Running head: FIELD OBSERVATION 1

Field Observation

Maria Perez

College of Southern Nevada

Professor Christensen

Education 201-2002

7 December, 2017
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Field Observation

Assignment 1 (Observation)

When I first entered the classroom I felt very welcomed. All the students received me in

the class and welcomed me as Mrs. Perez which meant a lot to me to know that they saw me as a

teacher. I felt a bit out of place too due to being used to being a student and now the students

view me as teacher and have respect for me too. The class is well organized, my assigned teacher

Mrs. Wright has the class organized so that the students can move around easily and get toward

their designated place for group activities.

From my observation the majority of the student’s ethnicity are Hispanic. Mrs. Wright

has a morning class of 20 students and an afternoon class which is made up of around 18 to 19

students. Mrs. Wright has a designated teacher who she switches of her students with, and the

teacher she switches of her students with focuses more on reading and writing skills while the

Mrs. Wright focus on math and social studies. There are no ELL students or student with

physical challenges in the classroom.

Yes there are posted rules about being a good leader. A good leader is: helpful, responsible,

kind, a rule follower, a listener, careful. Does follow the rules: help people, kind things, help

others, respectful. Says good things: compliments, kind words, “excuse me”, “you are welcome”,

“please”, and “thank you”

Is not: bossy, a bully, disrespectful, mean, rude

Mrs. Wright would always refer back to the rules the students had worked on being a

good leader. It was a form of her getting her students to remember the rules they had come up

with and to make sure they were following them. the consequences that student can have from

misbehaving it that Mrs. Wright will give them warnings, and if the student continues the
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misbehavior she will have a serious talk with the student apart from the class for that it is only

between her and the student. Apart from having the posted rules of being a good leader Mrs.

Wright also created a rule that if all her students make it to the bathroom and finish in 5 minutes

they win class points. After the students have won 20 points the students get to all win a price.

Students go in groups of three, and while she is waiting for all her students to finish she is also

quizzing her students with multiplication flash cards.

Assignment #2 (Classroom Layout)

The workflow of the room is spacious enough for the students to move around. The space in the

class room is used efficiently so Mrs. Wright can get to all of her students. The class room is a bit

smaller compared to other classes but the amount of students in the class works well with

everyone getting to the places they need to be.

I think that the physical arrangement of the class is already well developed because since the

class is of 20 students plus Mrs. Wright there is just enough space for all the students and Mrs.

wright to work with. Mr. Wright is able to get to every

Assignment #3 (Instruction)

The posted daily schedule for different subjects and activities is

7:30-7:45 is breakfast, 7:50-8:40 specials, 8:45-9:20 math and round 1 math centers, 9:20

interventions/enrich, 9:50-10:30 round 2 math centers, 10:30-11:10 lunch and recess, 11:10-

11:20 language, 11:20-11:45 science/ health/ social studies, 11:45-11:50 bathroom break/

transition to P.M., 11:50-12:25 intervention/Enrich., 12:25-12:45 math, 12:45-1:35 math centers,

1:35-1:45 , 1:45-2:15 cleaning up/packing up

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Instructions are delivered as the whole class. In case some students have questions Mrs. Wright

can address those question to the entire class. When it comes to working in small groups Mrs.

Wright will also address their questions just with the small groups in case they are doing a group

project and they can have their own privacy as a group.

Mrs. Wrights teaching style is to make students know they are capable that they can all

learn and work at a higher level than the students think they can work at. For example when it

comes to math she gives each student a packets on the one times table and once they have

completed it they are quizzed and if they pass they move to the next packet on the two times

table. She makes sure that no students ever says they cannot do something and if they believe

they can’t she makes sure to go over what each student’s struggles on. In the beginning of the

school year she tested each student to know they level of literacy that the class is at. She also

have a poster in which she keeps track of the class’s progress. The graph on the poster shows red

from when the students tested, and Mrs. Wright makes sure that her students know they are at red

but need to keep moving toward green. She makes students aware of their weaknesses in order to

strengthen her students’ abilities in pushing them to understand they can do better and work

towards getting better. She also makes sure to talk with each student about their progress and

show them their progression.

When it comes to Mrs. Wright presenting her lesson plans the students are always

engaged and wanting to ask questions about what they are learning. For example Mrs. Wright

had put her students to work on a science project to create an invention that would help people

who drive in the floods stop from getting stuck in flood or taken away. They students were very

engaged in the lesson and had so many things to say and come up with. The students would also
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talk about their own personal experiences which made the lesson even more engaging. When it

comes to other subjects such as math students are always raising their hands up to answer Mrs.

Wrights questions.

From my observation there were no students isolated from the class every students

participated in the class. There two or three students that are a bit shy but they are always

involved in group presentations or group discussions.

The transitions for Mrs. Wright happen very quickly she sometimes loses track of time

and spends 10 or 5 more minutes on math and then mores to another subject. Since her schedule

is very specific and she has to switch classes with the morning class to her afternoon class the

transitions can be difficult. She runs out of time with teaching one subject when all of a sudden

she needs to switch to another.

The way Mrs. Wright gets the classes attention is by counting from 5 to 1 or staying quiet

until the class stops talking. The attention grabbers are effective toward her 3rd grade class since

then are old enough to understand that the teacher is going to talk and they need to listen. The

class always quiets down when told 5, 4,3,2,1 they right away stay quiet and stop talking.

The behavior issues that Mrs. Wright needs to deal with often from what I observed is making

sure that two of her students are not of guard with their classwork. A student in the morning class

tend to talk a lot with her classmates and not follow the rules that are being told. The morning

student does listen when Mrs. Wright talks to her about her behavior. The afternoon student does

cause Mrs. Wright more of a behavior problems because even when Mrs. wright has talked to

him and given him warning he will continue to mess around with class materials and not do his

class work. In this situation Mrs. Wright talks to him outside of class and makes sure to handle

the situation in a stern manner so the student understands he needs to be doing his work, and not
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distracting others or playing with class materials. If students continue to disrupt to class or their

learn that is when Mrs. Wright decided to have a meeting with parents on their child behavior to

understand why they have been acting that way in class.

Assignment #4 (culture)

Physical Characteristics

The schools building is in a neighborhood it has fencing all over the school to make sure

no one enter the school. The only way to enter the school during the time class is in session is

through the main office that is located right in front of the school. The only time the gates are

open is when classes are about to be dismissed. There are two play grounds and a soccer field

where students can go out and play. The school is has to buildings the main school building is

dark blue and the other building that is like a light brown is where P.E. takes place in. The main

school building is two story high and there is an elevator for any student or teacher who cannot

use the stairs. The parking lot of the school is restricted to the public because it makes it hard for

teachers to park and for bus drivers to get toward the front of the school. There are three

crosswalks where the students can pass through. There is one in the middle of the front of the

school toward the neighborhood. Another one located toward where there are more cars passing,

and the last one where students can walk to their homes. There is a symbol by the school that

tells drivers to be precautions of pedestrians walking, and it indicates it is a school zone.

The inside of the school is decorated with tigers and paintings of flowers and students of

many colors surrounding the world. When heading into the main office apart from the double

doors I entered there are another set of double doors that lead into the actual classrooms but they

cannot be opened unless one of the front office ladies opens it through their own security lock.

The hall colors are light beige and the flooring is carpet. The inside of the school is very
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welcoming with creative drawing all over the school and student achievement recognition also

being posted around the school.

Culture of the School

The mascot of the school is an orange black striped tiger. The motto is to be “top tigers”.

The mission of Tom Williams Elementary School is to effectively achieve high social and

academic standards through a partnership of students, parents, staff, and community.

The staff is very attentive to their visitors and parents that come to the school. There are

front office secretaries that are bilingual and can talk to parents who speak in Spanish since the

majority of the schools population is Hispanic. The secretaries are very nice and welcoming to

their visitors and they help in anything whether its paper work or a simple question being asked.

From my observation the staff and teachers are always paying attention to all the students. I was

able to observe lunch time and how the staff that servers the lunch are always helping their

students with their lunch trays. I also saw that there were students pushing each other but Mrs.

Wright saw the behavior between the students, and right away made sure the students knew not

to push each other or they could end up hurting themselves or other people.

From my observation there are some students that form their own groups when it comes

to recces time. Students socialize during recess because from my observation students cannot

really talk during lunch time unless the whisper to each other. Students do not really socialize in

the hall because most students know they cannot talk while other classes are in session.

The school is organized by the different grade levels. The second, third, fourth, and fifth

grade level students are in the top floor while the first, kindergarten, and pre kinder students are

in the bottom floor. They separate the students due to safety reasons and organizing the levels in
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different sections. There are different rooms for art, the library, P.E., and music class. there are

also signs that tell students not do enter and are only for staff members.

When entering the doors that lead into the classes there is a trophy case to the right of the

school’s soccer players from over the years. They have trophies of winning against other schools

and recognizing student efforts. Such as the student that has read the most which is part of the

Library.

Culture of the classroom

The majority of class participates during lesson plans. The students I have notice that do

not participate are students who are shy or second guess their answers.

I observed that Mrs. Wright is strict on her student simply because she also wants

students to always be on task with their class work. Students do very much respect Mrs. Wright

and get to joke around with her but that also understand she is their teacher. Mrs. Wright

personality fits very well with her profession she can joke around and understand the challenges

that students have. Apart from that she takes her job very seriously and she wants to see all her

students succeed and make sure she did the best she could to help them succeed.

Assignment #5 (Cooperating Teacher interview)

1. Mrs. Wright had already knew she wanted to become a history teacher in high school but

soon she decided she wanted to become an elementary school teacher.

2. The challenges Mrs. Wright faces are parents not being involved enough in their child’s

education. Working in rough part of the area. Making sure that every student understands

what they are learning.

3. Seeing students’ knowledge grow.

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4. Mrs. Wright said that she determines the seating arrangement depending on the behavior

of the students that talk a lot with their seating partners.

5. Mrs. Wright makes sure to not group students who she knows will no work and only be

distracted during class. She makes close observation of her students friends.

6. Mrs. Wright interacts with parents during teacher and parent conferences, and open

house. She is also able to receive email and text messages from parents when students are

not able to go to school, or family emergencies and the messages. She often interact with

parents to remind them of a school event happening or something involving the class.

7. Mrs. Wright is always grading papers whenever she can.

8. It takes Mrs. Wright 3 days to come up with lesson plans for the week staring from Friday

till Sunday.

9. She tries to work out her class schedule eve if it means skipping a subject for the day or

having less time of a specific subject.

10. Positive enforcements Mrs. Wright has done is making sure all students behave well

otherwise the class loses points toward their prices. The effective consequences that are

effect for her age group is calling their parents if needed and if one student misbehaves

then everyone suffers the consequences. It is effective because it get the classmates to

understand they are all in the class together and should help one another.

11. Specialist are not really involved in the instructional planning. Specialist often decide to

do their own specific lesson with students.

12. She is evaluated twice a month or once a month.

13. Talk with the Principle or vice principle on how to better prepare.

14. Teaching is never easy, always coming up with ways to do better.

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Assignment #6 (observing a student)

While Mrs. Wright was giving direct instruction I observed a student called Elizabeth.

I observed that the student at the beginning of the lesson paid attention the lesson on finding

the area of squares. Soon she started to become a bit distracted with her hair accessories she

was wearing. She kept trying to talk to her partner during the instructions but Mrs. Wright

would have to stop and ask her to not talk while she is talking. She apologized for her

misbehavior and paid attention. Elizabeth decided then to play around with her pencil. The

lesson that was being given was on the area of a large square, and knowing how to cut the

squares into smaller squares to fine the areas of each square and then add the area of all the

squares to fine the entire shape. Elizabeth did ask about why they had to learn to find the area

of the square. Mrs. Wright told her that most of the third grade classes thought the math was

too hard so they were going to demonstrate that the class can learn to fine the area of a

square. What I discovered the student’s learning style is that she is always wanting to know

why she has to learn specific lessons. She is a very active learner and learns through actually

putting what she learned into effect. I also observed that she is always looking at everything

happening around her and telling Mrs. Wright about what her classmates are doing and trying

to get Mrs. Wright’s attention.

Assignment #7 (summary)

The 10 hour field observation helped me understand how its way different in

preparing to become a teacher and actually putting into effect everything that I learn towards

actually teaching a class. I learned to be a teacher I have to have a lot of dedication and

devotion toward wanting to teach children. The students futures depend on how well of a

teacher I can be and being a suitable teacher to help each student. I realized that Mrs. Wright
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even goes through her own difficult times as a teacher but she keeps on being motivated to

teach because she loves her job. It made me realized that in order to committee to being a

teacher I have to truly want to become a teacher. Planning for a lesson takes time and

preparing the school materials, planning out how to teach the lesson so that each student

understands. As a teacher I also understood that while I’m in charge of the student they are

my responsibility to make sure they are safe. This observation has prepared me to understand

that students learn at different levels and some students are ahead of other, but I have to make

sure that no student is left behind. The observation relates classroom management and how

Mrs. Wright manages her own classroom. The specific ideas I will remember to include will

be managing my classroom in an effective way for all students to learn and behave well.