The Observation Of Motivation In The Classroom

Kindergarten classroom of 25 students they all sit at tables that will hold up to six students, however I have them sitting 5 to a table for ease of grouping. Each table is a team labeled by a color, a large construction paper crayon hangs from the ceiling above each table, and they have matching crayon nametags on their desks. There is a Smart Board at the front of the classroom as well as a white board. My desk is at the front of the room to the right of the white board. Different centers are located around the room such as the art center, the math center, the reading tree is in the opposite corner from my desk. The room also has a single restroom and a sink and water fountain outside of the restroom. We also have circle area to the left of the reading corner

I consider Mrs. S to be coordinated. She has her materials well labeled and organized throughout her classroom. Her desk area also appears organized. Mrs. S shared with me that she begins her school day one hour before the students arrived. This schedule allows her to plan for the day ahead. Mrs. S‘s classroom is large but functional. She has a total of 30 students in her class. The seating arrangement consists of 6 sets of grouping desks as Mrs. S has 6 groups of 5 students to an area. This set up offers several benefits including encouraging collective learning,

All of the teachers I observed had many different ways to manage their classroom. Many of their ways were similar, but there were some differences too. I noticed that the female teachers used songs to get the children from one activity to another while the male teacher went right into the next lesson. All of the teachers welcomed their students as they came into the classroom. Mrs. Pollard sang the hello song to them and Mrs. Kraus did as well. After they welcomed the children, all of the teachers had their students go directly to their carpet spots. Mr. Leonhardt had three different seating types for the students, which I thought was different yet effective. There were team spots, dance lines and free seating. When the students were

On Tuesday 01/31/17 at 0122 hours I was dispatched to a physical domestic in the

Organization is a key component in Ms. VeZain’s room. She believes that a well- organized room is essential to the success of her students. This structure allows for her students to become more independent because they do not have to rely on staff assistance for finding and putting supplies away. This structure also promotes organizational habits in her students; they quickly learn that organization helps them to be successful in school and other aspects of their lives. Some ways her organizational strategies include: using color coordinated folders and baskets, and labeling all important areas of the classroom.

The desks in the classroom were arranged in a pattern that I have never seen before and I liked that there was also a big space on the rug for the students to sit and listen to a story or have a discussion. Ms. Mak, Josh’s teacher, had a warm, relaxed, and fun loving way about her. Respect and admiration was the way these students looked at her, and they were all so well behaved. If I had to describe the appearance of the classroom itself, I would say it had a look of “organized chaos”, meaning that everything seemed to have a place however there were so many materials that had been accumulated. The colorful, cheery room had various reference posters on the walls and students work displayed. The daily schedule was loosely outlined on the white board for the students to see, and weekly vocabulary words were displayed as well. Each of the thirty students had a pencil case on their desk, along with a folder filled with things they have been working on. I noticed that Ms. Mak often would encourage the children to work together on their class assignments, and most of the students seemed to have no aversion to this. Josh however, did have a bit of trouble with working with others for reasons that I will explain

She had a drawer on her desk for substitutes. Posters with things like the scientific method, main idea, clocks, schedules, alphabet with words that start with each letter, and the current spelling words were all on the walls. The teacher would have the students “take pictures” of things on the board to remember for test. For oral discussions students would clap when other students got the correct answer. For reading there were three groups going at a time. The group at the table with the teacher, a group listening and following along, and a group reading to each other while timing the reading to improve speed. When the other class of students came in she continued the work because her class and the other class follow the same lessons. The students from the other class were very respectful toward her and her to them.

This week I will finish my second student teaching experience at Quarles Elementary School. For the first five weeks of this experience I was in Mrs. Crosby’s third grade classroom. During the sixth week I spent half of the day with Mrs. Crosby’s class and half of the day with Mrs. Maggs second grade students. This week, my final week of student teaching, I have been observing in Mrs. Maggs classroom for the entire school day. From my observations in these two classrooms, as well as in the fifth grade classroom where I completed my first student teaching experience, I have had the opportunity to learn from teachers with different teaching styles. In addition to a variety of teaching approaches, I have observed differing classroom management strategies between these classrooms. Although I would have loved to spend more than seven weeks in one classroom, I am grateful to have had the opportunity to observe and learn from teachers with different styles and approaches to elementary education.

Curiousiteur is an area of motivation that was discussed in this week's lesson. As a chemistry teacher, most of my students are in 11th and 12th grade and motivation is limited. The important motivators at this level areACT test scores, GPA, graduation, and college. In my science class, I use many of the specific areas that were discussed in Yount's chapter four. Science teachers traditionally ask questions which are challenging and provoking. Science teachers "rock the boat but do not sink it" (Yount, 1999, pg 87). I have students working in pairs or teams during lab exercises this allows for peer interaction. Another area of student involvement is justifying answers. I have students to show me how they obtained their answers. Most of the topics covered in chemistry can be easily applied to everyday life. By having students dig deeper into each topic, it helps them make the connection between the content and the real world.

For my observation hours, I attended a first grade classroom at the Meadow View Elementary in Alabaster. My cooperating teacher's room was full of posters which she had created that featured strategies for counting, reading, and writing. She had created small reading corner, a another corner was Scholastic news, and a side of the room was dedicated to computers and iPads. My cooperating teacher had a total of nineteen students in her classroom and she had numbered all of them one through nineteen, randomly. She had arranged the student tables in small groups of four with an assigned table number to collaborative instructions and she had assigned the students according to heterogeneous groups, but during reading she had the students in homogeneous groups. My cooperating teacher had her table at the back of the room in order for her to see the entire classroom from her desk.

Mrs. Bell is a teacher in a self-contained classroom. Her classroom was very big, organized and inviting. There were six students with different disabilities such as: autism, speech and language disability, intellectual disabilities, visual impairment, and physical disability. There are four big rectangular tables instead of desks and chair, which were positioned into a square where there was enough room to walk around or within it the square. Mrs. Bell explained to me that she positioned the tables this way because it helps the students concentrate better. There were numerous posters, displays and boards present with routines, instructions and students work. Mrs. Bell used if-then picture cards and fun active chants. There were stations for math, reading, and writing. Each area was very organized and had many resources like books, and or fun materials and activities to accompany them. Another area that

My classroom observation took place at Barwise Middle School during Ms. Yearly’s six grade social studies class. There were fifteen students in the class which comprised of seven girls and eight boys. One student in the class was classified as extremely special needs, two students had autism and two ESL learners. The racial make-up of the class was four Hispanic, two African American, two Asian, and eight White students. The classroom was medium sized and appeared to be very limited in moving space. There were various charts, graphic organizers and pieces of student art which covered the walls of the classroom. Words for the week could be seen on the door when Ms. Yeary shut the door after the last student entered. Ms. Yeary’s desk was set in the top left corner of the classroom where all students were able to see and hear her if needed. The classroom was arranged with four tables with four chairs. Students when sitting at the tables would be facing each other. On each table was a container with markers, pencils, blank paper, pens, and a dictionary. The class was furnished with two reference computers, one computer on Ms. Yeary’s desk, document camera, one projector and screen and a small classroom library. There were three windows on the right side of the classroom providing additional light and view of the playground.

For my off campus lesson observation I was fortunate enough to go visit one of my favorite teachers from high school, Kirsten Galanter. She has been teaching at Evergreen High School for 7 years and teachers family and consumer sciences classes. During high school I took one of her classes every year and she was one of the reasons I decided to pursue a career in education. Through the two classes I observed on Thursday November 30th, I was able to to see how she used different strategies for each of her classes, and then how this effected the students engagement and classroom environment.

What is motivation? What influences it? The term motivation can be defined in different ways. Motivation can simply defined as “ a need that, if high, is evident in a strong desire to achieve, to excel, to reach a high level of excellence” (Lefrancois 430). To become motivated, one must have a positive attitude to a variety of learning skills. Some factors that influence motivation include our peers, friends, parents, and environmental settings. Division four being high school division, attention is focused towards learning and what methods can be used. Students at this stage are more eager and develop a sense of what he or she wants to do and accomplish in upcoming adulthood. With a division comes a group of intelligent theorists. All

cognitive aspects current theorists assert are intrinsic to the learning process (Martinez, 2010; Schunk, 2012). Behaviorism is the attempt to understand humans through observations of their actions rather than on a cognitive level and considers the learning process as a superficial construction between stimuli and responses (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000; Schunk, 2012). The advent of cognitive sciences in the 1950s changed how learning was theorized and began to examine the importance of the social and cultural contexts of the learning process (Bransford et al, 2000).