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Karla Castro

Professor Sidney

ECE 251 – 2001

15 March 2020

Powerful Interaction Observation

Date: March 3, 2020

School: Creative Kids Learning Center

Teacher: Ms. Mary-Lou

Age of Child: 3 years old

Time: 3:05pm-3:25pm

Setting: Three-year-old early pre-k classroom during center time for the students. Teacher to

student ratio is 1:11. Child was a three-year-old girl, seems very shy may be the ‘invisible child’

of the classroom. Child was in the corner of the room and chewing on her finger when I walked

in. She was not playing at any of the centers and teacher was with other children but making

rotations around the room.

Interaction:

* - indicates action, dialogue in “quotations”

S: *Stood in corner of room alone, chewing on finger, stands alone for about 10 minutes*

T: *Playing with other students on carpet*

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“[Child’s name] come to a center”

*Took child by hand gently and walked her around each center to see what she would like to

play with*

*Sat with child at a table center and began to play with building blocks with the child

“What did you build [child’s name]?”

S: *Doesn’t not respond*

T: “Is it a castle? It looks like it with the door and the shape.”

S: *child shakes head yes*

T: “You also put the prince and princess inside the castle that you made; do they live there? Is

that their home?”

S: *Student shakes head yes and quietly says “This is where they live, in this big castle.”

T: Teacher plays with student a little while longer then beings walking around to be active with

other students as well

PI Characteristics: While Ms. Mary-Lou was talking with the child, she was being present with

the child. According to page six in Powerful Interactions, it says that the first step of turning an

everyday interaction into a powerful interaction is to “Be Present.” The teacher in this

observation was able to be present when interacting with the child. She was talking to just the

one child and had gave the child her attention to know that she was focused on her. Step two on

page six was to “Connect.” Ms. Mary-Lou connected with the child by being present, she

establishes that the relationship was there and made the child feel more confident and focused.

After connecting, the child even said a sentence back to the teacher and started to play with other
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children with the blocks. The teacher also did step three on page seven, which is “Extended

Learning.” The teacher began to ask the student questions and made the student think more about

what she built and why it was what she built (a castle, the prince and princess were inside).

Improvement: Although the interaction, when it did happen, was quite successful and it was

powerful interaction, I think that it could have happened sooner. As I walked into the classroom I

saw that the child was already in the corner, I’m not sure what happened before I came in, if she

was at a center and then she just moved to the corner, or if she’s been in the corner the entire

center time. When I began my observation, I timed that the student was standing alone doing

nothing for 10 minutes, again not sure if more time before I came in. I’d improve that the teacher

looks around the classroom more to see each student is alright before going to the next child.

This is because once the child was called the teacher and began playing, she played for the rest

of center time, if it would have happened early, she could have been more comfortable and

played more during the center time.