Field Blog Post 3

Agnon School
   
        For our final school visit as a class, we went to Agnon for our elementary level observation. In general, Agnon does thing differently, both in that it accepts students with any level of Jewish faith and in the format of teaching. The teachers and administration are called by their first names, as we were explained, according to the custom greetings in Israel. I went into the second grade class taught by Christine. The classroom had tables that served as stations that the kids rotated to throughout the class time. A student showed us around and explained the stations as the student ambassador of the classroom, an idea that I really liked for my future classroom. The stations, Writing, Reading Group, Reading Response, and Nonfiction were used to cover various aspects of reading and reading comprehension.
        The only station that Christine participated in was the Reading Group, in which the students read a book with the students and they discussed the main points of the chapter. While the questions did help to guide the discussion, the students read the text themselves and were able to summarize and work through the meanings on their own. The students understood how to read the book and picked up on subtle ideas presented in the plot of the novel. Christine was very encouraging to the students and worked to develop the skills of each student. I really enjoyed how she taught because she was firm and had expectations for the students, but when they did something well or when they needed more help, she explained things in a constructive way. While I do not want to teach the elementary level, I felt that I took a lot away from the visit.
        The overall mission and teaching strategy of the school was very interesting to me. I really liked the way that the administration focused the attention on the students and incorporating various teaching methods into every classroom. Each grade level works on a project throughout the year, and I thought that it would be a very interactive and creative way to learn for every single student. They also talked about the way that they evaluate students and use a test that gives more of a map for students. The teacher can see the test and see the strengths and weaknesses of each student and for the class as a whole. I love this approach to assessing the progress of students because it focuses completely on the student and how they are doing rather than comparing them to other students or the understood levels of each grade. In all, I had a great time learning about the Agnon School and I would love to go back and see either a math or science class.