It isn’t easy being a teacher.  I know this first hand because I was a teacher at a daycare, I’ve been taught by teachers, and I have observed teachers.  Their work is unlike any other work done by a professional.  Teachers are the people who provide countless others with an opportunity to learn and grow.  I have been observing a fifth grade class for my Teaching in Learning Communities program, and I have seen many things at this school and in this classroom that provide me with a heads up on what to expect when I enter the teaching profession.
Today in the classroom I observed, the students were expected to get into three different groups and each group was to perform a different task.  One group was to independently read, the other was to read on the computer, and the third group was to learn from the book what the teacher was telling them.  At first, it seemed as if all of the students were very attentive and doing as they were told.  But after the first switch of groups, the children seemed to become uninterested and got off task very easily.  In the reading group, one student decided to ask if he could sharpen his pencil.  The teacher replied with “you don’t need a pencil to read”.  Then the same students waved his book in the air, looked around, fiddled around with something inside his desk, played with crayons, and did anything else possible other than reading.  The group on the computers started typing.  The teacher instructed them to read only so they were addressed for getting off topic.  The group with the teacher fiddled with their pencils and looked around when they were being taught.  The group work did not seem to be effective after the first switch, so it was easy to tell that they were growing bored and antsy.
When the class was asked to get together again and use manipulatives for math, everyone seemed eager to answer the questions and get the right answers.  They were excited to use their own white boards to write down answers to the questions the teacher asked.  Everyone raised his or her hand when asked what the answer was.  From this experience, I learned that using manipulatives with students, especially ones at an elementary level, is the best way to teach a lesson.  The students stay focused and on track and as a teacher, it is very rewarding to have an entire class enthused about a subject that you are teaching.