Ways+to+Learn+About+Students


 * __Ways ro Learn About Students:__**

Through observation of one's own students on the playground, one can determine how the students deal within a social setting. Asking such questions as: Are they the leader of their group or the follower? Do they share playground equipment or claim it as their own? Can they include others in their games or have they already fallen in their own cliques? How do they go about getting what they want? Do they ask nicely, wait patiently, or take without asking or caring about others felings? Through observation, much can be learned about a students behavior patterns and how they might interact with peers within the classroom. It can give one an idea as to what behavior can be strengthened or needs to be changed.
 * Observation:** It is possible to learn about one's own students through simply observing them. This can come in many different forms, such as, observation of behavior on the playground, within group settings, within single settings, and even in new environmental settings.


 * Assesment:** It is also possible to learn about one's own students through assesments. However, there are two subcategories within the classification of assesment. Those two being Summative and Formative evaluations. This can come in the form of tests or end of the year exams. However, in recent years it has been argued that this is an unreliable way to learn about students.


 * Previous Teachers:** If one would like to know of one's students before even meeting them would be to ask a previous teacher. This, however, is a fifty-fifty shot seeing as the previous teacher could have a biased oppinion either against or for the child depending on extenuating circumstances. However, it is an option available to the teacher.


 * Talk with Parents:** There is, in most situations, no one better to ask about one's students than their parents. The parents being the ones who raise the child would, of course, know what behavior patterns the student has been exhibiting as of late. They would be able to express any concerns to the teacher about learning styles, specific subject struggles, or behavioral abnormalities.


 * CUM Folder:** The legal docmentation of a students schooling and behavior within the classroom is recorded here. Along with any projects of particular importance, state scores, and observations. This is seen as a cumulation of the achievments of the student thus far, and can include anything ranging from teachers commetns and observations to daily behaviior patters documented by an aide within the classroom. This allows all future teachers to observe what the student has acted like or tested as in the years prior to enrollment in their classroom.


 * IEP/504:** Allows the teacher to observe goals that have been set by the teacher, one-on-one aide, and other school officials. This is more specific towards Special Education students or students whose parents have requested they be given some extra help within the classroom or on tests.


 * Talk with Students:** It is always logical that once one has pursued all other forms of discovering what the student is like one should or courld take it upon oneself to talk to the student directly about any issues or problems that have recurently come up through the aforementioned ways of learning about the student. Talking to the student and trying to ask them what they struggle with or why they struggle with such subjects or obstacles in life is always a good method of leveling with the student, when no one else will.


 * Journal:** When all else fails, the student refuese to talk, the parents just do not care, and all other forms are ambigous and afford no insight or information. One last option would be to have the student journal. The journal does not have to be about anything specific, but can be simply about the students life outside of the classroom, or whatever they see fit to write about. Through this the teacher can discover either what goes on in the students life, how their thought process works, or even discern how they might learn best and, if there is a consistent pattern across the entire class, be able to alter the lessons slightly in order to offer them the best education possible.


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