Observation Of A Learning Center

I had the pleasure of observing a classroom containing kindergarteners through second graders. In these classes I observed two students. One male one female. They had a variety of different traits and displayed skills to provide information of their development. Each of these children was at different stage of their development. I also visited a special needs classroom. They had a variety of traits that showed their development as well. They differ from the other students I observed.

The observation sites selected were selected for their stark contrast thus allowing for the most in depth analysis of the differences and similarities in play at these two different locations. The two locations where Central Classroom Building (CCB) 117 from one to two pm on the 22nd of September and traditional equipment play structure park area in Morgan Hill form three to four pm on the 23rd of September. There were eight kids surveyed at these two locations, they were all partaking in play of some sort and in a setting that encouraged it.

My last set of observation hours were done at PJ Jacobs’s Jr. high grades 7-9, located in the Stevens Point school district. The teacher I observed at this school was David Hauser. Prior to this practicum experience I had no knowledge about David, or any knowledge about the Stevens Point school system. David seems to have a very strong background in team sports and athletics among the Jr. high school and high school levels. I feel David’s involvement in sports reflected strongly in the way he managed the classroom, supported student learning, incorporated different teaching styles, and ultimately lacked the ability to maintain students attention resulting in irrelevant play and poor classroom behavior from students.

Conducting classroom observations are very important to the prospective teacher. Observing helps show how experienced teachers manage their classroom. For this observation it was important to notice how the classroom was arranged, how the teacher interacted with the students, the teacher’s management style, and interview the teacher.

The classroom I observed was my own rising third grade summer school classroom that I am working in for my summer placement. The classroom is typically a kindergarten classroom throughout the year, and is full of vibrant, engaging color. When we arrived to the classroom on the first day of the summer placement the walls were blank canvases as the previous teacher had taken all of her resources down. Due to the nature of our coursework, we primarily filled with anchor charts focused around classroom management; this being at the expense of any content directly related to math concepts or math fluency. In the classroom is a cart full of small laptops – enough for each student in the class. During summer school, math is primarily taught through these computers through a software game based learning program. The students have been working on these computers at this point for two weeks and the majority of the students seem to be able to run the programs themselves. The students work on

It was early in the morning and Mrs. Gault turned the light off in the main classroom and said we just needed to calm down for a while. About 10-15 minutes later she told me I could take some of the students in the kitchen/classroom and work with them. I ask Jacob, Nick, and Levi to go with me. We worked on our sheets All About Me. I talked with Levi about not breaking the crayons and putting them in his mouth like he did yesterday. I gave each student one crayon to color with. Levi was finished coloring and he broke the crayon and laugh at me. I ask him to get up and to come over to main classroom and sit at the desk and think about the choice he just made for a little. I went back into the other room and could hear Levi asking to go to

Saugatuck Middle and High School was very traditional school. It seemed as though I was walking through a school that I would see on a movie because it was so traditional. There were signs here and there on the walls, they promoted a lot of working together as a school and doing your best, nothing crazy or unique. The high School and the middle School were separated very well and it was not confusing on which part of the school was which. This was very impressive and important because it made it feel like it was two different schools even though they were all in one building. The middle school had a big sign over the hallway that began the middle school that said “Welcome to Saugatuck Middle School” and the high school had pictures of old graduating

I attended a studio recital that featured singers of all different ages and abilities. The end of the song, when the singer would receive applause, was my favorite part of the performances because they would just light up and have a bright smile on their face. I also loved watching them take cues from their voice teacher, who was in the very back, giving them small reminders as they sang. A lot of them, whenever they would receive a cue from the voice teacher, would just start to smile and laugh a little bit. It seemed like their personality came out more when they were focusing on the voice teacher.

For the third lesson in this unit the students were to be Scientists and observe the sun's different locations in the sky. The students were to observe the different positions of the sun during the morning, noon, and afternoon. The students had to go outside and stand in front of the school to see where the sun was in regards to the school. When the students faced the front of the school, the sun was on the East side of the school so it was a great experiment for the students to see that the sun was in the East in the morning and it's position continued to change as it moved towards the West.

Some students in elementary school seem to breeze through their school years, whereas others struggle, putting them at risk for getting lost in our educational system and not reaching their full potential. Parents and teachers want to help students succeed, but there is little guidance as to which learning techniques are the most effective for improving educational outcomes. This leads students to implement studying strategies that are often ineffective, resulting in minimal gains in performance. As educators, one of the main goals in the classroom is to have students be able to transfer the material they learn in the classrooms and translate that to the real world. We must produce effective problem-solving and critical-thinking skills in our young students so that they are ready to overcome any problem that awaits them. In order to get a better understanding, I visited three schools in the Selinsgrove area school district. I visited the Selinsgrove Intermediate and Elementary Schools and I also visited the Child Development Center located on the campus of Susquehanna University.

For my Observation I visited my daughters school at Cuesta children center on Cuesta campus. Yes, we have been attending for about a year but I wanted insure myself that I have chosen the best qualified school for my daughter. When i arrived the class was so engaging with all different activities to engage the toddlers. With physical, emotional/social, age appropriate toys, and the best outside play area.

Upon entering the Child Study Center, I was nervous at how the children would react to me, and if the children would want to interact with me. I went during the afternoon for each of my visits so unfortunately, I was only able to interact the fours. On my first day, Oct 9, 2017, I walked into the room where the activity centers were and observed how the children were interacting with the centers they were at and the children they were playing with.

Throughout my observation experience, I have learned so many things. I observed Mrs. Elli Mason, a first grade teacher at Irving Elementary in Joplin. Being able to observe a school in a district different from where I went to school, I was able to point out many similarities and differences. I was able to view a classroom environment in which differs from what I know as the “norm”.

The room was arranged in a way that made it easy for the teacher and students to walk around the room without tripping or having to squeeze through small spaces. There is one door which is located at the front of the classroom. Desks had nametags taped to the top of them and were organized in groups of five on the right side of the room. The teachers desk and filing cabinet were in the back of the room in the right corner. There were two extra tables that were used for small group work. A set of plastic drawers were placed beside each desk so that the students could store their school supplies that stays at school. These tables were located in the front left corner of the room and the back center of the room. Another feature of the room was the reading area in the back of the room. This reading area was on the left side of the room and was made up of a

The classroom that I observed was Mr. Slagle’s 1st grade class on YouTube, during a language arts lesson. The desks were setup in a fashion which was unusual, although not very clear in the diagram above, the desks were set up in a slanted fashion ( table 1 and 3), and table 2 which was in the center, was not slanted. The tables were very close together and the 1st was very close to the white board which might cause some students to bump into other students or objects. It is not a setup in a way that encourages the teacher to walk around desks since there are slanted tables and very short spaces between the desks. In the back of the class there is a table where students go to work in groups. The classroom looks cluttered and has lots of student work and art covering most of the walls.