DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

 

 

 

   

           My Field Experience Paper on the Classroom Observation

 

                         Observing Student and Teachers

 

 

 

 

                              By Tyrell Paul

 

 

 

 

                             Education 501 – Field Work

                             Dr. Rosalina Diaz

                             Friday December 17th, 2010

 

 

 

                                        Introduction

         Some people believe that teachers only have to come to school in the morning to teach the students, get their paycheck and go about their business. Not true at all. Not only is a teacher suppose to teach his or her lesson, but they are suppose to make sure their students are on the right grade level, they are understanding the materials, and that he or she can complete the assignments given to them in a timely matter at a level that is understandable. In addition, educators have to make sure that a warm, welcoming, and healthy environment is provide to the students and make sure that everything else on top of everything else outside of school is alright. You are going to read a brief history about the schools where I had gotten my observation completed at, what did I see while observing the classroom as well as the teacher and which classroom may or may not of had that another room did. Then I will compare everything that the teachers had in common. If every single teacher in the world creates a warm and caring environment, the educational system would probably be better than what it is today.

 

                              Observation at Public School 12

 

            Public school 12 is located in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn at 430 Howard Avenue. For what I understood when P.S. 12 first opened a long time ago it used to be a great school. The school always ran from grades pre-k to 8 at one point. Then after a certain point the school went straight down the toilet. Everything from test scores to behavior stared to drop and many problems kept on adding on. The Board of Education and the city kept on changing principals in order to get the school back in shape. Due to the fact that the school had went up to grade eight, the city had decided to break it down into two parts, an elementary school and a Junior High School. Ever since they had made this move the entire building is functioning much better as of this current moment, the same way it used to when first opened. The principal of the elementary part is a very nice woman. Her school is neat, organized, and most important clean. There was not one piece of garbage on the floor and the staff was polite. The principal does not allow yelling and shouting at all between the students and teachers. As of a result, the school is operating fine due to her no yelling policy. The students, teachers, faculty, and staff get along fine and the students amazingly have respect for their elders. The principal do believe in disciple though and that is another reason why the school is functioning well.

 

            Back Ground Information on Andries Hudde Junior High School.

 

        I.S. 240 which is also known as Hudde Junior High school first opened up in the 1950s. Since the time that it has opened up until today it has always been a great school. Yes there were times when Hudde had faced some hardships, but overall the state never had to intervene and try to fix things. Hudde had changed principals only six times because they were either retiring or getting promoted. There had been a numerous amounts of changes when it came to the assistant principals because they kept on coming and going due to retirement, promotion matters or they had chosen to go back into the classroom. Ninety percent of the staff are great and the administration overall is good. There is really no problem at the school. They try their best to keep the students in check and the school environment free of violence and welcoming to everyone. The principal that is in office now is loved by all of her students and the community. She as well as the former one that is the superintendent of Hudde by making sure that all not the students go straight home and not cause a disturbance to the people that live in the area by knocking down garbage cans, standing on the yawn, ringing door bells, etc.

                                   

                                     Observation at P.S. 12

 

         When I had went to Public School 12 on December 3, we had an orientation in the library where everyone who is already advance in the field had spoken to me and the other student candidates about education as we as their school. Later on in the morning, I went to one of the classrooms to observe a second grade class. When my classmates and I walked in, the students were taking a spelling test and they were very quiet. After the conclusion of the spelling test they had went over the entire tests to see what had gotten right and what they had gotten wrong. Afterwards they had moved on with the next part of the lesson where everyone worked in their note books. What they had to do was look at the picture in their workbook, observe what the people in the picture were doing and write a sentence about it. In the picture the mother, father and the daughter was planting fruits and vegetables. So the sentences had to do with one of the characters doing something in the garden. I had walked around the class to see how the students were doing and some of them were doing well. On the other hand, some students had a difficult time getting through the lesson. So I sat down next to those who needed assistant but I did not give them any answer. I am the kind of person that would make the students think for themselves because that is the only way that they would understand the work. Of course, I would give examples but I make sure at the same time that everyone does things for themselves. However, the one thing that I did notice about the teacher is that she was very neat and organized. She was not the kind of person who didn’t know where her stuff was. If she needed to get a pencil or something important she knew exactly where it was. Her classroom was very clean and that is very important because you do not want to have unwanted visitors such as mice, rats, roaches, etc. She never once yelled at her children when did had did something wrong. However, she did talk in a firm voice and the children knew she was not playing around. The children loved and respected her.

 

                         Observation at Hudde Junior High School

 

        On December 10th I had observed a six grade CTT literacy class. When I first came in the class, the students were sitting down quietly and preparing themselves for the lesson. The teacher started to do a homework check to see if the students started to did it and then she had went over it in order to make sure that they understood everything. Afterwards she proceeded on to the next part of her lesson which was reading a book called Carolyn. Apparently the children are behind because some of her students do not like to do their homework or read their books. Later on the teacher had shown me around her classroom and shown me what else she does with her students. She has a homework log with all of the work that students are suppose to complete each night and everyone knows where she keeps it. Even if a child is absent one day, she or he knows that they are responsible for making up that assignment they had missed. The teacher had plenty of the students work hung up on the wall. Due to the fact that this is a CTT class everyone is not assignment the same exact work. The teacher assigns work that the children with an IEP would understand at their level. It has to be something that wouldn’t take long to complete in a timely matter. When I was looking at the bulletin board, the teacher had shown me all of the students who had an IEP and they had done a fantastic job. Some of them scored as high as an 98.The teacher and her partner that also teaches in the classroom always stay in contact outside of class everyday either by the phone or via email to discuss the student progress, lesson plans and other things related to the class. Both of the teachers get along very real.

 

                     Observing the computer class

 

         Later on that morning I had observed another six grade class. This time it was a gifted class and they were doing computers. When I had first gotten to the room the class was line up outside the room in two straight lines between the boys and the girls. He did not let anyone in unless they were all quiet. After everyone had came inside the room, the students had went to go get their laptops and then to their assign seats. He had first went over the lesson from the previous day which was a excel project. The students had to create a certificate and something else on the Excel program. The teacher had just wanted to make sure that the students were up to date and not behind because they were suppose to print out their projects the very same day too. I did not see students getting out of line with the teacher. Everybody was doing what they were supposed to do. I did have a hard time trying to understand what he was teaching to the students, so the teacher had showed me a video of a man explaining how to operate the Excel program. After the video I understood the program not a 100 percent because I didn’t understand why he was using formula but I learned how to make things on there. If I had to figure out on my own how to create an award or a chart, I know exactly what steps I have to take in order to make this happen.

                        

                                    The Difference between the three classes

 

          Each of the three teachers that I had observed either had or did something which the other did not do or have. In the second grade CTT class the one thing that the teacher had in her room that the others did not was a bathroom. Due to the fact that she had one in her room, she does not have to send the students out. In most schools when the students send the child out to go to the bathroom or to run an errand some may come back in a timely matter and others may not. In some the child may not come back until the end of the period and that is a big problem. In this case this situation can be prevented because there is a bathroom in the classroom. The only time that she would have to send students out of the room is when an errand has to be made. Otherwise, there is no reason for them to leave the room. One thing that the teacher in the CTT English class that the other two teachers do not is assign students work based on the level that they are on. She does not just give out anything to the students and expect them to complete. Now if she did do something like that, then not too many of her children will end up with good grades which will not look good on her. However, whatever information she is teaching her children they have to gain as much as possible from it. The main point is that by the end of the year the students had to have learn grammar and punctuation, how to write essays, how to become better readers, writers, etc. As a result of her teaching this way the children can perform better in general as well as on the city and state wide exams. No if she decided not to go down this road then everything were suffer and we cannot have this at all. The one thing that the computer teacher has in his sixth grade gifted computer class is that all of his students are mixed. He has a mix of white students, African American, Spanish, Chinese, Russian and Pakistan. By having all of these different courses, everyone including the teacher can learn a lot such as the things that they do like the types of food that they eat, the language they speak, the clothes that they may wear, the religion and holidays they follow, etc. Not too often do we see a full mixed class with different types of cultures. Most of the classes in the community in the African American community are mostly black and a few mixed students. So I am happy that Hudde have classes with a lot of mixed students in them.

 

 

                            What the classes had in common.

 

          The one thing that all three of the classes had in common was that they were all neat and organized. The classrooms were also clean. The CTT teacher was organized in the sense that she had all of her lesson planned out for each period. For example, let say that she was teaching Math, English, Social Studies or Health on a certain day, all of the materials for that she would need in order to teach the lesson would be sorted out in separate piles. After she is done with one subject she will move on to the next one. The teacher would go to the pile that she had created and automatically jump into the next part of her lesson.  She is not the kind of person that would wait an hour before class is supposed to start and write a lesson plan. She is also not a messy individual. She even makes absolute sure that each and every one of her students are always neat with their school work and the inside of their desk is very organized as well. The sixth grade CTT teacher had has a homework log and a progress report for each student school. She had created a homework log for the entire year which is kept on the window cell. The students know exactly where it is and every time they are absent they must go in check the list. Not one student is excuse from any homework and/or reading assignments as well as project. Both this teacher and the first one I mentioned in additional hangs up decorations during each season and holiday. The computer instructor desk is always neat, the shelves where he keeps the laptops on are lined up straight in number order and everything inside of the closet is organized and easy to find. The number one thing that they are had in common is good classroom management. When they tell their students to be quiet, they listen to them the first time around. They never have to re peat themselves more than once. It a child was to get out of hand, they would not wait until later on to correct the boy or girl. They deal with them right away. If you do not deal with the problem right away the students will think that they could get away with whatever he or she had done the first time around and we never want that to happen.

 

                                         Conclusion

 

        In conclusion you had read all about the information regarding the schools that I had did my observation. You know where exactly the schools are located at, the teachers I had observed and a Caparison/Contrast between the teachers. I had mentioned what I had observed the students and teacher’s doing. I even discussed who teacher conduct’s his or her lesson when it comes to student’s work ability. I finally talked about the No yelling policy at the school and how it effected on everyone. If we had caring and a clam person in the education field, I think that this would be a lot different today.

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.