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Kate Rathfon

January 29, 2021

Student Teaching

Research on Context

For this project, I interviewed Tristan, a second grader in Coach Ross’s C&A program.

The one really interesting part of the class is that it is mixed with 1st and 2nd-grade students, and

she has each of her students for two years. As I interviewed Tristan over zoom, we talked about

how he enjoys skiing and has joined the snowbird ski team. On the weekends he spends most of

his time up on the hill skiing with his family and the team. We also talked about how much he

likes building a treehouse on Minecraft and liked playing online with other users. Right now, he

is going to youth city an after-school program so that he can be online for school. When we were

talking during our interview, he told me that it was really loud at the youth center and that he

didn’t want to talk right away because it was too loud. As we kept talking, he told me about how

he loves to spend time with his sister Kiera who is eleven. He said that he likes to ski and play

with his big sister. Along with this he also talked about how he loves science because you get to

watch videos and learn about new interesting things in the world. He said that he enjoys every

subject and doesn’t have one that he dislikes.

Along with this interview, I was able to talk with Tristan’s mom Kerry. As we talked, she

told me that he loves going skiing and having screen time to play mind craft and other parent-

approved games. She talked about he enjoys math and sciences. He has started to get good at

reading and at night before bed he asks for addition/subtraction problems to figure out on his

own. His mom also said that he loves recess and P.E. we also talked about how one of his
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greatest strengths is that he really wants to please his teachers. He will do anything for Miss

Renee and Coach Ross. He looks up to his teachers and wants to do well for them. Something

really interesting in informative to hear was that the online world/zoom, has been difficult for

him and he struggled and had a hard time enjoying school because he wasn’t able to be in class.

Now that he is at youth city he is coming home and telling mom and dad about what is going on

in school and what he’s learning. This is something that I want to take to heart as we go back

into the in-person classroom so that I can make it the most engaging and fun for him. Now that I

know all these new details about Tristan, I will work to incorporate his love for skiing, Science,

and more activities that are active and get him moving around the room. I will also incorporate

more videos for science that are interactive. Making sure to involve Tristan’s interests will get

him more involved and interesting in the subjects we are going over.
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Community Inquiry Activity

The current classroom environment is online with Wednesdays having small pods

coming in for an hour and a half. Most of the students are great online and listen when asked to

be a ‘3’, this just means being ready for school and not interrupting other students. When

students are talking online, they do a good job of yielding their time when other students are

speaking. All the students do a wonderful job of not talking out and they are pretty self-directed.

I think that the beauty of this class is that each student gets to be with the same teacher for two

years. This allows for huge growth to happen and be tracked. As I explained that many of her

students do so much better because they are in a class with students a year older than them, they

see how they act, and they follow suit. The class is very diverse with students from many

different economic and cultural backgrounds. We have students that have parents that are

doctors, stay at home moms and dads, and work for the health department. The school is very

diverse because of the different classrooms they have. There are students in the neighborhood

program, so they are from right around the school, and then there are students in the ELP

program which they have to test into. In the hallways, students are very respectful and because of

the Covid precautions that the school is taking, we have fewer students at the school right now.

In the classroom at school, the layout of the room is conducive to collaboration. The

students are going to be at five tables so that they can talk with their little pod. In each pod, there

will be two first graders and two-second graders. This allows the seconds to be helpers and guide

the first graders. I think this will give them more freedom instead of just being alone at their

desk. As you come to the back of the classroom there is a large area rug and the bulletin board
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with the information for the week is on it. There are also many bookshelves all around the

classroom making it easy for students to get access to a book they want to read. All around the

classroom, there are posters with the alphabet as well as the C&A moral rubric and the integrity

board. As a class, the students know that if they have done something that is not a “3” or “living

above the line” as Coach says then they will write their name on the board for that day and

maybe lose 1 minute of free time at the end of the day. I think that with the C&A principles the

students are self-directed and can acknowledge when their actions may not have been the right

choice. This creates a caring and open environment for all students.

Along with this, I drove around Hawthorne Elementary to see what the neighborhood

and surrounding area look like. The school is located right off 700 E, the neighborhood is nice

with many quiet streets where you can see basketball hoops and kids walking around. This area

is in a well-off neighborhood, very close to the heart of sugarhouse and only a short 5 blocks to

Liberty Park. As a drove around the neighborhood I noticed that one or two new apartment

buildings were being built in the area. This showed me that more people are wanting to move to

the area as well. One thing that I do want to make note of is that many of the students in my

1st/2nd-grade class do not live very close to the school. These students all applied to be in the

program so they can live in many different areas of Salt Lake. I think that at times this can sort of

divide the population of students because you have them coming from different neighborhoods. I

also think that it contributes to a more diverse community at Hawthorne Elementary and in

Coach Ross’s classroom. Along with this still see the community is quite close and I would work

hard to keep building those close relationships with students. Another important thing that will

influence future interactions with the students in the classroom is making the curriculum and the

lesson relevant to the students’ lives. Through my observation of the online classroom, the pod
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classroom, and the general environment around Hawthorne I can see a community that is

connected and focused on creating a caring and positive environment for all students.