My Second Grade Class Atp.s 45

I teach first grade at Lowe Elementary School; my class is made up of twenty-four very diverse seven year-olds; they come from all over the city of Louisville, from a variety of socio-economic situations. Each student brings a unique personality to our classroom community, and they all work hard to become “smarter and smarter” and to “go to college”. Thirteen students are boys and eleven are girls. Of these twenty-four students, three of them are English Language Learners. Additionally, eight students receive tier two interventions and two receive tier three interventions in reading. In math, five students are tier two and four are tier three. I also teach one student who receives ECE services for a developmental delay. Within my class there is a wide achievement gap.

Today’s classrooms are becoming more and more diverse with students that have disabilities and those that come from different cultures. It is important for educators to ensure that their teaching strategies are appropriate for all of the children in their classroom. When it comes to the classroom there can be many cultural challenges that educators will have to address to ensure that all students are growing and developing appropriately. Educators need to make sure that they are capable of addressing each of their

As an inclusion teacher, I am often tasked with growing students who have not achieved much success in the traditional classroom structure. Often times my students do not respond well to typical behavior management strategies. These students tend to be highly emotional and reactive in their responses to stimuli as opposed to working through those situations in a rational process.

I don’t have a steady classroom. I have different students throughout the day. I usually have between eight and 12 students at a time. The class is small so I can have “eyes in the back of my head” and give students the attention they needs.

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.

My observation this semester is in a self-contained classroom for students with emotional and behavioral disorders. The class is taught by one special education teacher who is assisted by a teaching aide. The desks are spaced out from one another, allowing each student a lot of room to move around. I believe the desks are arranged this way so that the students have limited contact with one another. There are books and games on a shelf that the students are allowed to use during break time. There are also two computers that they may use during breaks or after they have completed their work. In one corner of the room, there are two bean bags and a sign that says quiet zone. The students are taught reading, math, and language arts in this room. They go to an inclusion room for science and social studies. They eat lunch in the cafeteria with the rest of the fifth-grade students. They also leave this room every day to attend related arts with the rest of the student body.

As it can be seen behaviorism is a major part of any classroom. For if one student acts out then the rest might get the idea that they can also act out in class and not receive punishment for it. It is also good to have a classroom management in place. Classroom management is also called behavior management. As it states in A Beginning Teaching Portfolio Handbook, “For these teachers, motivated students are those who do what they are told to do when they are told to do it.” (Foster,Walker,Song, pg. 99, para. 9) Which means when a

A typical day consisted of, casual conversations between students, Mrs. Hughes, and myself while we wait for more students to arrive. The older female students often got side-tracked talking to one another and on their cell phones. I noticed the majority of the students who come to class are the intermediate/ advanced students, only two beginner students came throughout the entirety of my service. At most, only seven intermediate/ advanced students came to class. Yet, there were two constant students in attendance, Rose (intermediate) and Vicente (advanced). I consider both Rose and Vicente the most driven students in the program, their attendance and participation in class speaks for

Title one schools are the schools that are in places that consist of low-income neighborhoods. This is an issue that the United States hasn’t been able to fix because it is extremely difficult to do. During the 1960’s there was “ more expansion of federal education funding: President Lyndon Johnson's "War on Poverty" called for the creation of many programs to improve education for poor students at all levels—early childhood through postsecondary.” (Duncan) . There are countless articles that say that poverty is the leading cause for dropout factories in rural areas and how that this is because of home life. Schools or teachers can’t be expected to achieve high test scores when there are so many socioeconomic factors that are standing in their way. An article by Kevin Huffman states, that “ Schools can’t overcome poverty. Therefore schools can’t be held accountable for results.“ (Huffman). There were attempts to fix Poverty through the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which was passed in 1965; this act was created to help fund schools who have students that come from low-income families. These schools are considered Title One schools. With attempts to help the Title One schools by funding, but, that isn’t the only thing that the schools and the students need. When attempting to fix the funding problem there was a more set focus on the

It is a third grade classroom of 20 students (8 girls and 12 boys) seated in 5 groups of 4. Most of the students are of Hispanic ethnicity, and the teacher can speak Spanish fluently and uses this skill when deemed necessary. Some students are also Caucasian, and there are a couple of African American and Asian students as well.

St. Charles West High School has a vast array of students that attend the school. While I have observed 3 different classes, there are different students in each class. The Civics class consists of freshman, ages 14. These students are a bit rowdy and tend to act out when I am in the classroom. There is majority of mixed-race students in this class when compared to white students with an even amount of males and females. Also, 1 student with an IEP with ADHD. The next class is Contemporary Issues which consists of sophomores and juniors ages 15-16. Majority of white males with only 2 mixed males in the class. There is no special needs students in this class. Lastly, the AP class consists of 10 students with an even amount of males and females. Grades are sophomores through seniors, ages 15-17. This class consists only of white students and no students with special needs.

Currently, I am student teaching at Alfred E. Zampella PS #27 School in the district of Jersey City. The school is located in a busy city, next to John F. Kennedy St. which is especially busy in the morning and during rush hour. This results in several late students on a day to day basis. On the other hand, this school is also highly accessible and as a little over a thousand students. The school has grade levels from kindergarten to 8th grade, and has a mix of general, special, and inclusion education classrooms. Typically, families that enroll their students into this school are of lower-middle socio-economic class, and tend to be majority Hispanic, Indian, and African American, with few Caucasians and Asians. This school provides a variety of special programs for their ESL students and special need students. Students may be offered speech language pathology, occupational therapy, physical therapy, ESL programs, reading recovery, and counseling.

The students and staff alike work together and collaborate to make the learning and experience of school meaningful. The teachers in each grade band are close and have been working together for many years. Even though the school is only 15 years’ old many of the teachers have been here for seven or more years. The kids are all different in everything to culture to learning types. The students in the class range from kindergarten levels all the way up to about 9th grade levels, even though this is a special education class. We have seventh and eighth grade students only in this class. There is one student with Downs Syndrome, a few with a specific learning disability in reading, math or both. We also have a student in because he is the “trouble kid”. This specific individual is incredibly smart but he has behavior problems and he can be difficult to teach or otherwise have in class. The atmosphere here in the class is different than in the individual classes. There is none of the regular gatherings of students in this class. Everyone is helpful, caring, accepting, kind and joking with one another.

The context of the classroom is a 6th grade math class. The students are at varying developmental levels from below level to advanced/gifted. The types of learners I have are the auditory, visually, and mostly the bodily/kinesthetic learners. I have students who are from multiple ethnicities such as Hispanic, White, Asian, Middle Eastern, and African American. I also have students with varying exceptionalities.

Disruptive behaviors are conditions that can have a great influence in the teaching environment. Disruptive behaviors unswervingly hinder the ability of the teacher or the capability of a learner to benefit from their classroom experiences. Students attend schools with hopes of being productive citizens of society. I like to think of students as future leaders of tomorrow! For the most part, students attend school because it is the law. A learning environment should have actively engaged students, who are eager to participate and show knowledge is being acquired on a daily basis. However, some students are bored and disengaged with academic struggles, due to non-active lessons. Certain life factors such as family problems, financial difficulties are all factors that distract and contribute to students disruptive behaviors. One of the most detrimental settings for a teacher in a class is classroom management. Classroom management is defined as being "the methods and strategies an educator uses to maintain a classroom environment that is conducive to student success and learning" (McCreary, 2011). Disorderly student conduct is unfavorable to the entire academic process because they impede with the learning process of other classmates and cause teachers not to be able to instruct teachers most effectively.