Classroom Reflection Report

This movie, The Classroom, which was very interesting to watch, discusses all that goes on in the school system, the good and the bad. But it also shows how things at home can affect the way the student acts during the school day. This movie definitely makes you look at students that act out differently, instead of punishing them maybe we should all look deeper into the issue and find a way for the student to thrive and use school as an outlet.

In the classroom I observe, there are 32 students equally broken up into sixteen boys and sixteen girls. Each one of these students has their own personal chrome book. A chrome book is like a mini laptop that the teacher can assign the students assignments and assessments. A chrome book can be used for any subject. Some example programs on the chrome book are type club, math, writing, educational YouTube, and dictionaries. I see the use of chrome books as a great technology used in the classroom. Back when I was an elementary school student, I did not have chrome books in my classroom. The first lesson I observed on a chrome book was a math lesson. The teacher assigned through her computer a particular practice assessment to the students. The students then clicked to open the assignment and began. I found this technology helpful because if a student was stuck on a question, there was a video tutorial for them to view specific to the question. In fact, there was a specific video tutorial for each one of the questions. At the end, students were able to see how they did immediately. They are able to see their progress toward the actual test coming up. The teacher was also able to see the class statistics overall, and statistics to each question. This let the teacher know what the class struggled with and what should be taught again. Chrome books definitely caught my attention. Technology grows everyday and schools have to keep up with the change. It is interesting to me, to see

The information gained during this assignment was insightful, and the information will be useful in my future classroom. When conducting my teacher interviews both of the teachers spoke of how crucial it is for new teachers to understand the importance of pre-assessing students and the importance of continued assessment of students throughout the year. According to the answers from the teacher interviews, the data collected throughout the assessment process is the best way for teachers to determine how to group students. For example, Miss. Phillips states, “When analyzing data for say my kindergarten reading group I may group students based on who has one to one, comprehension, fluency, high-frequency words, and meaning when reading.” On the other hand for math Miss. Phillips states, “…I generally use my standards and then group based on abilities of one-to-one counting, number recognition, numeral writing, addition/subtraction, etc. I use assessments to analyze the data and even regroup students as I need to for both math and reading.” Furthermore, when Mrs. Haynes was asked the same question she responded with, “Having heterogeneous groups for math and literacy workstations is very beneficial. Students are able to model and demonstrate work for other students. This allows students to potentially work independently, while teachers pull small groups (for guided reading, guided math and guided writing).”

I chose to teach in a first grade class room for my self-observation because I have previously taught in first grade and thought that I would be familiar with the age group. Originally, I anticipated being able to use the curriculum with which I was also familiar. However, I ended up writing my own lesson plan outside of the given curriculum. This action would not be allowed on a normal basis at my school, but was allowed for a special occasion. I plan to organize this paper in a manner following the Emergent Literacy chapter in our text (Tompkins, 57-84) in order to provide structure. Under each heading, I will examine the successes and the failures.

Throughout this class, I have been able to rediscover a part of myself that has been hidden away since high school. When I decided to attend the University of Northern Iowa and become a Biology BS and a Biochem BS major, I in a way decided to put to death part of the old me that I liked. I was an entertainer, and this class has helped bring that out in me again.

Form of address was another area that stood out to me as I watching my video. Within my classroom setting our students are referred to boys and girls, white sharks, friends, or by their first name. Within in my video, I address my class as "you guys" three times instead of a different form of address. There was one time where I self-corrected myself and stated boys and girls instead. I was not surprised by this because this was an area I was working on from my first lesson I taught. On a daily basis, I use the term "you guys" and unfortunately it has transferred over into teaching as well. Instead of addressing students in a formal manner, I was casually addressing them. I was using casual language instead of formal language.

The instructional setting I work within is set in a rural community, northeast of Indianapolis, IN. This community is made up of mostly farmers and factory workers, so the majority of the students are in the “free and reduced” system for tuition and lunches.

Ms. Gladson’s future classroom will incorporate a healthy mix of fun and organization. While thinking over the seven procedures I would like to implement in my classroom, it was important that I recognized the organized environment of the classroom, but also allowed for positive interaction among the students. From entering the room to leaving at the end of the day, there are important steps that even seventh graders need to remember in their classroom. I will allow one week of training; in which they will learn the procedures but receive a grace period if not completed correctly. Then, at the start of week two, I will expect them to complete it on their own. Each procedure teaches an set of expectation that I hope to see from each student.

Pa Xiong’s classroom is room 118 and a couple others that she shares. Room 118 is the Special Education (SPED) classroom. In this room she works with seniors. It is supposed to be CP (college prep) time, but they treat it more like a Resource period. This happens because these students need more help in keeping their grades up than they do anything else. There is always a teacher and a para in this room incase a student comes down to the classroom seeking assistance or support they will find it. Ms. Xiong also has a ninth grade resource class. This class takes place in an eighth grade science classroom. During this class I sit down with a different student every week and we work on getting caught up on their benchmarks (online quizzes worth about ten points each) in any subject. She also has a co-taught English Language Arts class.

As I walked into the school the first thing I noticed was the student work on the wall. I could observe the whole writing process on the wall from beginning to end. It was amazing to see their ideas, turn into a rough draft, and then turn into final published pieces (p.143). The school’s focus on integrating literature into every subject was apparent. Students had to write how they found an answer in math and had vocabulary words they learned. Also, in art, they found an opportunity to integrate literature. Every chart, mnemonic device, and procedure had a purpose. I only spent half a day at Ozark North, but I know the teachers set high and ambitious goals for the students, and the students expect an engaging and productive day when they walk into the school.

Since I was in a middle school setting, I was given the opportunity to observe multiple classrooms which a variety of different students. In my first class, I noticed that most, if not all students were African American. The ratio was 22:1, where about 18 of them were boys. The second class I went to, had a ratio of 19:1. The ethnicity in this class was again, mostly African American, with a few Hispanics and Caucasian. The third class represented a ratio of 20:1. The ethnicity was made up of mostly Hispanics, Caucasian, with 1 African American child. My final class ratio was 18:1, where most students were Hispanic and African American.

The lessons were taught in a classroom in a New York City public school. The school is in a low-income neighborhood in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. The school’s demographics consist of a majority of Chinese students followed by Hispanic students. A majority of the parents of the students in this class do not speak English. The students were engaged throughout the lessons and it helped that they experience a positive learning environment in this class.

1. Since I was in a middle school setting, I was given the opportunity to observe multiple classrooms which a variety of different students. In my first class, I noticed that most, if not all students were African American. The ratio was 22:1, where about 18 of them were boys. The second class I went to, had a ratio of 19:1. The ethnicity in this class was again, mostly African American, with a few Hispanics and Caucasian. The third class represented a ratio of 20:1. The ethnicity was made up of mostly Hispanics, Caucasian, with 1 African American child. My final class ratio was 18:1, where most students were Hispanic and African American.

As kids, most of us get up every morning dreading going to school. We beg our parents to let us stay home, and on occasion, fake sick just to get out of school for a day. There are many factors that attribute to making us want to stay home from school but as a teacher, I want to provide an atmosphere where students enjoy coming to my classroom. Kids should feel like they matter and are respected when they are learning in a classroom, and from the learning experiences that I have had and will gain in ECCO, I intend to provide an atmosphere where not only can they can flourish and thrive, but they are able to influence the world around them.

Since taking this class, my mind has been opened to so many new ideas and perspectives about the society we live in, and teaching in general. I have always considered myself to be an open-minded person, and have always striven to be socially aware. I would make sure to be on date with current social events that were happening and especially during the election, I made sure to know all sides of a topic before trying to talk about it. When I had to sign up for this class last semester, I thought that it would be easy, and that we would not talk about anything I did not already know. I thought I was socially aware about everything at the time, and that I did not need to be educated anymore on the topic of multiculturalism. Well, having been in this class for half a semester I can honestly say that I have learned more in the last eight weeks than I have taught myself. I feel like I have been able to broaden my multicultural lens extensively since starting that class, and I know that it will continue to widen as the semester goes on.