I could come up with. I am
looking forward to getting to work with her and her third graders!

February 6th, 2019

The Willow school has a monthly virtue that they focus on. Last month’s virtue was
compassion and the students were still working on their service project that they planned in
January. In the morning, the second, third, and fourth grade worked together to make Valentine’s
Day gift bags and handmade cards to give to children in a local hospital. It was really inspiring to
watch these students, who are very privileged, take time out of their day to do something nice for
people in need. I think that the system of learning virtues really builds positive character traits
and encourages the children to look at the world around them as a community that they can
influence.

February 22nd, 2019

At the Willow school, the students have two twenty minute recesses a day. One after
snack in the morning and one after lunch. The even more unique thing about their recess, is the
setting. The students are allowed to go outside on paths that go through the woods. They change
into their boots and are allowed to roam free! They go into the brush and collect sticks and make
forts and explore.

February 22nd, 2019

Today I attended a teacher meeting with the lower school teachers. The main focus of the
discussion was about the benefits and disadvantages of moving students up a grade. One of the
students in the third grade was moved up to the fourth grade because he was further matured and
the fourth grade classroom was a better fit for him academically. The teachers debated whether
other students should be considered for advancement or if they should be accommodated in their
current classroom. One of the teachers made a compelling argument for the case of keeping
students with the peers their own age, “why should we rush them to grow up faster than they
need to?”, and I completely agree with her. Pushing students harder than they need to be is not
beneficial. They should be challenged appropriated but I do not agree with uprooting their whole
routine in the middle of the school year just to advance them to an older class.

February 27th, 2019

My cooperating teacher explained that I had to come to a morning gathering because the
experience was so special. The whole school, preschool to eighth grade, gathers in the barn,
which is a large open meeting hall. Parents are welcome to join as well, so a circle of chairs
outlined the students. One teacher runs the morning gathering and on this particular day it was a
new teacher from the middle school. She told a fable that went along with the monthly virtue,
which was honesty and connected the theme back to herself. At the end of the gathering
everyone joined in singing a song as the music teacher played the piano. You could really feel
the sense of community that this school has.
March 6th, 2019
Teachers need to be flexible. This is a fact but it is something that is easier said than
done. Something that I admire about my mentor teacher, is her ability to adapt to changes on any
given day. Today, ten minutes before school started, the fourth grade teacher asked her if she
would take her students for an hour in the morning because she had to have a meeting with a
parent. My teacher, without missing a beat, said of course and pulled together a lesson to wrap
up black history month that was appropriate for both her class and the fourth graders. In the end,
the students had read about Fredrick Douglas, discussed important events that have happened in
black history, and created posters against discrimination.

March 6th, 2019

I went to a special with the students today. My teacher explained that her students have a
particularly hard time behaving in specials and the music teacher asked that if they were not
behaving today that I would take them back to their class early. As I have spent some time with
these children already, I understand how they may have been disrespectful in a special class but I
was surprised that the music teacher asked that her time with them be cut short. In the end, the
students did have a bad day, the teacher did struggling in managing their behavior, but she did
keep them for the full time. That being said however, she left the discipline to the classroom
teacher and told her that she should deal with the issues that they had in music class. I was really
surprised that she found this method as the most reasonable solution to her challenges with the
third grade students.

April 1st, 2019

On E days in the school’s schedule, my cooperating teacher has three periods of prep
time while her class goes to specials. One of those periods she has time set aside that she can
collaborate and work with the fourth and fifth grade teachers to organize projects. She gets so
much work done! She was able to answer emails, meet with another teacher, grade papers,
organize a project for the afternoon, redecorate her bulletin board, and answer my questions
about an observation. She noted that while it is nice to have time in her E days to plan and
prepare, she wishes that she had more time in her other days to get things done. She comes into
school two hours early most days just so she can get ahead on some work.

April 3rd, 2019

Over the weekend, my cooperating teacher ran a STEM program that was designed for
fourth to sixth grade students from other schools that wanted to visit Willow. The project that she
came up with was such a hit that she decided to do it with her kids today! Each student was given
a mystery build that they needed to figure out how to construct, for example a marble run or a
swing. There were parameters that they had to meet with height or function and they had to plan
out their design before they could start construction. Each student was given ten dollars of
pretend money as their budget for the build and they were only allowed to spend that amount on
supplies like paper clips or toilet paper tubes. Most of the morning was spent with the students
revising and reevaluating their builds and they had so much fun!

April 10th, 2019

On my last day in the classroom, I wanted to do an activity with my class to thank them
for allowing me to work with them for the past few months. I didn’t want to give them gifts but
rather something that they could keep in their room and enjoy for the rest of the year. I came up
with the idea of bringing in seed, soil and planters so the children could plant some flowers and
watch them grow! The students were so excited about the project and even got excited about the
prospect of getting to water them in the future. I really enjoyed my time in the classroom and this
fun activity was a great way to end at Willow!