UNF Education Students Visit Weekly and More!

For the past few weeks, we have had two University of North Florida Education Majors observe in our classroom as a requirement for their college course. C. and K. come in for a few hours on Wednesday and have the opportunity to observe a morning in our first grade class. They assist with literacy centers, work with small groups on literacy related activities and assist with individual students. Last week, K.'s assignment was to do a read aloud with the class and lead a group discussion of the book. The book was "The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree" by Gail Gibbons and the children made text-to-self and text-to-text connections with the book. It was followed by a writing activity. After previewing the guided reading books last week, they followed up by leading their own respective guided reading groups this week.
The experience they are getting by being in a classroom environment and seeing first hand the workings of a class is so much more valuable than reading about it in a book. We are very happy that these future teachers will remain with us throughout this semester of their Junior year at UNF.
On a related note, we would like to welcome J.P. from Regina, Saskatchewan. She goes to the University of Regina and is also majoring in Elementary Education. J.P. will be reading about what our class is doing as part of her education course. She will visit our blog and comment her thoughts and ideas. We look forward to hearing from you J.P.!