Kate Rathfon

Community Inquiry Activity and Analysis

Classroom environment
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
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.

The Surrounding community

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

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.