Class Observation Paper

This week I did both an interview and a small observation of my third grade host teacher's classroom. I was first able to interview my host teacher. Miss A does use many of the techniques for teaching words that were listed on my observation form. Specifically she uses crossword puzzles, dramatizing, word sorts, possible sentences and dictionaries. She also uses many techniques that are not listed on the observation sheet as well. She does a lot of repetition with her students. She has them right there words in rainbow colors, in vowels and consonants colors, in alphabetical order and many more that I didn't see. Miss a believes that " they are all useful for different students. Some students feel like crosswords are helpful and others feel like pictures are helpful" () I would completely agree with her statement in this regard. I do think it's good to have many different options for the many different students you have in your class. Miss a believed that there were a lot of benefits to wide reading. She make sure that the children are provided with a variety of texts especially her students who are ELL students. She mention specifically that it "helps build their schema for Content areas such as social studies and science and the vocabulary that goes with that."()

There are three teachers in the classroom, one does reading/lesson circle with a small group of students, another does arts and crafts, and one of them circulates throughout the room helping students with their work-plans. The teacher that circulates around the room all the time appears to be the head teacher and when a conflict arises she is the one to mediate it. The way that the teachers speak with the children is as if they are equals, they aren’t talked down to and the students give the teachers complete respect.

The first observation I made about the teacher, Ms. Hayes, was that she was very passionate about her job. I could tell this is in many ways, but mostly by the way the classroom was arranged. According to Lynch, teachers should “use every possible area of the room to create an atmosphere that encourages participation and learning” (Lynch, 2015, p.272). The student’s desks were separated and put into rows, but at certain points during the school day they were allowed to rearrange their desks and get into groups. I think this is a very efficient way to set up the desks because some students are easily distracted and other students like working in groups to learn from each other. There was a smart board in the middle of the room so every student could see it from their desks. The smart board helped the students when trying to understand multiplication. Another aspect to the classroom that I thought was very important was the reading rug. The reading rug is a good way to get the students excited each day to listen to a new story, read aloud by the teacher. I could tell Ms. Hayes put a lot of time and work into decorating the classroom to make it a fun and studious learning

In her class, there was a time where I was there when a student was saying that another student was cheating because he kept looking at his work. Ms. Gaines was trying to ignore him, but then she went closely to him, and separated the students. But she let him know if she disrupted her class again that there would be no recess for him.

Brantley’s class I would wonder why she was as tough as leather, I would always come to the assumption that, that was just her personality. Now looking back, I now understand that her tough discipline rules were to benefit her students, we knew what was of expected of us, therefore we knew Mrs. Brentley wasn’t going to accept anything less. For an example, our class period consisted of absolutely no talking while working on our assignments. If we were to talk while working, how would we be able to give Mrs. Brantley our best work?

My observation hours took place at Montgomery Jr. High school during the month of October. Most of my observations took place on Wednesdays which were October 5th, 12th, and the 27th but one took place on Monday the 17th. Most were history, science, and math classes since they were placing me in multiple classes to observe. I switched classes the same as the students and it was interesting walking into the classrooms. Many of the teachers thought at first that I was a new student until they realized the slacks and probably got a better look.

Unlike my last visit to the writing center, I was able to commit all of my attention this session to seeing how things unfold in most sessions without also needing to focus on my own paper. I observed a session with Meredith, who seemed to have a different approach as a grad student than the undergrad tutors I had interacted with before. Another new element of the session was the client herself; from the panel we had in class, I had come to believe that repeat clients were rare, but the tutor knew the client and the client’s work well from past sessions. In fact, the client did not come in that day to get help on a specific assignment, but had seen that Meredith had an opening during the week and chose to book it for any general help that might come up. The client seemed to be both comfortable with and grateful for the opportunity to work with a tutor who had been seeing her through an entire admittance process.

My partner and I had a lot of fun with the sensory activity that we planned and it went very well. The kids at KITE also really enjoyed it. We had several sensory bins with different colors and textures, and then allowed the kids to make their own bag with objects hidden in it to take home. One of our sensory bins was filled with black sand mixed with glitter and it seemed to be the favorite for most of the participants. A key concept that was reinforced through the experience of running our station was the importance of grading an activity up or down to create the “just right challenge.” We made sure to have several options available to increase or decrease the difficulty of making their own sensory bag so they would be engaged during the

I noticed that she did not encourage the students to do better; she would just tell them to re-look at their papers and fix their papers if they were wrong. If one of the students was misbehaving and distracting the rest of the class she would move their desk to an isolated corner. She did this to try and stop the student from being a distraction. Isolation helped the student and the rest of the class focus better. The teacher also used paralanguage as a way to communicate to the students to let them know that they are in trouble. Paralanguage are the sounds and intonations of language that convey meaning and emotion (Cormier & Jones, 2010, Chapter 4, Section 2). By raising her voice slightly lets the students know that she is serious. This technique of controlling the misbehaving students did not help like the isolation did. Some of the students would continue to talk and misbehave when she raised her voice to ask them to stop. Through my observation, I noticed that the isolation technique was a more helpful way to solve problems. Once the teacher saw the improvement in the behavior with the student, she would let them re-join the rest of the class. In the end, using the same helpful technique repeatedly showed her seriousness and improved the students

I chose naturalist as the primary multiple intelligence type for this student because of his ability to recognize and classify natural environment. He relates his learning to the outside world using what he has learned in his time as a member of The Boy Scouts of America. He comes to class eager to share with classmates, his knowledge and love for the environment, nature and animals. When we take walks on the nature trails by our school, he is the first to share items he discovers using an approach that classmates understand. He uses a hands-on approach for learning and prefers the outdoors over the classroom.

This report will contain the observations and discoveries I made during the four hours I spent observing Mr. Hall’s 12th grade class, Mrs. McBride’s 9th grade class, and Mrs. Casper’s 11th and 12th grade classes of Corrigan-Camden High School. It should cover classroom management, teaching style, classroom organization, interventions, and any other notable findings. I will start off by describing what happened during my observation and then conclude with reflections about my time spent in the class.

Mrs. Thomas pulled an assignment Know as, “Due Now” for a student to pass out to the entire class. The first assignment given to the students required them to recall the past lesson learn. The Due Now assignment reinforce the past lesson to help the student retain and recall the lesson learned. Mrs. Thomas give the children thirty minutes to complete the assignment and those that had not will complete later. Next she introduced the “Reading time on the carpet. The book of the day was< “Sherman Crunchy”. The reading is to promote the student to engage in the listening, recall, comprehension, and incorporate new words. The student were asked question throughout the residing and required to respond

She had a drawer on her desk for substitutes. Posters with things like the scientific method, main idea, clocks, schedules, alphabet with words that start with each letter, and the current spelling words were all on the walls. The teacher would have the students “take pictures” of things on the board to remember for test. For oral discussions students would clap when other students got the correct answer. For reading there were three groups going at a time. The group at the table with the teacher, a group listening and following along, and a group reading to each other while timing the reading to improve speed. When the other class of students came in she continued the work because her class and the other class follow the same lessons. The students from the other class were very respectful toward her and her to them.

The first class I observed during my guided walk-through hours was Mrs. Corns kindergarten class located in the lower elementary wing. At first glance I notice that the room was vibrant and colorful. There were a few tables serrated around the room, along with an area rug and a rocking chair located in the front of the class. An assistant teacher gathered all students to the rug and began reading a story about the Cincinnati museum. During this time most students were engaged and participating in questions. When a student got a question correct the teacher would show positive feedback by giving them completes. I observed communication between peers, as they discussed their

Ebony, a university student, finds herself in two classes, each with their own unique atmosphere. Interpersonal Communication comes first and is taught by Professor Gardner, who has been teaching for 20 years. Organizational Communication is her second class, taught by Professor Morgan, who is younger than Professor Gardner. Each professor has a different style of teaching and opinion on how students learn most efficiently. Professor Gardner sets out his expectations, rules of conduct, and strict no-technology policy on the first day of class; he values structure and consistency for his students. Professor Morgan does not present rules for her class; she does not mind if students come in late or leave early, and appreciates the use of technology for the purpose of adapting the learning environment for each student. Professor Morgan values freedom and self-responsibility for her students. Ebony loves Interpersonal Communication, and notices that the students, when provided with structure, tend to thrive, communicate freely, and connect with other students right away. There is a lot of laughter involved, and most everyone knows each other’s names. In Organizational Communication, however, Ebony feels lost and out of touch with the path of the class. She finds that the spontaneity of Professor Morgan is more confusing than helpful; Ebony senses the disconnect between students, as most of them do not know each other’s names. Professor