Introduction. I Observed Two Of Mrs. Colorful First Grade

I completed my observation hours at Lake Oconee Academy, a public charter school system located in Greensboro, Georgia. Lake Oconee Academy (LOA) has a current enrollment of 739 students, making LOA the largest school in Greene County. The classrooms I observed were second grade regular education classrooms. I observed both Mrs. Stanford and Mrs. Taylor on two different days. I noticed the students ranged from a few ethnicities Caucasian, African American, Hispanic and Native American. The gender ratio of the students was fairly even. Each class has twenty-two students.

I observed a sixth grade classroom (eleven to twelve years of age) at a middle school in Ringgold, Georgia. The classroom seemed to be fairly even in regards to how many children of each sex were in the classroom. The majority of the students were white with a few african american and hispanic children among the mix. The sixth grade classes did not have enough employees to only teach one subject therefore, the teacher that I observed taught language arts and mathematics. The first thing you notice when you walk into the classroom is the mathematical shapes all along the upper wall like a wallpaper border. These shapes were projects from her students in the years before. The next thing that you’ll notice is the way the desks were set up. They were set up in three separate groups. One group of around twelve desks faced the

My classroom experience included: observing the classroom teacher leading group discussion (reviewing sight words, decoding words, and reading the weekly story), assisting students with reading worksheets (practice writing their letters and identifying beginning sounds of words), and reviewing the weekly story with each student. This particular teacher strictly uses a basal reader (Reading Streets) so I was very interested to observe her teaching using these particular materials. I have substituted in her classroom many times and have found it very hard to teach utilizing these lessons. Students’ often become restless and their eyes seem to gloss over because of boredom. I often thought that I must be doing something wrong when I am teaching the materials, but during observation I saw that the

Diversity is a beautiful thing; from religion to physical looks, the differences among people is astounding. The world would be such a monotonous place if everyone were the same. However, many tend to note that diversity in a classroom can sometimes be an issue- especially among the students. From my own experiences within a diverse class, I realize that the contrast between students is a blessing and a curse

Miss Kane’s first grade class at Lutie Lewis Coates Elementary School (also known as Coates Elementary) has twenty students and seventeen of them are considered English Language Learners (ELL) (E. Kane, Personal Communication, October 4, 2016). This is very frustrating for both Miss. Kane and her students because it is very difficult to communicate with many of her ELLs. Out of Miss Kane’s twenty students eight students are Hispanic, five Indian, five Black, and three White. Miss Kane’s class is very diverse and this allows students to feel more accepted because not all students are similar. Coates Elementary as a whole is very diverse: Asian 28.86%, Black 18.26%, Hispanic 37.32%, and White 12.08% (Fairfax County Public Schools, 2015). Miss Kane’s classroom reflects similar diversity as Coates Elementary does. Both Miss. Kane and the Coates staff really show their appreciation for diversity and attempt to treat all children equally giving all students equal opportunity. Coates Elementary is a Title I school; about fifty percent of students receive free and reduced lunch (Fairfax County Public Schools, 2015). This school was placed in the center of poverty and many of these students who participate in the free and reduced lunch program are English Language Learners.

On September 30th, 2016, I observed a class at Ramirez Charter School in Lubbock, Texas. I had the opportunity to observe a third grade class led by Mrs. Yu Kim Johnson. She was assisted by a student teacher from Texas Tech, Abby Crutcher. The main focus of this observation was to observe all areas of the school and analyze how each contributes to or distracts from a positive, productive learning environment. Throughout this experience, I was able to get an idea of what could make a classroom negative or positive.

I also realized that I needed to read more into classroom management. I noticed the teacher had withitness since she could conduct a reading group while watching and listening to the other 5 stations of students scattered across the room. She was able to read the book out loud to the class while noticing the students’ behavior such as a child who had put a rock in her mouth. The teacher calmly stopped reading and told the girl to spit the rock out and throw it away while exclaiming that rocks are not intended for our mouths or eating. Then she began to read again. I did not even see the rock from where I was

Ms. Felkins started out with their read aloud, The Odyssey. The students were focused, but occasionally would get carried away with unrelated questions. After read aloud, the students moved on to their word study lesson. Each student had words to cut out and sort. After they cut their words they had a worksheet and made sentences that incorporated their words. As the students were working, Ms. Felkins was walking around the classroom assisting the students if needed. While the other students were working, I individually worked with a student who recently started third grade. First, the student read a short story book to me, and I assisted her with any words or sounds she was struggling with. She practiced her numbers by matching one through

Teaching Strategies” by Brown (2002) explored the relationship of the environment created by Mrs. Boyd, a fifth grade teacher who “[nurtured] academic excellence” (p.127). The objective of the study was to see what strategies Mrs. Boyd used to encourage success in the classroom. The population was elementary school kids in grades 4-6 whose ethnicity was varied from African American to Asian and biracial. The examiner observed six of Mrs. Boyd’s morning and afternoon sessions and interviewed her after about the strategies used to educate their students. The study found several key elements to providing a comfortable environment,

In Alyssa’s interview I asked what the majority ethnicity of her high school teachers and students were. She explained that it was pretty common to see white female teachers, which is not a surprise, because according to the Association of Colleges for Teacher Education more than 80 percent of the bachelor’s degrees in education awarded during the 2009-2010 school year where to white students (AACTE). Alyssa’s school was not completely filled with just white teachers she notified me that her school also had an average amount of African American teachers along with Hispanic teachers. As for students she said that they were pretty diverse. Mexican, African American and whites were the majority of the school population.

The best thing that came out of this learning experience is my appreciation for the younger grades. I always thought that I wanted to a third grade teacher, but I do not think I need to limit myself. I had so much fun just watching the kids all interact with one another and have so many different thoughts. They truly liked learning and thought of their teacher as almost a mom like figure. I hope to instill this in my future classroom and to be in a school system that is ready to help

During the Steps 2 College program provided by the University of North Georgia, Gainesville Campus, my Education 2120 class and I were to provide 20 hours of observational field experience in the classroom. From the many course options provided for the program, I choose to spend my time in the Environmental Science course which was located in the Nesbitt building in room 1213. The classroom setting was a darker than normal classroom, but was formatted auditorium style, with all seats facing the front of the class towards the smart board. This was a new experience for the students. Only the first row was used in class due to having a class size of only 7 students. The ratio of boys to girls was about even with 4 boys and 3 girls in the class. All the students were Hispanic, with the only diversity being the teacher and the teachers assistants present. They were all bilingual, knowing their native language of Spanish as well as English except one student who only knew English. All the students in our class came from Banks County High School. Banks County High School, located in Homer, Georgia, is the only high school within its county, with an enrollment rate of greater than or equal to 800 students annually (usnews,2015). Banks County High School has a national ranking of Bronze. Here is the breakdown of the demographics provided by (usnews,2015) and the National Center for Education Statistics of the school:

In that class, the student learns about different teaching methods and how to care for children. As part of the curriculum, we volunteered at Long Elementary as teacher aides. Working with 4th grade students and observing an everyday class room was such an awe-inspiring experience. I had a completely new perspective about teachers. I have so much more respect as before. Teachers put so much time and effort into helping children for their benefits. I knew from the first day I helped with Ms. Williams’ 4th grade class, how much a teacher is a positive influence on children. There is an overwhelming feeling when you help a student with a problem and in return they give you the most heart-warming smile. The experience at Long Elementary helped me make my final decision on whether I wanted to teach elementary or secondary school. As much as I enjoyed helping elementary students, in my heart I knew secondary school was the path God had in store for me.

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

I believe a successful learning experience is engaging and valued by the students. I believe students’ will value what they are learning if they believe what they’re learning is relevant. Relevance is important to teaching and learning because it is directly related to student engagement and motivation (Frymier & Schulman, 1995; Martin & Dowson, 2009). Marsh (2008), states a positive classroom environment provides a sense of security, community, belonging and identity (Marsh, 2008). Based on my experience as a practicing teacher, I have found establishing clear expectations within the classroom assist in maintaining control and discipline, to create a safe learning environment (Fatt Hee, 1996). I believe within all classrooms, students’ diversity should be valued. This creates a discrimination free environment and ensures students feel safe and included (Philips, 2010). According to Stanford & Parkay (2007) students are more engaged in class when learning experiences are satisfying, challenging and friendly.