Briana Torres-Chavez

December 1st, 2018

EDU 201 Fall 2018
Field Observation

Assignment #1:
1. The classroom environment is warm and welcoming to the students. The classroom
walls are full of the students’ work and educational posters with definitions or
inspirational quotes. There was two big whiteboards and a smart board on one of the
four walls.
2. There are a total of 21 students in Mrs.Palin’s 2nd grade class,12 females and 9 males.
The majority of the students are hispanic. The classroom had no students with physical
challenges.
3. There was a poster posted in the front of the classroom with the classroom rules. It was
located in the middle whiteboard, were it was visible to every student. The poster of rules
was signed by every student, meaning they agree to follow them.
Team 45
Essential Agreement
1. Do everything you can to help yourself and others learn.
2. Follow directions the first time they are given.
3. Ask permission to speak or leave your seat.
4. Respect personal space.
5. Be IB!

4. Mrs. Palin always enforces the posted rules of her classroom. Throughout the school
day you will hear her redirect improper behavior by asking the student, “ are you doing
everything you can to help yourself or others learn?” This is rule #1 in her classroom.
Mrs. Palin has a chart with pins, that have everyone’s name.Everyone starts in the
middle of the chart and depending on your behavior you either go up or down.The main
consequence for not following the rules would be moving their pin down. She rewards
students who follow directions with fun Fridays, which means that during the last 15
minutes of class on Fridays the students are allowed to choose what to do, for example
play games on the computer/tablet.

Assignment #2:
1. This classroom is kind of crowded. The room isn’t that big and there are 21 students
which means 21 desk, that take up most of the space. The space that’s left is for the
teachers desk and a few cabinets. There is a rug used for circle time which doesn’t
exactly fit, it slightly goes under some desk.
2. In order to improve the physical arrangement of the room I would say get rid of some
cabinets that aren’t needed. There are a few of cabinets that hold each of the students’
personal baskets. Those baskets hold students’ work or pencils that can be easily place
inside the students desk instead. I would also say to clean out most of these cabinets
 that hold papers that are just pushed in there. Am sure that if the cabinets were cleaned
once in a while there would be a lot of additional room that could be used for books or
supplies that are just laying out on the teacher’s work table.
Assignment #3:
1. There wasn’t a daily or weekly schedule for the subjects. Instead of having the time
every subject would be taught at, Mrs. Palin had the objectives next to the subject that
was going to be taught that day. She did have a specialist schedule of the week. Every
day the time for special would change, only Monday and Fridays would be the same. On
Wednesdays and Thursdays the students would have two specials instead of one. What
I found interesting was that spanish was a special for them to go to twice a week.
2. Instruction was always delivered to the class as a whole. She did usually repeat herself
twice just to make sure the students understood. Even if the students were to break up
into centers or small groups, she would give directions to the whole class and explain
each center.
3. Mrs.Palin used a lot of cooperative learning.
4. When Mrs. Palin introduces a new topic she usually gives a lecture about the topic,
which is how she incorporates the auditory learning style. With every lecture she gives,
she tries to have a powerpoint for those students that are visual learners. Especially
since they are second graders, she see’s having a visual very important, to keep them
interested or focused. She uses centers alot, where students work in small groups on
different activities. Not all but most of those activities are hands on, they either create
something or use the tablet. That would be an example of kinesthetic learning.
5. Although there are a few students who get distracted easily, the majority of the students
are engaged in the lessons that are being presented. All students usually participate,
something they all scream out the answer because of how engaged they are and all
want to answer.
6. There are no students isolated from the rest of the class. It seems like every students
gets along, there is no fighting of any kind. The majority of the students are kind and
help each other out.
7. Mrs. Palin uses a timer to handle transitions from subject to subject. She has very good
time management and gives all students warnings before making the transition. When
it’s time to transition she lets her students know what to do next, then haves them do it.
8. An effective attention getter Mrs. Palin uses would be “ class class” and the students
answer “yess yess.” At times where she can’t get their attention the first time, she says,
“classidy class” and the students answer, “yessidy yes.” Another effective command
would be “When the hush falls over the crowd” which indicates the students have to be
quiet because they are getting too loud.
9. Shouting out is a specific issue Mrs. Palin deals with on a daily. She handles this kind of
behavior by asking the student “are you doing everything you can to help yourself or
others learn?” Another issue the teacher deals with is having trash on the floor
frequently. This issue is handled by her telling the students “ This is our classroom, our
community, so everyone please contribute by picking up trash around your table.”
 10. A procedure that helps instructional time would be having the lesson plans specifically
down to everything she wants to do. What also helps instructional time would be a timer,
which really helps her manage her time properly.
Assignment #4:
Physical Characteristics:
1. This school looks like a very welcoming and friendly elementary school. The school
building itself doesn’t look new nor old. It looks just like any other elementary schools
expect for their big painting at the front of the school that states they are an IB school.
There parking lot is fairly small, it usually causes a lot of traffic, specially since the school
is right next to another elementary school and across from a middle school. It looks like
landscaping is done regularly, it keeps the school looking nice and neat. The school has
a big ground space and grass field for the students to run in or exercise in during
physical education or recess.
2. The interior of the school looks very well taken care off. You can see clean carpets
throughout the hallway and mopped floors in the cafeteria and bathrooms. There is a
quad inside the school made of windows. Inside there is a big shade with tables, trees,
and a big mural of the school’s mascot, a moose. The hall colors are naily kaki, with a
little of navy blue and dark green. The only school entrance that is opened would be the
front entrance to the office. You can’t leave the office and go into the school without
signing in and getting a visitors pass. Additionally, the staff in the front office have to
unlock the door for you to go in.
Culture of the School:
1. The Sandy Searles Miller Elementary School mission statement says that with the help
of parents or guardians, they will form knowledgeable young students who care and help
create a better world through intercultural understanding and respect. I wasn’t able to
find the motto in their school’s website. There school mascot is a Moose.
2. Staff and visitors interactions in the main office were all very kind and friendly. It seems
like the staff in the main office knows alot of parents. The faculty is very kind to the
students all well. They are very friendly and greet the students frequently with a high five
or smile.
3. Student-to-students interactions are usually done in the playground or the lunchroom,
only during a few occasions it is done inside the classroom. Most of them are kind and
respectful to each other, while others goof around a lot with each other, which is normal
because they are so young and all they want to do is play with each other.
4. The library is located in the middle of the school and is there for any student or teacher
to access when they need to. Students usually attend the library when they are
scheduled to throughout the week. There are four different pod and they are organized
to have a specific theme for that pod, which consist of 6 different classrooms and a
computer lab in the middle. Every pod has a different grade level classroom, so there is
a kindergarten - 5th grade class. There are also two girls and boys bathroom located
inside on each side of the school.
5. An awards ceremony is done once every quarter. They are presented with perfect
attendance, straight A’s or A/B honor roll, as well as student of the month. A school
 tradition they have would be the ornament party they do every December. The school
sells ornaments for students to buy and they decorate them while drinking hot chocolate.
Another tradition they have started this year is movie night.

Culture of the Classroom:

1. The teacher's expectation for learning and success goes strictly with the ones the school
has as an IB school. She expects them to learn effectively every Unit of Inquiry that is
presented to them.
2. All the students from the class usually participate. It’s is rare that have no participation,
everyone wants to be part and answer the questions. That’s why there is a lot of
shouting out, because everyone is so anxious and wants to say the answer.
3. The teacher and student interactions are always very friendly and professional. Mrs.Palin
answers all questions when asked by the students and doesn’t mind repeating herself if
the students need it. She lets the students know she is there for them for whenever they
need it. She does let them know though that before they ask her, they need to ask three
of their classmates, and if they still can’t find the answer, then they can ask her.
Assignment #5:
1. The primary reason Mrs. Palin became a teacher was because she had a very influential
first grade teacher, that made a very big impact in her life. Mrs. Palin wanted to be able
to teach others the way her first grade teacher taught her. She stated, “there is nothing
like seeing a student understand the concept that you’re teaching and smile, and just be
so excited about their new understanding.”
2. The main challenge Mrs. Palin faces as a teacher is time management. She states “ I am
usually here on the weekends and trying to manage home life and teacher life and just
making sure you get everything done and meet the needs of every child every single
day.”
3. “Seeing those smiling faces in the morning and seeing every student grow educationally
and maturity wise and how they learn to be more of a citizen to the community is the
best part of being a teacher”,Mrs. Palin states.
4. Mrs. Palin determines where students sit by using Kagan’s structure. She has her
students sitting high medium, low medium, and medium high. In each table there is a
variety of levels so they can each benefit from each other.
5. Mrs. Palin tries to select flexible groups randomly unless it’s for reading or math so
everyone has a chance to learn from each other.
6. Parent interactions are done in person at “meet the teacher night” and at “student led
conference.” Mrs. Palin communicates with them when there are field trips or after
school when they pick up their child.
7. Mrs. Palin states, “teachers are required to put in two grades per subject per week.”
8. Mrs. Palin front loaded this summer alot and did her 12 weeks of lesson planning so
during those first 12 weeks she wasn’t stressing. She said, “it usually takes a couple of
hours.”
 9. In order to maximize instructional time, Mrs. Palin really tries to go by the first rule, which
is “ do everything you can to help yourself or others learn.” She also has her lesson
plans down specifically to what she is going to do. She also mentioned how she uses
timers to have good time management.
10. The positive reinforcements Mrs. Palin uses successfully would be giving positive
feedback and observing every student individually. She stated, “for consequences I have
the IB clip chart, where you either clip up for good behavior or clip down because of
negative behavior.”
11. Mrs. Palin stated, “We coordinate with the specialist to let them know what our Units of
Inquiry are so if they can incorporate something into their lesson that connects to our
lesson on Inquiry.”
12. Mrs. Palin is evaluated once formally and twice informally where they are evaluated by
the NEPF.
13. Additional observations are required if your evaluation is not favorable to make sure the
standards you aren’t meeting are being met.
14. Mrs. Palin states, “ The time spent preparing and making sure everything is ready and
one of the things is trying to juggle the differentiation in the classroom, I think has
surprised me the most.”
Assignment #6:
The name of the student I observed is Joseph. He is a very impatient student that
constantly has to be redirected. It’s very hard for him to stay sitting down for a long time. Most of
the time he is asked to sit down and do his work.The second day I went to observe, Mrs. Palin
told him, “You have to reflect on your actions, because that’s what IB students do, reflect. I’ve
asked you multiple times today, move your clip.” He has a very hard time finding his
assignments as well because he never knows where he leaves them. One of the direct
instructions that was given to the class was to take out their “What is Biodiversity” packet which
they keep inside the personal buckets they have. The whole class was told once but he was told
more than once. When he finally grabbed his bucket and started looking for the paper he got
distracted and started looking for his pencil. By that point Mrs. Palin probably was tired of him
not following directions and told him, “Get out a piece of paper because you are about to write a
reflection on why you can’t follow directions.”
Assignment #7:
I honestly enjoyed my 10 hours of observation. I had a very good experience and learned new
things. My cooperating teacher was really caring and kind but strict at the same time. It really
helped me see how to gain respect from the students and how to have fun with them too. What I
really liked was how she had very good time management. She would always get through
everything in her lesson plan. I learned it’s important to know how to redirect students when
they are off task or distracted. I learned that it is important to refer back to the rules when the
students aren’t behaving properly. Something that impressed me the most was how Mrs. Palin
would talk to the students like if they were adults. She would use bigger words that they would
understand since they are an IB school. I did notice a couple times how as a teacher you can
get a little impatient but how it's important to take a second to breath. I will definitely remember
to always refer back to my class rules in the future, when I become a teacher.