Definition Of Physical Classroom Arrangement

For my Field Experience I chose to observe at Krahn Elementary which is a part of Klein Independent School District. After my approval, I was assigned to four teachers and their classrooms. I observed at Krahn Elementary on six Tuesdays between 15 September 2015 and 27 October 2015, and more or less followed the schedule that was given to me by the Assistant Principal Ms. Shannon Strole. From 8:30 am to 9:15 am I observed Ms. Judy Burkes, who is a third grade Math and Science teacher. Her classroom is comprised of twenty students which range from average to below average learners and a student with ADHD and another with autism. For most part of my observation, M. Burkes had been working with her students on fractions and multiple digits addition and subtraction. From 9:15 am to 10:30 am I observed Ms. Lisa Parker who is a Math co-teacher and resource teacher at Krahn Elementary for grades K-5. During my assigned time, Ms. Parker usually joined Mr. Duru’s fifth grade class of twenty three students as a co-teacher and when required would pull out a group of six students after initial instructions from Mr. Duru and would teach them the concepts separately at a slower pace. This particular group of students with special needs was mostly seen to be focusing more and more on mathematical word problems. These students were students with Learning disabilities, behavioral issues and one of them was a student with ADHD. From 10:30 am to 11:15, I was with Ms. Janice Bluhms, who is a

Tuesday was my first day in my general education classroom. When I arrived, there was a substitute in my classroom for the first half hour of the day, because Ms. Keane was in an IEP meeting. The substitute and the paraprofessional showed me around the classroom and told me about some of the students. There are 20 students in the classroom, and two of them are English language learners.

The desk arrangement in the classroom will be flexible. Desks will be arranged into various formats to align with the intended learning objectives of a lesson. Desks may be placed in groups to promote collaboration and cooperation. They may be organized in a peanut formation to promote student-student and student-teacher discussion.

This is a 1st grade class made up of 12 first grade students. There are 7 Girls and 5 Boys. There is 1 male student with general academic IEP that covers all subjects as well as 1 male and 1 female student that have speech IEPs. The classroom is arranged in table seating with a large carpeted area in the front of the classroom for group learning. This lesson will be taught in a group setting at the carpet.

Setting: I observed this fourth grade student during his English Language Arts block for 45 minutes. The class consists of 22 fourth grade students in a student-centered classroom. During my observation, the students collaborated with other students while the teacher conducted a guided reading group. Students were on computers, writing and reading to respond in a journal. Three days a week this students is pulled out of the classroom for a 30 minute Fountas and Pinell Literacy Intervention due to the Tier 3 instructional level.

Kindergarten classroom of 25 students they all sit at tables that will hold up to six students, however I have them sitting 5 to a table for ease of grouping. Each table is a team labeled by a color, a large construction paper crayon hangs from the ceiling above each table, and they have matching crayon nametags on their desks. There is a Smart Board at the front of the classroom as well as a white board. My desk is at the front of the room to the right of the white board. Different centers are located around the room such as the art center, the math center, the reading tree is in the opposite corner from my desk. The room also has a single restroom and a sink and water fountain outside of the restroom. We also have circle area to the left of the reading corner

My eighth grade classroom is set in a Jr-Sr. High school and is located in the Jr. High hallway, in the rear of the high school. I have thirty-two student desks situated in rows and two small tables at the front of my room used for paper pick up. My desk and computer are in the back corner of the room. The students all have their own Chromebooks and I have a desktop computer as well as a Samsung Tablet. Google Classroom is used daily as well as many other applications suited for 1:1 schools. I also have a projector hanging from the ceiling and two large white boards located on the front and side walls of my classroom. The class that I will be focusing on in this paper is made up of 26 students, 15 boys and 11 girls. One student with learning disabilities, another is an ELL student. This class meets for 55 minutes.

Describe how you managed equipment and space in the lesson. Describe how you managed teacher movement in the lesson. Imagine you had a group of 14 students. Describe how you would manage grouping students in the lesson. Explain why you would do it this way. (All but Kimberly, who will have 14 students and will do it for real)

I visited PS 181 's language arts classroom for a period of 4 sessions, and stayed 2 hours per visit I recorded notes of interactions between the students/instructors, and my own conversations with the teachers. Since I was observing two classrooms at PS 181, I established a rapport with the teachers to get a clearer understanding about their jobs, asks about the standards that are in place, and whether or not the current structures in place are effective. Both classrooms contained a large amount of students. The middle school has a total of 4 6th grade classes, including a special education classroom of 12 students, 1 teacher, and 1 paraprofessional. The classed I visited included students of mixed proficiency reading, and writing levels. Upon entering these two classrooms on different occasions I noticed the bulletin boards listed classroom procedures. It’s important for the students to have a sense of accountability for their own actions. I also liked that both classrooms established procedures with the students so that when the students failed to follow the procedures they were breaking their own policies.

The desks are in centers, that the teacher has carefully crafted to promote the most qualitative experience for her students. Mrs. Paul says that she must study and understand her students' behaviors so that she knows where to sit each student. Having the room sectioned up in centers gives the teacher the opportunity to see how all of her students work. Mrs. Paul walked around the classroom and organized her monitoring by center, which allowed her to get to every student. In my future classroom I would like to keep the desks in centers not only to facilitate my assessment and communication with students, but because by being close to each other the students could rely on each other and form trusting

Inside of the classroom there was a different objective I observed such as three calendars, three tables, a cabinet, 15 pack backs on the shelves and glitter. There were 2 flags, four plants and children sitting and lunch set. There were wood blocks, children pictures, pencil and crayons. There was hand paint, one clock and three rugs. There was three teachers and one with it an apron on.

The first stragtey to discuss is her use of effective groupings arrangements. For instance, students are part of a whole group lesson, small group, cooperative activity, and partner work. First, Ms. Sullivan starts the lesson with the whole group seated on the carpet. This is when she introduces both the content and language objectives, discusses the target vocabulary, and explicitly reviews the lesson targets using visuals and modeling. Next, students work in partner groups using a “think, pair, share” strategy. To illustrate, students work together in partner work to discuss how they solve problems. At the end of the lesson, students also work collaboratively in a small group to complete a graphic organizer to reflect on what they learned. These grouping strategies are supported by Lev Vygotsky’s Constructivism theory. According to Vygotsky, discourse and interaction are channels for learning

Teachers organize the physical environment. The way the desks, tables, and other classroom materials are arranged affects instruction and has an influence on order in the classroom. The decision of a teacher in organizing and arranging the classroom materials, supplies, designated place for activities and bulletin board will determine the effectiveness of the learning environment.

The classroom follows a partial day inclusion program. Ms. Welsh’s classroom on the second floor of Village School is considered their base area. The student’s belongings are all kept in the classroom upstairs and they spend the majority of their time there throughout the day. All students are taught by both teachers for math, science, and social studies. For reading and writing, Ms. Wilush teaches three students in a pull-out resource room on the first floor of the building. When it is time for students to review those lessons, the three students make their way down to Ms. Wilush’s classroom with the folders and other materials they may need. Once reading and writing periods are completed, the students either return to Ms. Welsh’s classroom or go to an alternate room for specials such as art or music. Ms. Wilush and Ms. Welsh’s relationship can be described as both friendly and professional. Ms. Welsh is currently going to graduate school for special education, so she is learning a lot from Ms. Wilush’s work. At the same time, Ms. Wilush is taking the opportunity to learn from such an experienced teacher as Ms. Welsh who has taught for ten years. They believe that the best way to work efficiently and achieve the most success for each student is

There were two students using iPads with the volume up loud enough to hear as I entered as well. Three students were riffling through a bucket of plastic letters without being entirely successful in finding the letters they were seeking. Two students were using a drawer of foam letters and word cards to put the letters on the corresponding word. The final student was alone just looking at a book herself. The teacher was going back and forth between the groups who were working with letters trying to assist them in picking the correct letters. She would say the sound while feeling her throat and then tell them the letter they needed and find it for them in the box. She went to the group looking in the tub for letters and found letters for them as well. A cause for concern that we noticed was that she was asking the students to sound out the word “said” as well as having written on the board next to the sight words students were spelling that the vowel team ai =e (meaning short e sound). Mrs. Williams though it necessary to jump in at this point and make a correction since she was teaching something contrary to the curriculum and pointed out that sight words like “said” do not follow the rules of phonics always and need to be taught as a whole word. Also during this brief observation we noticed Mrs. M. having difficulty with the student who was alone. She was not engaging in any work after being asked to join the group and instead took a book and hid