Science Class Observation

After spending the day observing a fourth grade inclusive class and attending a fourth grade PLC meeting focused on testing, I began my community service at the after school program. I was quite curious to see what the after school program is like as I work as a supervisor at an after school program in Sussex County. At dismissal, all the students came to the cafeteria and began their homework. They were very talkative and sitting in close proximity as there were only a few tables left down for the students. Once everyone had arrived, the teachers called out that all students were to quietly work on homework.

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.

Procedure: Using distilled water, premeasured containers and objects determine displacement of fluids and density of objects. Use ice and heat measure temperatures in Celsius, Fahrenheit and Kelvin.

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

Both were trying their best to cope with the fact that the they’re schools would not let them speak Spanish, as Anzaldua says,

Rodriguez defines bilingualism as he elaborates on his story of learning English. Arriving to the US and only speaking Spanish challenged him and his family. Their home illuminated a safe place, a place where he could speak Spanish. At school, his teachers would call on him purposefully trying to make him speak/learn English. In despair he mumbled, until the day his safe place disappeared when his parents began to speak English at home. Now with no outlet, he attempts to raise his hand in class and communicate with others. This monumental shift of avoiding speech to trying to communicate helps Rodriguez explain “Sound and word were thus tightly wedded” (23). The liberating moment where he can comfortably communicate with others without such a big effort rewards Rodriguez, for he can fit in with society: “And the point was not self expression alone but to make oneself understood by many others” (21). To talk comfortably with others provides a source for community and self expression. Although Rodriguez had a difficult time learning another language, he views bilingualism as someone who can fit in with multiple communities and has a balance of public and private life.

The third grade class contained 30 students, some in which were ELL’s. The ELL students get pulled out at various times throughout the day. The classroom set up is arranged in 5 different tables that contain a cluster of about 6 to 5 students each. The students are placed at random but, some are placed far from students that they may not work as well together. Throughout the classroom, student’s work is up for display, inside and outside the classroom. Different students are given different jobs that they are responsible for each day. This allows the students to be active learners and hands on. The school makes each class have at least one

On August 5, 2016 at 6:20 am I held Aaron Mills after the morning check in to discuss a situation that arose at Annandale High School. Present at the meeting was Craig Carney, Liaison and Steve Passino, HVAC Supervisor. The previous day Aaron was responding to a service call for the Athletic Directors office area Rooftop B1. Upon arrival at the jobsite I twice questioned Aaron if he had thoroughly checked out the Rooftop unit. Aaron responded “YES”. I then asked if he had checked the Freon charges in the system and Aaron responded “NO” as this is critical to a units operation. Prior to our arrival Aaron had informed Joe Lanham and Ed Bowler that everything was checked out on the Rooftop unit. While inspecting Rooftop B1 Steve Passino asked

C. An unknown, rectangular substance measures 3.6 cm high, 4.21 cm long, and 1.17 cm wide.

During my naturalistic observation, I was at my sister’s softball game at the field behind Bridgeport Middle School. There were two identical twins little girls, who were three years old, playing together in the practice batting cage. In the beginning, they were walking around together, eating popsicles while they watched two other older kids, a boy and a girl most likely around the age range of five to seven, chasing each other. The older kids were playing tag and invited the twins to join them. From their facial expressions, it was obvious they were thrilled to play with them; however they were hesitant to run and chase the older kids. They stood at the starting location and watched as the other kids raced back and forth, and had to move

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%).

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)

General Observations: My past field placements have been in much larger schools; therefore, I was excited to have the opportunity to experience a rural setting. St. Rose is a small public school with a unique location. St. Rose is attached to the St. Rose Catholic Church. When I arrived, students were attending religion classes while teachers met in the teacher’s lounge to grade papers, make copies, and prepare for the day. Once religion classes were over, the “school day” started. I immediately obvious the students were very well-behaved; for example, students held the door open for one another and the noise level was appropriate in the hallway and classroom. Coincidentally, I attended a private school K-7th grade; for that reason, the atmosphere and behaviors observed were familiar.

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.

Ms. Sullivan is a third grade teacher at an elementary school where English language learners (ELLs) make up approximately 85 percent of the student population. The majority of the third graders she teaches are of Asian, African American, and Hispanic ethnicities and seem to be within the intermediate stages of English language proficiency. In the video lesson, Ms. Sullivan presents a whole group math lesson measuring temperature using a thermometer. In this lesson, Ms. Sullivan utilizes a wide variety of sheltered instructional strategies to improve her ELLs’ language development.