Michelle Reyes

I.

II.

Observation
Setting
Grade
1st Grade

III.

Students
7 girls, 12 boys

IV.

Setting
LaMonte Annex
Ages 6-7, 19 Students, 1 Head teacher

V.

Pre-Observation
Before entering the classroom for my observation I found a book Teaching First Grade: A

Mentor Teacher Shares Insights, Strategies, and Lessons for Teaching Reading, Writing
and Math-and Laying the Foundation for Learning Success (Hong,2001,8) it gave me an
idea of how the classroom should be properly set up for a first grade class. It should be
spacious for the students. Everything should be accessible to the students, centers should
be clear to where they are.
VI.

Data

Michelle Reyes

Throughout the classroom Ms. Cella has all the work the students have created to remind them
what they have learned. By her desk she has the job chart where it lets them know what their job
is for the week. Everything in the classroom is accessible for the students. When setting up her
centers it is clear where they are and what the students need to do while they are in the centers.
The room is limited as long as the students are where they belong and for the most part they
always were. I was able to be on the side as she would talk to them so I would not be a
distraction to the students. When it was time for the morning meeting as they call it, they got
into a circle and that is where the space of the classroom was very limited I had to sit behind the
students, unlike Ms. Cella she was part of the circle. I was included but if it were another
students aside from her 19 she would not be apart of the circle anymore.
VII.
Analysis
Ms Cella has a decent size classroom but with 19 students I did notice it can get crowded. The
room is limited when the students are walking round the classroom. There are 4 tables each table
has at least 4 students. She has her area in a corner where she puts all her belongings and where
her desk is placed. Only time she is at her desk is when the students are not in the classroom.
You can not visibly see where the centers are only because the tables turn into the centers when
she places the activities on them. Each day she varies what the activity is in the centers but it
always matches to what she is teaching. For example this week was all about their spelling words
and endings of a word. They had to identify the letter that a word ended with and the words were
b or g. Aside from the centers not being visible from the beginning everything in the room is
clear.
VIII.
Recommendations
My recommendations would be to reorganize the tables. Only because for the red table on the far
left is too close to the carpet where they do circle time, and I have noticed that kids always bump
into it and i fear that they can get really hurt, shes always telling them not to lean on the chairs
and it is a waste of time. I am thinking if she were to turn the table like the green table she will
have bit more space to work with in the carpet because of the amount of students she has.
IX.
Post-Observation
Overall it is a good classroom for her and her students. With 19 students it is good, anymore it
will become too crowded when going around in the room. Her methods on how she tells
everyone to line up just quiet everyone done is effective. She goes by table so everyone is either
still sitting or at the location they need to be, so not everyone is running around in the classroom.
She does utilize the carpet a lot when she is trying to figure out where everyone is going to go.
Which is smart to do because she can see everyone that's there on that day. After leaving my
observation I was able to learn everyone's names and where they sat because I was able to
remember who sat at what table and with who.

Michelle Reyes

X.

Citations
Hong, M. (2001). Teaching First Grade: A Mentor Teacher Shares Insights, Strategies,
and Lessons for Teaching Reading, Writing and Math-and Laying the Foundation
for Learning Success. New York, NY: Scholastics Inc.