The purpose of this blog posting is for you to post your first field experience observation. Remember, you must complete the observation and post to this blog before Monday, Sept. 20th.
Post your dicussion about your first field experience observation here. Be sure to identify if this post is for the observation in 5-6 grade or 7-8 grade.
Adolescent Learner – Observation #1
ReplyDeleteGrade 5
I observed the fifth grade class over two days for two hours each day. I had the opportunity to observe the students as they interacted during a varying range of subjects and activities. On the first day the students enjoyed a lesson by Lakota Culture Teacher, Mr. Red Bird and that was followed by Mathematics Instruction. The second day covered Social Studies and Mathematics Instruction. The class is unusually large for the Theodore Jamerson Elementary School topping out at 24 students. There are two teachers who are team teaching the rather large group.
There is a balanced amount of girls and boys in the class. They have arranged seating due to the lack of space and the fact that one of their teachers was with the same group last school year and felt that arranging them would work best. I think that the lack of space in the classroom largely affects the daily goings on of the students. Because the class is crowded, this greatly affects the moods of the children and their attention spans. It is relatively easy for them to be distracted by others while in such close proximity. I have noticed that the teachers are proactive in doing their best to manage the students and their time to make for a better day. The students seem like their attitudes and actions are teetering on the line of “change.” Not quite teens and nearly no longer like children any more.
Because of the size and time constraints of the class, I am not sure that I was able to see as much of the social interaction that I would have liked. The teaching team was a wonder to observe and I have learned much from them and the children as well. Overall, it was a great opportunity to see education in action.
Adolescent Learner – Observation #2
Grade 6
I observed the sixth grade class last week. There were 8 students and that number would fluctuate as the students came and went to one-on-one instruction at the Reading Math and Computer Center. (RMC) I chose to break up the observation throughout one day. I was able to observe the students during Core Math, Core Reading, and Counseling subjects.
The students in this group were pretty easy going. The teacher expressed her satisfaction with their “work ethic and sunshine attitudes” as she put it. The students seemed to know each other and worked together very well.
Physiologically, there was a difference between this group and the fifth grade group. The students were more “clumsy” and gangly due to their center of gravity being heightened and the growth of their extremities. The young ladies seemed to be more “fashionable” than the fifth grade students. There was also an unspoken respect for personal space with this grade level. This was undoubtedly related to their “changing worlds”, I am sure.
***Interesting note: The young ladies finished the Language Arts work first with ease and the young men were the first to finish the Mathematics work…right down the line….Hmmm
This was an interesting class to observe. There was quite a contrast between this group and the fifth grade group. I am still convinced that the size of the student’s groups was a major factor in how they interacted.
Thanks for your reflections, Kara. In response to your "Interesting Note" - can you see why there may be theories about gender dominance in certain subject areas? There are always exceptions to the rule, of course, but you see that a lot!
ReplyDelete8th Grade
ReplyDeleteMy first observation was in Ms. Stevens’s classroom in the 8th grade. In the beginning of every morning they have Math Core. The 7th and 8th graders intermingle based on what level they are in Math between the two classrooms. There were only a couple of students who were the 8th grades who would respond if the teacher asked them questions. It seemed everyone was a little tired or in their own world. There was a boy who was caught playing with a laser pen. He was warned and was able to keep his laser pen. The teacher noticed how non energetic the class was so she had them stand up and do an activity with their fingers. I noticed how the students would look at each other to see if the other was doing the activity. There were a couple of students that stood up but didn’t do the finger thing. It was a girl and a boy. I observed them throughout the rest of the class period. They didn’t respond to any questions and never talked to anyone throughout the class. The one boy in particular was paying attention but never made eye contact with the teacher once.
I caught the end of the class working on English homework very quietly. It was all 8th graders this time. It was a very small group. What a total difference from the morning to the afternoon. The class was way more energetic. I would say no more than twelve in the class. There were more boys than girls in the class. After they were done with their homework they began Art class. As they were working I noticed they really interacted with their teacher on a personal level. She would tell stories and then each student would share stories. The boys would interact with the boys and the girls would interact with the girls.
The next day I got to observe Health class. The 7th and 8th graders take the class together. The health teacher played a movie on germs for everyone to watch. I noticed friendship was very important in this class. Everyone wanted to sit by their friends. The teacher was constantly reminding the girls to stop talking and they wouldn’t listen so she had to separate them. There were a couple of students who fell asleep and had their head on the table the whole time. They were constantly reminded to put their heads up but I think the teacher gave up and stopped asking them. Then towards the end of the class a group of boys were playing around with a table cloth and not watching the movie. The teacher asked them to stop they didn’t listen as well trying to be funny. Finally when the 8th grade teacher came over and asked them to stop they stopped. After Health class the 8th graders went back over to their side of the room for Science Class. Everyone cooperated for the most part and took turns reading. There was a boy and a girl who had their heads down. The one girl had to be tapped on the shoulder to wake her up. It was a quit interesting experience watching the 8th graders. I didn’t see anyone picking on each other. They seemed to respect one another and had a good connection with their teacher.
I observed Mrd. Bornemans 5th grade classroom. There were 17 students present, 9 girls and 8 boys. There almost wasn't a bare spot in the classroom. The walls were covered with the students work, which I thought was great because they get to show off their work/creations. There was numbers written in sioux above the white board, the colors were listed and also certain things around the classroom were listed in the sioux language, which is very helpful for the students in learning the language. I was able to observe during Math, Reading, Spelling, and Lunch time. The class was working on story problems in Math. There was one student that had his desk against the wall, away from the others. I am assuming it was because of his behavior. During this lesson the teacher would ask students questions and students would raise their hand and answer. The student against the wall would know every answer but blurt it out. I found this student quite interesting because he was playing with a pencil and eraser and making swooshing noises and different sound effects, like an airplane all the while listening to the teacher and answering! It was multi tasking at its best. There was another teacher in the room that would go by and kind of refocus him every once in awhile. I felt like I was learning right along with the students. I was working some of the story problems out and boy did I need that refresher course! Before my observation, one of my friends teased, "Are You Smarter Then A 5th Grader", like the game show. After doing some of their school work, I do not think I would take a chance on that game show without studying first! There was a few students that were having trouble with one story problem and the teacher changed the subject matter to something they could relate to. She made the story problem about cd's and sure enough the students caught on because it was something they could all relate to. For the whole lesson, the teacher used an Active Board. This thing was awesome. It was like a huge computer screen on the wall. It seemed very helpful. When the teacher wanted to put up a certain worksheet, she went to the computer in the back and downloaded it and it showed onthe screen in the front of the classroom. This seems way better the the ordinary over head projector. They never had anything cool like this when I was in school.
ReplyDeletecontinued...
ReplyDeleteThere was some students that left to go to Intervention, which is a time designated to just Reading and Math. A few students stayed and it was time for Reading. This was a smaller group of 6 students. One of the students was told by the teacher that they were going to be switching groups and another asked "Is he going to a lower group". Nobody answered but it was obvious that the students notice and maybe even label each other depending on what level of group they are in. The students read aloud and kept veering off subject a bit. One student went into a whole ghost story, that was really interesting. I was glad when the teacher let her finish because I wanted to hear the ending too! The teacher politely brought everyone back to the subject. Other students started to trickle in and reading came to an end. As soon as everyone was settled it was time for a spelling test. The teacher went through all the words and saved the repeats for last, to avoid chaos. One student needed more then two words repeated and only got one read back to them. He was quite mad and started mumbling something and the other students told him to settle down. That was quite interesting because I was kind of expecting his buddy to join him and maybe laugh, but he didn't. After the spelling test the classroom got a little loud and out of hand and the teacher wrote RECESS on the board. Anyone who didnt start listening and following directions would get their name on the board and they wouldnt get recess. This sure made the students listen.
Lunch time. The students walk over to the cafeteria, which is about 2 blocks away. The luchroom conversation was quite interesting. The girls talked about their clothes and what they were going to wear to the pow wow and who out of the group was dancing. Then, the lengthy debate began about Eclipse. There was one boy that was asking the girls who was team Edward and who was team Jacob. Some thought vampires were cooler then dogs. Others thought Edward was cooler because he was Indian. It ended up being a split decision. The boy cast his vote and said team Jacob because he has a 'wicked body'. That whole conversation was very entertaining but this is where my day ended and it was quite interesting.