Student Name: Jessica Edwards Date: November 23rd, 2017
Placement: P.L. Robertson Public School- Kindergarten Classroom KF2
Purpose: At random times during the school year my
Reason for completing supervising educator is in charge of ordering the task. This could be stationery, art supplies, and other materials for all of based on an observation the kindergarten classes in the school. Taking an you made, a conversation inventory of these items when they arrive and between you and your site distributing these items evenly to the kindergarten supervisor, etc classrooms is also one of her responsibilities. When the classroom is busy it can be difficult for my supervisor to count, divide and distribute these items while still spending time in the classroom with her students. I chose to assist in this activity as I had some experience in administering activities with older children, and because I enjoy administrative tasks such as counting and organizing supplies. Task: Task: What are you planning in Count items to ensure that the correct amount response to your purpose? has been delivered to the school. Label your task Assist staff in collecting the designated (e.g. Bulletin board amount of each classroom material. focused on the Administer tasks for grade six helpers importance of play- gathering supplies to help deliver to based learning). kindergarten classrooms. What are your 3 Supervise the collection of materials to make objectives for this sure teachers get all of their items if they experience? (i.e. chose to have them delivered. Why are creating a Opening packages to further divide materials bulletin board on for staff. the importance of play-based Materials: learning? What Inventory Checklist message are you Push Cart sending?) Experience: Describe the experience: 1. I unpacked any unopened boxes and packages List the materials to ensure that items could be moved around and resources you easily while taking inventory. will use 2. Using a packing list from the supplier I Describe the counted each item on the packing list to completion of the ensure that the correct amount of the correct task, with a step by items were delivered to the school. step description 3. After ensuring that all of the supplies had indeed arrived I consulted my supervising teacher who created notes indicating how much of each item was allotted for each kindergarten classroom. 4. Two kindergarten team members arrived to pick up their items and we organized their materials in the order they were placed on the tables to ensure that everything was received. After we gathered the items they were placed on a cart and transported to their respective classrooms. 5. At this point some of our classrooms sixth grade reading buddies arrived to assist us in creating packages of materials to deliver to the other kindergarten classrooms. 6. I gave each volunteer a type of item to focus on and gather for the classrooms. 7. As the students gathered supplies I had to supervise and count the items to ensure no one had accidentally laid out duplicates of any items. 8. After ensuring that we collected the correct amount of all items I sent the students to four different classrooms to deliver the items. 9. After all of the initial supplies had been gathered or delivered any excess materials were brought to my placement classroom to be further divided and picked up by staff who needed them. Reflection: Prior to this activity I had never been What went well? responsible for assisting with inventory and item Provide examples delivery. I enjoy organizing and sorting items so for how you know taking inventory of the items was a fairly quick and it went well. easy task. What caused some difficulty however was What didnt go some of the product names and descriptions given well? Provide by the supplier. For example, two colours of tissue examples for how paper may be almost identical in colour, but one you know it didnt may be labelled as Lavender while the other was go well. labeled as Purple. Minor differences like these What did you made it difficult for me to count supplies without learn? making assumptions about which purple-like tissue What might you do was which. This similarity also made it difficult differently next when collecting items as some looked so similar we time you accidentally placed too little or too much of two implement this similar items into a cart. same task and During this activity I had the opportunity to why? work with some staff and older students who I had Did you have to not had the opportunity to work with before. make any Working with the sixth graders was interesting as adaptations or they are the oldest children I have ever interacted modifications? If with in a placement setting. The sixth graders were so, what were they? eager to help in any way possible and they turned What type of the task of gathering supplies into a fun activity. I experience might enjoyed working with them and I felt comfortable you plan to extend giving each child a job to work on because they on this one? seemed to enjoy any role they were given for this task. From this task I also learned about the difficulty of taking a lead role outside of typical classroom activities. Prior to receiving the shipment, I learned that my supervisor had to call in the order and ensure that the school received a specific quantity of each item. We also discussed the difficulties during this stage, which included memorizing long strings of numbers as item codes. If one number or letter was off the school sometimes received packages of items unrelated to the supplies they were interested in. For example the school once received a box of breadstick snacks instead of construction paper. The next time I assisted in this activity I would like to enlist the help of a smaller number of volunteers as we had so many that certain tasks or items may have been gathered or performed twice due to a miscommunication. Also, having so many helpers meant I needed to keep a more watchful eye on how much of each material was placed on carts. I also believe it would be helpful to organize the supplies into packages for the staff prior to their arrival rather than having the staff move from item to item and collect a specific amount. This was sometimes confusing as two staff from the same room may have arrived to pick up their items together, and accidentally take more or less of a specific item assuming the other person had already grabbed it.