Observation: Ms. Balderas Sixth Grade Science Classroom

I did my observations in a first grade classroom at R. L Brown Elementary school. My supervising teacher had strict guidelines about the lesson that she was allowing me to teach. Because I was doing my observation so close to the end of the year, I could only teach during the science block. She allowed my to choose between two standards. The standard I choose was LAFS.1.RI.3.9 Id( Identify basic similarities in and differences between two texts on the same).I spent a lot of time doing my lesson plan called the and different, and I tried to plan for everything possible. To be honest my lesson went okay. It was the little things that caused the most problems. I learned that actual teaching is a complex profession. There are always a million

For my observation, I observed a first to third grade special day class at a public Fresno Unified School District classroom in Fresno, California. When I first entered the classroom all the students, approximately 10 students, were sitting down on the rug in front of the class as the teacher was reading a short story to them. When she finished they would go over their reading assignment.

Mr. Escalante used specific behaviors at first, providing rigid structure–he laid down the law at the beginning to demonstrate his high expectations and resolution to accomplish the end goal. He seemed to not care if any student just decided to be done. He gave them no opportunity to behave disrespectfully, by challenging each one right where they were. He led well at all levels: he taught with fervor and gusto, speaking individually to each student’s unique needs, as well as conversing respectfully with parents, and providing his input to other teachers. He took a more laissez-faire attitude by simply giving the school board an ultimatum of quitting, should they not abide by his requests and methods. This proved useful in that environment.

I observed the kindergarten classroom of Sarah House. During my observation, Ms. House completed a language arts lesson with her students. Ms. House used both whole class instruction and one on one instruction during her lesson. I felt that she did an amazing job with classroom management and created lessons that were not only engaging, but fun for the students.

Our reading for this week is from the uniquely formatted book written by Harry and Rosemary Wong titled, “The First Days of School; How to be an Effective Teacher.” The focus section of our reading is based in Unit C of the text, which focuses of Classroom Management. Chapters 11-16 were read, and these chapters focus on the topics of how to have a well managed classroom, effectively preparing the classroom, how to introduce yourself to students, seating arrangement/assignment, starting a class, and the proper timing and execution of taking roll. Essentially each chapter of this text follows the same format. There will be a few paragraphs discussing what “effective teachers” would do followed by a few paragraphs about what “ineffective teachers”

On February 1st, I visited the Britton Macon Area School. The teacher I observed was Ms. Richardson. She teaches a self-contained classroom for middle and high school grades. I started the observation at 8:00 A.M. until 11:32 A.M.

Taking what happened in the interactions and decided what category of class management was being utilized out of our possibilities. Also, how Junie B. reacted to each style of teaching whether is was a positive or negative interactions and whether it had a positive or negative reaction correlating with it. After deciding what our topic was going to deal with we decided to pull examples from real life that also illustrated our main ideas, so, the group also pulled examples of classroom management from bulletin boards seen in classrooms at the schools Raymond F Brandes and Creston that included clip system of disciplinary action, expectations of reading comprehension in grade levels, and a smiley to frown face disciplinary system.

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.

For this scenario, I am a general education 6th grade math teacher, at the amazing campus of Our Lady of the Lake Middle School. The school that I work for has 8 periods each day, and I teach 6 out of those 8 periods. The classes do range for each period, but I roughly have 23 students in each class and with a diverse set of students; Hispanic (50.1%), White (40.8%), Black (4.8%), two or more races (3.1%), Asian (1%), and Pacific Islander (.2%). At Our Lady of the Lake Middle School the student’s population is broken down to 46% females and 54% males that attend the school. Socioeconomic details for the school is broken down to; eligible free lunch (43.3%), eligible fore reduced lunch (8.2%), and ineligible for free/reduced lunch (48.5%).

On Thursday, June 16th all 4th grade classes from Hanscom Middle School got their Every Kid in the Park passes, learned about the Centennial and met park rangers too boot. A neighbor of Minute Man National Historical Park, Hanscom Middle School is located on the adjacent Hanscom Air Force Base, located in the towns of Bedford, Lincoln and Lexington, Massachusetts. 50 students were awarded their passes as well as peppering rangers with questions about the National Park Service.

For the third observation, I made changes to grammar and fixed my sentences so they could flow better. I started by breaking the third sentence into two in the subjective portion. I did this so that the sentences could remain clear and flow. Next I changed the words "seen alone" to "one on one" to keep a professional tone in explaining that the client was seen by the clinician alone during the therapy session. In the subjective portion I also added details about when the client had his stroke, the effects of his stroke on his facial muscles on his right side, and his personality. For the objective section, I made changes in the spelling of the clinical term rote and used the term "tactical cues" to describe how the clinician helped the client

Panther points. I read this chapter with both of my observations in mind. My observation in North Minneapolis with Erik, at the middle school, at first seemed like I wasn’t going to learn anything. However, I think I have seen the example of what NOT to do in a school environment. My co-operating teacher along with all of the teacher’s in the middle school have decided to give Panther points out as a way to positively enforce good behavior. Eric’s yellow and red card system, followed by removal from class was used as the reinforcement of bad behavior. I directly witnessed a kid, let’s call him Marcus. On day one he was helpful in helping other kids with projects and was given a Panther point for his awesome leadership. On day two he even stayed after class to clean up and pushed many chairs in to straighten up. I even commented he was so well behaved when the rest of the students were out of control. On day three I saw a change. Marcus was told by Erik the co-operating teacher, that he should be doing these respectful and nice things without the Panther Points awarded as Erik had given him a lot of points throughout the days. This child turned his attention not in a good way. His behavior went from model student back to disruptive in one twenty-four hour period. Why? Toshalis writes the answer, “….students reach the following conclusions: nothing is worth doing unless it comes with a reward.” (Toshalis. p. 281)

The Students at Brookeville high school resembled the students of any high school, broken and in need of a savior. As my team entered the football stadium we immediately recognized immodesty in the girls, in which many of those were just in middle school. We continued walking and I notice the less popular kids sitting on the grass hill, or off to the side not participating in the event. We finally reached the bleachers and observed the parents screaming and cheering on their emphasis Brookeville bees. After passing the section of adults, we found our seat behind the student section. This area was prime for observing the high school students interact.

As usual, the children begin the day by having free play. I noticed that this method is used as a way to give everyone enough time to check in, while not having them miss anything specifically. I would say that the schedule for the Pre-K class begins at 8:30 am, when breakfast is served and mostly everyone has arrived and settled down. At times children do arrived while the other children have already been served. Today, I served the children their breakfast, which included a pancake, half a banana, and a cup of milk. As other children arrive, Mrs. M or I would offer them breakfast. Some said yes, while other said no. During breakfast time, Mrs. M joined one of the tables, as she had her own breakfast. Before sitting, she did ask “Is it ok if I

During my observation time in a kindergarten classroom, I have noticed that the students have a wide variety of abilities, attention spans, interests, and love for learning. When it comes to the teacher’s instructional strategies, she intentionally takes into consideration all of the above characteristics to make sure each student gets what they need to be most successful. During lessons students are engaged because of the teacher’s ability to implement interests of the student’s into things and giving them options. If an error occurs during a lesson, the teacher normally, allows for the student who got something wrong to try again, or to call on a friend to help them out. This way the students are still giving the answers and not the teacher just telling them the information. The teacher chooses a lot of small group instruction and centers where she can work with a small group, but then, easily monitor all the other groups to make sure they are on task and doing their work.