Observation Of A Middle School And Elementary Classroom

1. Describe the organization and physical setting of the classrooms you observed. Pay particular attention to safety and accessibility, the physical arrangement of the room, the classroom environment and appearance (Danielson 2e):

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

1. The only change in the classroom was all of the children special notes from their parents, "My child is Special because" The teacher posted them on all them were posted on the door.

For my ethnographic research I am observing a second grade classroom. I have chosen to observe classroom reading and writing time with the students. In addition I have decided to interview three people (teacher, parent, and student) from the school at which I am completing my observation hours, P.S. 152 Gwendoline N. Alleyne School in Woodside, Queens to have a solid understanding of my research. I will use alternative name for students and teacher. Mrs. S is piloting a writing workshop in her classroom and ELA/ literacy standards will be the primary focus throughout her teaching. My primarily focus will be on the classroom routine.

In this lab experience I was observing eighteen to nineteen first grade students at Jefferson Elementary. Most of the observations take place in the classroom. I observe at different times of the day, so that I can experience different areas of study. I have observed this class with their regular teacher, two substitutes and the reading coach, as well as a portion of the class with two special activity teachers.

Observations at Columbia High School were collected in the Student Services department for 9th and 10th graders in the Huntsville City Schools (HCS) district. Students enrolled in this self-contained, special needs unit are supported by a curriculum design with prevocational transition targets. These exceptional learners work toward benchmark academic, behavioral, and vocational skills development.

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.

During the observation of Morning Meeting, I noticed that my mentor teacher separated the children by gender when the calendar helper counted the number of boys and the girls in the classroom. My mentor teacher asked the calendar helper to have either the boys or girls stand up first to be counted. When the children are getting ready to go outside or to the bathroom, the teacher has also the boys and girls in separate lines. I felt that there were other characteristics for the teacher to separate the children. For example, she could she could have asked the children stand up or line up based on their eye color, hair color, the color of their clothing, their favorite animal, or even the first letter of their name. If my teacher broadened the

One amazing thing that I observed at my field site occurred on Wednesday. I was working with two girls on their math packets, as we usually do for the first half hour. I was doing my best to teach them a little bit more about what they were doing and some tricks to help them develop fluency with the skills they were using. When it came time to work on the project of the day, making kaleidoscopes, the girls chose to continue working on their math with me instead. One of them only stayed for about 30 more minutes, but the other girl sat with me and did math for nearly 2 hours until it was time for lunch. I was impressed by her drive and interest in mathematics at such a young age (she had just finished second grade, but we were working on a fourth

An unannounced monitoring inspection was conducted on 1/6/2016. I arrived at the operation which is located at 3422 Richmond Rd, Texarkana about 12:57 pm. I was greeted by Comekia Island, the person in charge while director was at lunch. I handed her business card and then explained the purpose of my inspection and reviewed the subchapters I would be observing. Roshonda Epps the director arrived approximately a hour later. When Epps arrived I handed her business card and then explained the purpose of my inspection and reviewed the subchapters I would be observing.

At the end of the lesson Students are going to be able to describe where they live using the verb "vivir" and "tener" in Spanish. During unit two, they been using the these verbs and in the beginning of the lesson they answer the "Do NOw" activity where I asked then: ?Donde tu vives? They answer the question in Spanish and used the verb in the correct tense. After that, they answer a listening question where they had to identify the part of the house using the vocabulary proposed at the beginning of the lesson. Finally, they started a project where they had to create a Floor plan and describe their ideal house. For this activity, they have to use the verb "tener" in present tense. The completion of these activities ensures the acquisition of the new vocabulary and the verbs tense. It is important to mention, that this lesson will continue next week because students need more time to complete their DOL activity.

Classroom Two is also an Elementary special day class Ms. Lopez is the teacher, she has been teaching for 5 years. She has a Masters with her special education credential. She is Bilingual she speaks English and Spanish. The children she services have speech and language impairment and on the spectrum for Autism. The classroom ratio is one adult to two children. She had two instructional aide and 6 children in the classroom.

Prior to my observation, I was eager to have an opportunity to observe a class for an entire school day. While I certainly have a background working in school settings, I have never been able to focus on understanding and evaluating the different aspects of the school day. For my observation, I was placed in an inclusive fourth grade class. Two co-teachers ran the class of eighteen 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.

In the preschool, snacks for the children are provided 'buffet style' in an open kitchen area furnished with two connecting child-size picnic tables. Snacks and juice are accessible to the children in this area for a 45-minute period followed by free play time. Children are free to sit with one another as they please.