Assignment #1-Physical Characteristics- Question 1: John S.

Park is a large brown building with baby blue

colored accents, like the doors and window frames. What really sticks out and makes the environment
look engaging are the arches that sit in the center of the building. The stands that hold up those arches
are actually metal figures in the shape of people. John S. Park is in quite an older neighborhood and it is
reflected in the building. For example, there are many portables that sit around the outside of the
school. Painted on the outside of the building is a small panther, their school mascot. There’s also an
older looking marquee sign that hold little messages for parents and outsiders.

Assignment #1-Physical Characteristics- Question 2: There is only one short video online that showcases
the interior of the building, and it is a video of a whiteboard within a classroom. What I can pull from the
video is that there is actually a Smartboard over the whiteboard, but the whiteboard also has
instructional material written on it. The floor within the classroom is a dark blue and there is a U.S. flag
hanging on the wall.

Assignment #1-Culture of the School- Question 1: When I first observe the data of Park E.S., it appears
that there is a lot of room for improvement in many areas, like ELA or math proficiency. However, after
looking back as far as 2016 and comparing the data to 2018, ELA proficiency has increased by over 10%,
and math proficiency increased by 4%. What’s interesting about this statistic is that the number of
students enrolled has stayed roughly the same each year.

Assignment #1-Culture of the School- Question 2: The majority of students at Park E.S. are Hispanic and
male. This translates over to a large population of students who are ELL’s.

Assignment #1-Culture of the School- Question 3: “The shared mission of John S. Park is to work with
our community. We strive to provide a positive, safe, rigorous, and respectful learning environment. We
work as a team to develop and empower all students to excel academically and become caring and
productive citizens in a demanding technological, and diverse world. Their mascot is the Panther and
their vision is “making John S. Park #1 for kids.” With all of this in mind, it is reasonable to say that Park
is striving to be the best education for all students and is aiming to keep students happy, healthy, and
challenged.

Assignment #1-Culture of the School- Question 4: John S. Park is a very historic school, and one piece of
their history is that the building actually used to be a set of army barracks. They also have many
interesting extracurricular activities, including Girls on the Run, Coding Club, Chess Club, and Computer
Club. Also, one of their many awards, the Pawsitively Panther Award, is something that shows a strong
sense of school pride. It is presented to a student who effectively exhibits the core value of the month.

Assignment #1-Culture of the School- Question 5: Three other pieces of information that can be found
on John S. Park’s website is that they hold family engagement events every month, the school
participates in the Reading Ranger Program, and the Park E.S. was originally started as a k-7 school.

Assignment #1-Culture of the Classroom- Question 1: The teacher expects that children are present,
engaged, and excited to learn and succeed. She praises students who ask to hear more, write more, and
read more. She always mentions how everything students learn really does help them grow.

Assignment #1-Culture of the Classroom- Question 2: Students are not afraid to ask the teacher
questions and point out when something is not working. Everyone loves to raise their hands and answer
questions. Based on their answers, it is obvious that these students are genuinely listening to the
material and the teacher’s input.

Assignment #1-Culture of the Classroom- Question 3: The teacher and students seem very close and
comfortable with each other. The students are very responsive to the teacher’s instructions or
directions. For example, if the teacher asks the students to pick up their pencils or give a thumbs up,
there is no hesitation whatsoever. The teacher appears to leave some room for students to be a little
more independent. Students are quick to give a lot of feedback and suggestions, and the teacher tends
to lean towards their wishes. The teacher’s personality includes a very calm demeanor with a lot of
positive reinforcement.

Assignment #1-Culture of the Classroom- Question 4: Inside of the class, students tend to build on the
questions or comments of each other. There is a chat feature students can use but the chat messages
are generally addressed to the teacher.

Assignment #2- Question 1: The virtual environment is very inviting. Students seem to be very
comfortable with each other, the teacher, and any guests like myself. The camera presenting the
teacher shows her face very clearly to the viewers, and likewise, students position themselves close to
the camera. They are not afraid to smile or laugh.

Assignment #2- Question 2: Though it is a small class, the majority of students are Hispanic and male.
The most apparent challenges include specific learning disabilities. Some material appears difficult for
individual students, whereas other concepts are handled with ease. There is also a student who appears
to be an English Language Learner, and another student with very severe speech difficulties.

Assignment #2- Question 3: The teacher uses school-wide rules as the foundation for her classroom.
These rules include “Be kind,” “Work hard,” and “Make good choices.”

Assignment #2- Question 4: The teacher does enforce these rules by always encouraging everyone to
not speak over each other and she will mute a students before they try to say something not so nice
about another student. She always encourages students to add more details to their work and she
brainstorms with them often to come up with solutions on how to make their work more detailed,.

Assignment #2- Question 5: The posted daily schedule is organized as follows:

8:55-9:00 Morning Ceremony

9:00-9:50 Specials

9:50-10:20 Math

10:20-10:50 Independent Math

10:50-11:15 Reading

11:15-12:00 Independent Reading

12:00-12:30 Lunch

12:30-1:00 Writing
1:00-1:30 Independent Writing

1:30-2:20 SEL Session

2:20-2:50 Zoom

2:50-3:25 Small Groups

Assignment #2- Question 6: I do see evidence of the school’s mission/vision statements, as Park
emphasizes building productive citizens in a very fast-paced world. What makes the environment follow
the school’s vision is how much technology is involved in the learning. For example, watching reading
videos and using Breakout Rooms in Google. In addition to this, the teacher focuses on making sure kids
are respectful to each other and the learning process of each other, which directly follows Park’s mission
statement.

Assignment #3- Question 1: The workflow of the online environment begins with a media presentation,
like a video, and then students answer questions about the video and proceed to a short assignment.
Sometimes the transitioning between those activities can be a little bit tedious, as students often feel
inclined to chat with each other or the teacher. However, this system works efficiently for the class
because the teacher uses every opportunity to elaborate on an assignment or concept.

Assignment #3- Question 2: In my opinion, the virtual environment can be improved by muting students
every so often. I say this because sometimes a student has a really pressing question, but no one can
hear because there is noise coming from the microphones of others. The teacher may also benefit from
hanging some learning materials on the background behind her. This would just help students
remember and recognize small facts and ideas within a lesson.

Assignment #4- Question 1: Instruction is delivered as a whole group, though the class only has a
handful of students. With that being said, this leaves more time for one-on-one attention. If a child
appears to be falling behind in a concept, the teacher will ask the student to explain what they know,
and then the teacher will briefly discuss other details and include other students.

Assignment #4- Question 2: The cooperating teacher’s teaching style is definitely establishing
comfortability, trust, and care. She leaves a lot of room in her questions for students to add any input of
their own. She is patient with answers and feedback, and is always precise in her responses. If a child
makes a comment that is unrelated to the material, she thanks them for sharing and pivots back to the
coursework. Students appear to be very satisfied with the attention they receive. It is a traditional
learning style with a focus on the feelings and emotions of students.

Assignment #4- Question 3: The teacher uses a handful of techniques to incorporate sensory modalities.
She does so by presenting a real-time video of her drawing, typing sentences on Google Docs, and asking
student to use the chat box or other outside websites, like Smarty Ants, to show their knowledge of a
topic. She also presents many interactive videos through Youtube and GoNoodle throughout her
lessons.

Assignment #4- Question 4: Students are engaged in the lessons the majority of the time, but drift off
every once in a while. To explain, in one lesson, the whole class was reading through a presentation
about bugs. If there was a small fact that was a little out of the ordinary, students would linger on that
fact and distract each other with comments or questions about that fact. However, students were also
more likely to remember pieces of the presentation very well because of how fascinated they were.
Other times, students appeared to be very focused and straightforward with their thinking. They would
focus their eyes on the screen, mutter information to themselves, and consistently ask questions about
what they are learning.

Assignment #4- Question 5: There are some students in the class who do not show their camera screens
or unmute to give their input during discussions. The teacher ensures that they are genuinely listening
by directly asking them to turn on their cameras for activities and presenting their finished handouts to
the class. She also messages parents for a little more help when a student seems unresponsive. This
group of students usually remain the same and are probably quite shy based on the interactions they
have with the teacher and their peers.

Assignment #4- Question 6: The teacher patiently waits for students to join the classroom lecture. When
a student is late, she briefs and reviews what everyone has learned up until that point. If a student
shows up on a completely different day, the teacher focuses her attention on the student and provides
one-on-one attention after class. Even if students are missing, the class keeps moving forward and the
children who are present receive the most individualized comments, discussions, and attention.

Assignment #4- Question 7: The teacher handles transition from subject to subject or activity to activity
by asking students about what they need help with, and she also quickly outlines what they will be
working on next. The only challenges that arise at this time are the off-topic questions or comments.
The transitions are efficient when students remain focused on the material.

Assignment #4- Question 8: The teacher really encourages students to grab her attention quietly. She
asks them to use a thumbs up, or one finger for yes and two fingers for no. if it looks like students are
drifting away from the lesson, she grabs their attention by asking everyone, “What are we doing?” The
techniques are effective because most students are really excited just because they feel challenged to
complete a task.

Assignment #4- Question 9: A specific behavior issue that I saw in a couple of students was laying down
while a lesson is in action. These students would often distract themselves with their surrounding or be
hesitant to take notes. The teacher would make sure to warn them about how crucial the lesson would
be for the future, and even message a parent if the student would not change their behavior. Another
common issue was speaking out of order or speaking over each other. When this occurs, the teacher
would exaggerate and praise the students who are patient and respectful.

Assignment #4- Question 10: For a few lessons, there are videos and outside sources that must be
opened on another tab. While this is happening, students tend to become more talkative amongst each
other. This means that more time is spent trying to calm everyone down and finally start learning. There
is also a lot of time that has to be set aside to show students how to navigate and access a specific
assignment.

Assignment #5- Question 1: I was driven to choose this student because they were having trouble
answering a question and began grabbing for random answers.

Assignment #5- Question 2: During the observation, the student was describing his opinion about bats.
He stated, “I think bats are chickens.”

Assignment #5- Question 3: The lesson given was about distinguishing fact from opinion. Everyone in the
class was sharing only their opinions about bats and creating a circle chart that held all of those
opinions.

Assignment #5- Question 4: The teacher told the student to, “focus your thoughts,” and proceeded to
ask if he liked or disliked bats. After she did that, she asked the student to explain why he gave that
answer, until he revealed that he found bats to be very scary. She then explain to the student why the
answer he gave was an opinion.

Assignment #5- Question 5: This student appears to need directions and questions explained to him one
step at a time and they need to be explained in a very slow an simple manner. This is necessary because
he has trouble focusing on the intent of a question. You can se this from his everyday classroom
behavior, as he is generally hesitant to speak or give input.

Assignment #6- Question 1: “I became a teacher because I wanted to provide for kids what school
provided for me. I spent the first half of my childhood in a very unstable environment. School was my
safe place and I wanted to provide that to kids.”

Assignment #6- Question 2: “The biggest challenge I face as a teacher is my health. I have an
autoimmune disease so it's hard for me to be around the kids. Most people build up their immune
system and then don’t get sick as often after the first year. That will never happen for me and I get really
sick every winter.”

Assignment #6- Question 3: “The best part about being a teacher is making a difference every day. You
change kids’ lives.”

Assignment #6- Question 4: “Because I teach in a school that has a higher percentage of students with
behavior “problems,” I always sit them based off behaviors first and then academics. I have to make
sure that the students I’m sitting in a group together don’t have a history of not getting along, (or in
some cases they don’t have any family feuds going on.) Then I have to think about clashing personalities
and if one student could potentially be triggered by another student. Then I have to consider which
students are my talkers. Then, after all that, I have to think about how the group will mesh academically.
I never seat students with only students at their same academic level. I always mix it up.”
Assignment #6- Question 5: “I look at what skill I plan on teaching and then build my groups around that
skill. Then, I can decide if students need re-teaching, guided practice, or if they are approaching/at
mastery and could benefit from an extension activity.”

Assignment #6- Question 6: “Well, right now obviously that is not happening but normally I interact with
parents every day. During afternoon pickup, I take that time to tell parents if their child had a great day.
I also will ask parents if they can stay after to talk if we had an issue that day. It is much harder to
interact in person with bussing students, since I never see their parents. I really rely on parent
conferences and after school events to interact with those parents.”

Assignment #6- Question 7: “Grading is my least favorite aspect of teaching. Physically grading the
papers in first grade isn’t a laborious process. However, entering everything into the grade book takes
time. Tracking who was absent and getting them to complete the assignment. Finding the time to help
the kiddos do the makeup work. At my school, we grade one assignment per subject per week. It
doesn’t seem like much...until you are doing it. It takes a lot of time especially when you have no time
during your contract time to actually do it.”

Assignment #6- Question 8: “I honestly don’t know exactly how much time I spend planning lessons. I
know we meet at least three days a week as a grade level, (usually 4), to plan. So 3-4 hours of grade
level planning, but we aren’t actually allowed to lesson plan during that time. We have to unwrap
standards, talk about how we will assess students, etc. After that I meet with a buddy from my grade
level during my prep period three times a week to actually plan out lessons. So, about 3 hours a week
for that. Then I spend about 2 hours per week actually typing and inputting my lessons online. When we
are teaching in person, I spend roughly 2 hours gathering materials, printing copies, and making
homework packets. So, I would say roughly 10 hours per week are needed to plan lessons for the week”

Assignment #6- Question 9: “I try to have all my materials ready ahead of time.”

Assignment #6- Question 10: “I love using class dojo! It is free and the kiddos love seeing their little
monsters. I also love using sticker charts. In the past I have tried clip charts and they personally do not
work for me. I am not against them and I know some people love them. I made the decision a few years
ago to only focus my attention on the kids who are doing what they are supposed to do. I stopped
worrying about giving consequences to the kids who are acting up. It took too much time and too much
energy. You will always have kids who will do something just to get a rise out of you. So, I give points to
the kids who are on task. I give points to the kids who are working, and I CONSTANTLY remind kids the
only way to earn points is to be doing what they are supposed to be doing.”

Assignment #6- Question 11: “Honestly, we don’t plan with the specialists very often. We do have
monthly student learning goal assessments that we administer to our students. The specialists also have
to do this and will often pair up with a grade level for that.”

Assignment #6- Question 12: “When you are first hired by the district, you have 3 formal observation
cycles. An observation cycle includes; a pre-evaluation conference, a pre observation conference, your
observation, and a post observation conference. Your second year you have 2 observation cycles. Your
third year and beyond you have one observation cycle. However, if you are struggling with showing your
effectiveness you will have more meetings with your admin.”
Assignment #6- Question 13: “If you are struggling with showing your effectiveness you will have more
meetings with your admin.”

Assignment #6- Question 14: “The amount of things we have to do that has literally nothing to do with
helping kids. Also, how many redundant tasks we have to do that, again, do not benefit children.”

Assignment #6- Question 15: “Standards drive lesson planning at my school. We have to meet to unwrap
the standards, go over data and talk about assessments. We use the Nevada Academic content
standards.”

Assignment #6- Question 16: N/A. They are NOT teaching at a Nevada Charter School.

Assignment #6- Question 17: “At my school we have a high ELL population, so I have made it a point to
make sure I am educated on how to teach them more effectively. I got my TESL endorsement, (Teaching
English as a Second Language), and I have taken professional development for teaching ELL kids. If you
ever get the chance to do the QTEL training I highly recommend! It’s a lot to take in but it’s very helpful!
We don’t technically have GATE students in first grade but you can always tell when you have
exceptionally bright kids. I always encourage them to do more work than the other kids, (if the
assignment is to write three sentences, when they come up and show me their work I say “Hey what if
you add _____ in here too?”) I also love to read chapter books with these kids during small groups.
When you have students with IEP’s, you have to always make sure you understand the accommodations
from their IEP’s and make sure they are having all of their needs met.”

Assignment #7- Summary: What I observed upon during the ten hour Field Observation was how much
information and knowledge a first-grader or child around the same ag range can absorb. I also was really
able to understand the idea that children want and love to learn. Learning is a fun challenge for them,
but they need sincere guidance to stay engaged and on task. I found that students need lessons that are
difficult, but not too difficult, and activities that are informative, but not too overbearing with
information. Based on the observation of my assigned teacher, I realized that a major part about the
lifestyle of a teacher is just striking the right balance between your content and how it can be presented
to students to maximize learning and excitement. Something that was a particular issue with my
assigned school was actually incidents of behavior. With that in mind, an idea that my partnering
teacher brought up was to simply focus on the strengths of every student so that they would feel happy
to take on a new challenge instead of acting out. It’s a small detail in the world of teaching, but based on
my personal experiences in school, I know that a group of students who are not so flexible with their
environment can spread their attitude to the whole class. Most importantly, what I really grabbed from
this experience was understanding that teaching is a beautiful, rewarding career, but managing a
classroom requires a level head and a lot of attention to detail. Whether that be attention to seating
arrangements, implementing technology into the classrooms, or making sure exceptional kids are given
every single opportunity to excel. I learned that teachers are important and everything they do needs to
be thoughtful.