Observation Notes: Weemes Elementary

Weemes Observation #1

            I observed in Ms. L’s second grade classroom and felt very welcomed.  When I walked in, all 20 students said in unison, “Good morning, Ms. Rutkin,” and had prepared a spot for me in the back of the room so that I could sit and take notes without distracting them.  The room was setup in a way that I found to be very conducive to learning because the teacher was able to get around easily and the students could all see everything they needed to from their seats.  The desks were in a large U shape towards the center of the room.  There was a big space in the middle of the rug for the students to sit in when they weren’t at their desks.  The U was facing the chalkboard and the teacher’s desk was in the back of the room, behind the U, which I thought was clever because she was able to see all her students and they knew she was watching them while they did silent work or anything where she wasn’t speaking to them from the front of the class.  Against the far left wall were a bookcase, another chalkboard, and a computer station with three computers.  In front of the second chalkboard was a table with headphones and books used as a reading center.  Against the far right wall was a sink and closets for the students’ belongings.  Each desk had the students’ name taped onto it so that the students had their own desk.  The walls were covered in different posters of the schedule, days of the week, numbers, alphabet, vocabulary, the writing process, math process, standards in kid friendly language, and many other things, including students’ work.  Ms. L is an older woman, so she doesn’t get up and walk around a lot in the classroom, but the class is set up in a way that she could if it was easier for her.

            Based on the way the room is set up, it looks like structure and organization are very important to Ms. L because there was nothing out of place in the room and all the rules and processes of learning were on the walls for all the students to see and be reminded of all the time.  I liked the way the room was set up because the teacher was able to see everything that was going on from her desk and the students were aware that she was there, but never knew if she was looking at them, so they were careful and didn’t risk getting in trouble by talking to their neighbor or doing something other than the assignment because they were never sure if she was watching them.  Also, by having the students come to her, Ms. L showed that she was in control.  However, if it were my classroom, I would probably monitor the class by walking around and making sure everyone was understanding their work and answering any questions they had instead of sitting at my desk.  It was hard to tell if the students were just having an easy time with the assignment of if they were scared or intimidated to come to her for help because no one got up with questions.

            The students really seemed to know their boundaries and limits with Ms. L because it seemed like she had them disciplined to be respectful of her and other adults at all times.  Whenever the students say something to her, they all add her name onto their question or answer.  For example, she asked the whole class a question about how they do things correctly in the classroom, saying, “Are we going to make a lot of noise on our way to the door?” and the class responded in unison with, “No, Ms. L.”  Also, when she took roll, students responded to their name by saying, “I’m here Ms. L.”  The students showed a lot of respect to her whenever she said something to them.  Ms. L is a very firm teacher, but not strict or mean.  The students know that she is serious about class time and they respect that by following her rules.  She was also very good with praise though and the students seemed thrilled every time she praised their work.

            One example of scaffolding that I saw during the observation was before the students started working on an assignment, Ms. L had written all the directions for that assignment on the board.  While she was preparing for the next lesson, she wanted to erase the previous directions so that she could write new ones so she asked by a show of hands if it was okay for her to erase the board.  All the students raised their hands to show that it was okay, so she proceeded to erase it.  After she erased the board, she asked students to repeat to her what the directions had been so that she made sure they didn’t forget, just because they were no longer on the board.  All the kids were able to repeat the previous instructions and Ms. L gave them a round of applause and praised them with, “I’m so proud of you guys, you are so grown up today.”  The kids were all thrilled to be getting this kind of praise from her and went back to their work quietly and were extremely obedient for the rest of that assignment.