CSN Education Department - Alternative Field Observation Activities Packet

Greetings Future Educator,

One of the most rewarding aspects of EDU 201, 202, or 203 is the opportunity you’ll have to
observe in a school classroom where students are actively engaged in learning. Each of these
three CSN courses require students to complete a 10 hour "Field Observation" in a Clark
County public school. If CDC Guidelines for Covid-19 prevent you from physically attending a
school campus during the current semester, this packet will offer the alternative experiences
required to satisfy your “Field Observation” requirements for this class virtually.

If possible, to pair you with a cooperating CCSD teacher, your placement will be processed by
CSN’s observation coordinator, and you will receive details regarding your assigned school from
your CSN professor. Only then, will you contact the school and meet virtually with your assigned
CCSD “cooperating teacher”. Both you and your cooperating teacher will design a mutually
agreeable schedule to complete your required contact hours once you meet for the first time.

Within this packet, you will find the required field experience assignments that you must
complete in order to pass this class.

Your Name: Monica Ayala

CSN Course: EDU 201

Professor: Olivia Grant

Professor’s email:

CCSD School: Vegas Verdes

Cooperating Teacher: Brianna Tratos

DEPARTMENT OF TEACHER EDUCATION FIELD EXPERIENCE GUIDELINES

Standards of Conduct
You are student representatives of the CSN Education Department and the teaching profession.
Candidates are expected to maintain high standards of personal and professional ethics.

Attendance and Punctuality

Regular attendance and punctuality are mandatory. Once you determine a schedule with your
cooperating teacher, this becomes an agreement in which you are expected to adhere to. You
are expected to login and log-off to virtual meetings at the scheduled time. In case of illness or
emergency that would prevent you from joining a scheduled class virtually, you must contact the
cooperating teacher a minimum of 3 days in advance to let them know you will not be in
attendance on that day.

Relationships
You should exercise respectful discretion when voicing your personal views. It is important that
your demeanor and opinions remain confidential. Under no circumstances can information
about any students be released to, or discussed with, any unauthorized person. It is forbidden to
have any contact with students outside of the classroom you are assigned. This restriction
includes CSN students contacting CCSD students in person, through any electronic means, or
through the use of social media.

Dress Code
CSN Department of Education wants you to be a success. Therefore, we have adopted the
CCSD dress code for students fulfilling their observation requirement in the assigned school
district. Appearance creates credibility; make a good first impression by dressing professionally,
even when meeting virtually.

Required Acceptable Attire: Males:

• Shirts with collars
• Ties (optional) with button down shirts
• Khakis, trousers, slacks; belts if pants have loops, (no sagging, rips or tears)
• Simple jewelry
• Shoes and socks that cover the toes and heels
Required Acceptable Attire:Females:
• Shirts or blouses that cover the shoulders & waist; no see-through or mesh
• Sweaters worn over shirt
• Pants, pantsuits, khakis, trousers, slacks (no sagging, rips or tears)
• Jumpers, dresses, skirts (in length from 2" above the knee to the ankle)
• Shoes and socks that cover the toes and heels
• Leggings worn under dresses/skirts/jumpers
• Simple jewelry or none
• Little (daytime) make-up
Not Acceptable Attire: jeans, shorts, tank tops, halter tops, muscle T-shirts, tight fitting
clothing, warm-ups, sandals, flip flops, stilettos; no cleavage showing, no sagging or frayed
hems; no head covering except for religious reasons, such as a yarmulke or turban-like. No
nontraditional hair colors/styles. Undergarments and tattoos should be covered. Remove facial
jewelry. *School principal/supervisor has the sole discretion on questionable clothing or
appearance that distracts from student learning.

Classroom Conduct: At all times, the cooperating teacher maintains legal responsibility for
pupils in his or her classroom. You should never assume that responsibility and be left
unsupervised with children. You should not discipline students. You are an observer, who
should take notes to discuss during your next education class meeting, or to record in your Field
Observation packet.

Professional Conduct:
Never speak to staff or students in an abusive manner.
Never touch or be alone with a student for any reason.
Never give a student food, drink, or other items without the teacher’s permission.
Never take photos/video of students or staff without written permission from the principal.
Never make or accept calls/text using any communication device while at the school.

CCSD WAIVERS
Review the terms of the CCSD Waiver Forms provided by your instructor.
“Student Statement of Responsibility” (Exhibit B)
“Student Confidentiality Statement” (Exhibit C)

These 2 waiver documents MUST be agreed to in order to secure your observation placement.
While submitting your Field Observation Request, you will be prompted to check that you have
read the waivers and that you agree to the terms. Completion of the CSN Field Observation is a
PASS/FAIL component of the course.

ONCE YOU ARE ASSIGNED A COOPERATING TEACHER WHO IS DISTANCE LEARNING

1. Pre-plan for initial contact with the school you are assigned and make sure that all interaction
with CCSD employees and students is respectful, courteous, and professional. You are a
representative of this class and the college. CCSD is allowing you to observe their teachers to
further your understanding of the teaching profession. It is imperative that your actions reflect a
willingness to learn, and are reflective of a future professional educator. The school will select a
teacher for you to observe and provide you with their contact information.

2. The first half of your field observation/experience will be centered around learning
background information about the school you were assigned, and focusing on the general and
unique characteristics of its culture. You will be looking at, and reflecting upon things that are
going on in the virtual classroom at the school level that you were assigned. You are simply
observing during this time. Your cooperating teacher may give you guidance on how your
experience can be expanded beyond simple observations, if he/she feels comfortable with your
professionalism and skills.

3. Contact your Cooperating Teacher to introduce yourself. Since this is your first contact, ask
the teacher for the necessary information to access their virtual classroom, and when the live
sessions occur that they would prefer you to join. Share this “Field Observation Activities
Packet”, with your cooperating teacher as well as the last 3 pages which contain the
“Cooperating Teacher Information”, the “Time Log” and the “Field Observation Student
Evaluation”. Let the teacher know that you will be taking notes during the observation for your
packet assignments, that you will be asking them to verify your hours of attendance, and
evaluate your participation once the total observation hours are complete.

4. When logging in with your cooperating teacher and their students during a virtual meeting, it
is recommended that you keep both your microphone and video camera OFF during the
observation, unless the cooperating teacher directs you to speak or be seen while observing. In
that case, make sure your home workspace is void of background distractions, or anything in
view that may be considered inappropriate for students to see. Your online attire should be the
same as if you were visiting the school in person. Employ the use of typical lighting and image
framing to make the most of your broadcast. The typical “Rule of Thirds” works well, whereby
the camera height is adjusted so that your eyes are positioned in the top third of the window.
Front lit subjects look better on screen than being backlit by a window or artificial light.

THE FIELD OBSERVATION PACKET ASSIGNMENT DIRECTIONS

Read through all the assignments and take notes during your observation visits. You will gather
information on more than one assignment during an observation. Then, using your notes
answer the questions for each assignment.

• All assignments must be word processed. Your detailed responses to assignment questions
must demonstrate careful analysis of the questions and the observation information.

• Questions and their responses must include thorough explanations and examples from the
classroom observation. All responses must be written as complete sentences.

Include the question number, along with your response as a short essay response as in this
sample below:

Assignment #2 - Question 1: What is your first impression of the classroom

environment?
Response: “The classroom environment is friendly and welcoming to the students and
seems a fun place to learn. The classroom is decorated with the students’ work,
interesting posters and the teacher shows respect to the students.”
When it is time to submit the Field Observation Packet for grading, these items must be
included:

• The cover page of the Field Observation Packet

• All observation assignments

• Time Log verifying hours spent within virtual meetings

• The Cooperating Teacher Evaluation

THE FIELD OBSERVATION ASSIGNMENTS: Cooperating Teacher assigned to CSN student

ASSIGNMENT #1 (Culture): Using the questions below, carefully observe and evaluate the
culture of the school. School culture refers to the way teachers and other staff members work
together and the set of beliefs, values, and assumptions they share. A positive school climate
and school culture promote students' ability to learn. Remember you are evaluating the school
for its educational culture, place of learning, sense of safety, invitation for learning, promotion of
self-actualization, development of values and socialization. Use online resources such as your
assigned school’s CCSD webpage, http://nevadareportcard.nv.gov/di/,
https://www.publicschoolreview.com, and https://www.greatschools.org/nevada/las-vegas/ to
answer the following questions.

Physical Characteristics: Look at a picture(s) of the school to determine atmosphere, comfort,

and feelings the school creates for students in the educational setting.

1. Consider the school property: building, grounds, fencing, equipment, landscaping,

trees, parking lot, crosswalks, gates, signs and symbols. Describe in detail.
The school property mentioning the landscape is an attention grabber because I can see they
have a garden with paintings in the left side of the school, they also have a building of
classroom additions besides the playground area. They have fences all around the school, even
in the front entrance. They also are growing some trees and plants in the front of the school by
where the parking lot is, while the parking lot is in front of the school entrance and on the right
side of the school. They have a school sign in the front of the school as well for important dates
or messages. Also, another sign is posted by a sidewalk for 3-minute parking to unload/load
students.

2. Next, (if available) study the interior of the school: halls, floor coverings, lighting,
doors, windows, hall colors and decorations and entrance security. Explain in detail.
The interior for the school is white and dark blue, by the entrance there is a small hallway to get
to entrance of the classrooms, multipurpose room, playground, and other classrooms within the
school. In the outside the before the hallway there is the main office and posted in the walls
there is bulletin boards and a glass wall recognizing students’ achievement.

Culture of the School: Read, listen and/or observe to determine the climate, values, and
atmosphere within the school.

1: What are your first impressions of the school? Enrollment, graduation rate, proficiency
rates, student/teacher ratio etc.
My impressions were interesting because this school is an overall great school because
looking at the enrollment rate has grown by 13% over the five school years. The
proficiency rate in math from just the school is 46% compared to the state is 35%, the
proficiency rate in reading is a 53% compared to the state by 46%. While the
student/teacher ratio is 20:1 and the daily attendance is 94.7%. That is pretty good for
being an elementary school!
 2: Please describe the student make-up of the school, including gender, ethnicity,
students with disabilities, ELL students, and any other attributes that are important to
note you found.
I found that there is 751 total enrollment that makes up 454 number of student’s being
Hispanic, 22 being Asian, 24 being black, 42 being white and two or more races in 29
students. There are also 301 students who are in ELL and 84 students in IEP. I found
interesting that there is 55% of males and 45 % females that make up the gender in
school. There are about 41 teachers in the school compared to 751 students in the
school.

3. Explain the school’s mission/vision statements, motto, and mascot.

The school’s mission statement is the Vegas Verdes Elementary School community empowers
students to reach their highest potential to ensure personal success and a passion for learning
in a diverse global society. “Growing All Kids!” is there mission/vision statement, there mascot is
a Viking therefore I believe they want to enhance their student’s knowledge to the best of the
teachers, staff, administration ability so the students can grow in success and good
achievement.

4. Examine school traditions, achievements, and awards; community recognition or

community partners; extracurricular activities/clubs and athletics. Look for and
document sources of community pride and sense of identity through ceremonies,
assemblies, trophies, and artifacts.
They annually have a field day for students, they also have holiday celebrations such as
Halloween as seen from pictures in the websites, I believe teachers dress up their trunks of their
cars and give out candy to students on or before Halloween. They also have a Winter Holiday
which consist of staff members dressing up as elf’s, decorating the multipurpose room to
Christmas decorations, maybe even a winter choir. Some of the clubs/activities they have is
chefs for kids and LEGO Robotics competition which is a way for kids to interact and spend
more time in school.

5. Briefly describe three other pieces of information that can be found on your assigned
school’s website.
As I was looking through the website, I found that they have a NV Reading Week, teachers and
students dress and decorate their classroom doors with what books are their favorite and best
one wins. They also have carnivals where students can interact with others and a way of getting
the parents/guardians involved. One interesting thing I saw was the “Telus Big Give” that
happen in 2016. From the pictures it showed they painted a mural within the school’s wall into a
canvas with the students help. They also have a student recognition for “Student of The Month”,
it acknowledges the student’s achievement as well as their success.

Culture of the Classroom: Each classroom has its own culture and way of life.
 1. What are the teacher’s expectations for learning and success?
The teacher’s expectation for learning and success is gathering the students to be able
to finish all their work, to be able to understand what she is teaching, and to have fun. I
had asked the teacher about any given homework and she told me that she only want
them to read for at least 20 minutes every night to enhance their abilities to succeed.
Since it is a 2nd grade class for reading, they are learning about reading more
paragraphs, so she wants her class to be leaning more towards reading lengthy
passages and answer questions independently throughout the school year.

2. Evaluate the level of student participation in the class. Who participates? Who does
not? I believe the level of student participation is 95 out 100. I observed that its mostly
the girls that want to participate. For example, when about to start the lesson, the girls
usually raise their hands to read the expectations of the classroom before every virtual
meeting they are on. I also saw when doing math, both the girls and boys participate as
well as sharing their strategy on solving the problem. The ones that are less likely to
participate is the 2 percent of students who do not pay attention or don’t have the stuff
such as white boards, anything to write with, notebooks, out of their seat etc., that they
are required to have in front of them when the lesson is about to begin.

3. Evaluate the interactions between teacher and students, rapport, cohesiveness,

distribution of power, teacher personality.
The interactions between teacher and students are friendly and enthusiastic. The
students love to participate in who gets to read the expectations of classroom or books
of their own. They feel very comfortable around the teacher, talking to her before class
about what they did in the weekend, how there day was while waiting for other students
to join the virtual classroom. They also ask questions if they are not sure about a lesson
or what they must do which helps them out a lot. Another thing I saw was that a student
every time when they have to switch between classes he stays and asks the teacher if
she knows how to say a particular word in Spanish and so the student shows her and he
feel happy about sharing that with her. The teacher personality is fun, caring, and
supports her students in every way she can.

4. Observe student-to-student interactions, inside and outside of the class. Are they
using any chat features to communicate with each other?
When observing student to student interactions before the first class of the day which starts at
8:30am, Mrs. Tratos sends out the link to each student starting around 8:15am and as students
are logging into the virtual classroom, she welcomes them and as students are waiting they chat
with each other through microphones or through the chat. Sometimes during class, the girls chat
about what their plans are but since it is not related to the lesson Mrs. Tratos turns off the chat
feature so they can all be focused.

ASSIGNMENT #2 (Observations)
1: What are your first impressions of the virtual classroom environment? Is it warm,
inviting, organized, etc? Describe the virtual environment in detail.

My first impressions of the virtual classroom environment were welcoming, the teacher
(Mrs. Tratos) introduced me to her class, the students said Hi, I felt welcomed. It was
organized Mrs. Tratos had all her slides put together for each subject she was going to
teach such as writing in the morning, math in the midday and reading in the afternoon.
She also welcomed each student and ask them how they were doing and if they had any
questions or comments to ask. It was nice and easy way to get in the virtual classrooms,
the whole atmosphere was great!

2: Please describe the student make-up of the class, including gender, ethnicity, ELL,
students with physical challenges, and any other apparent attributes that are important
to note.
The student make-up of the class is around 20 people and divided equally of the girls
and boys. The ethnicity of the class majority is Hispanic, 5 percent Black, 2 percent
Asian, 5 percent 2 or more races from what I have observed. There are about 3-4
students who are in ELL and about 2 students with physical challenges. Every now and
then a resource teacher pops into the virtual classroom and reminds those students
who are in ELL or students with physical challenges to meet up with him or the teacher
herself remind those students to go over to the resource teacher room.

3: Are their posted class rules or course expectations? If rules/expectations are posted
write them exactly as they appear. The virtual class has course expectations but is not
posted directly in the classroom. The students have a booklet chart where they have all
their class expectations, every day the teacher calls on who ever wants to read it aloud.
Some of the expectations that are said is: No eating in class, Turn on camera, Sit in one
place, Raise hand before speaking, stay muted, Do your best, Be on time, Listen, Act
like you’re in school.

4: Does the teacher enforce these posted rules/expectations? What rewards or

consequences are used for compliance or noncompliance? Yes, Mrs. Tratos enforces
the expectations. The consequences are letting the students know that they should be
doing their work or paying attention and if she tells them again about it she usually lets a
student know that she will be calling their parents because of what they are doing such
as not paying attention, being out of the computer screen, not doing their work, or
sleeping during class.

5: What is the posted daily/weekly schedule for different subjects or periods?

The daily schedule for the schedules for different subjects is at 8:30am is “Writing”,
10:00am is “Math”, and 12:45pm is Reading. That is only for whole groups, for small
groups it is different students in 4-5 number groups starting at 10:40am until 11:15am.
Then again for Reading around 1:30pm to 2:15pm, this is an excellent idea because it
 gives students more of the private teacher student relationship in their needs of where
they struggle at in a particular subject or problem.
6: Do you see evidence of the school’s mission/vision statements in the virtual
environment?
Yes, I see evidence of the school’s mission/vision statements in the virtual classroom. They are
posted inside the actual classroom where she teaches, and on “canvas” where all the lesson
plans and assignments are. They also wear the color blue on Friday’s to indicate the word “kind”
and the spirt of the school.

ASSIGNMENT #3 (Classroom Layout): Take screenshots of the learning management system

used by the teacher (Canvas, Google Classroom, Seesaw etc..)

>>>INSERT YOUR SCREENSHOT HERE<<<

1: Describe the workflow of the online environment. Is the space and time used
efficiently?

2: In your opinion, how can the virtual arrangement of the room be improved?

ASSIGNMENT #4 (Instruction): Observe any instructional time with your assigned Cooperative
Teacher, and record your observations when presented with the questions below:

1: Is instruction delivered in small groups, centers, whole groups, individually?

The instruction is delivered out in whole groups and then into smaller groups. Usually in
the start of class they all come together in a whole group, from there they go to their
“specials” , they get back as a whole group for 40 minutes and then are dismissed and
some stay in a small group while others go on different sites, then they switch back and
forth to other small groups until it is time to go to lunch. When they come back it is back
to a whole group and then once again start breaking up into small individual groups.
2: Describe your cooperating teacher’s teaching style.
My cooperating teacher’s teaching style is more visual and demonstrative style. For
instance, in teaching Writing, she goes over on how to write an opinion paper and she
shows the students on her own board how to write each sentence, she gives them a flow
map for their ideas, they work together on it, she helps them out, gives them tips. I think
this is a great way to show the students how to create larger sentences. As for math, she
writes out the problem in the board, goes over the strategy, and then calls out a student
to see how they solved a problem with a strategy she showed them. One day they were
learning about how much coins were worth, and she had change to show the students
sort of a real-life example. She also had base 10 blocks to indicate numbers to her
students whether braking apart or how much blacks the number has.
3: How does the teacher incorporate the sensory modalities (learning styles)? Give
examples.
The teacher incorporates learning styles in math by using number blocks and
demonstrating whether she is adding or subtracting away a number from the base 10
blocks. She also uses and draws place value systems so the students can tell the
difference between which place value is which and then solving the problem by drawing
a place value chart. Another thing I saw is she uses different math strategies such as
“decomposing method”, “breaking apart”, and a number chart to help with solving three-
or two-digit numbers when solving or subtracting. The students follow a long, but they
mainly stick with the decomposing method in math. For reading, the teacher shares her
screen and reads the book she has to the students and then after they break up into
smaller groups and do group work on assigned reading assignments. She also shares
her screen for the students to navigate their assignments and quizzes.

4: Do the students seem engaged in the lesson(s) presented? Please explain.

Yes, the students seem engaged in the lessons presented. For example, during math
they start out with mental math and then when they have an answer, each student raises
their hands until they are called upon and shows what strategy they used to solve the
problem. Another example, they like to write in their white boards while the teacher is
writing in the board, so they follow along and are focused. In writing, the teacher is
showing them how to write an opinion paper and she asked a question about what their
favorite animal and every student is joined in and gave their answer. The teacher makes
the class engaging while everyone can participate. Also, she gets them to participate in
math by saying. “I need a strategy”. For reading, she begins to read the book and if she
sees the students are not reading or following along, they reread the book to fully
understand it.
5: Are there any students isolated or not present/participating in the class? Explain?
I only seen about 3-4 students not participating in class. These students usually do not
have the necessary items such as notebooks, something to write with it, whiteboards, or
their chart with worksheets by them. Other times, they are not paying attention and not
do any work and so the teacher makes them do their work at the end of class, I also
seen that they sometimes are asleep during the live lesson which the teacher tries to
wake them up. Those students are sometimes out of the frame, they go do something
and they come back, some of the reasons why they are not present or participating.
6: How does the teacher handle absences from the class?
Usually not many students are absent. It mainly has to do with internet issues, if one
student does not come to the morning class, the teacher lets them know what to do or
where to go to catch up on the lesson. For example, in Canvas she has a module of
what she has recorded herself teaching reading, writing, or math for students who
missed a part of class or for someone that does not fully understand a lesson they can
go back and watch it. The teacher also tells the student why they were absent and ways
where they can come to class. She also tries to get the students that are missing from
the class to get them by sending an email or alerting them through their chrome books.
 7: How does the teacher handle transitions from subject to subject or activity to activity?
Are the transitions efficient? The teacher has times to handle transitions from subject to
subject. For instance, she teaches writing in the morning from 8:30am-9:15am and from
there she tells the students it is time for specials and then the students come back at
10am for Math. From math the teacher tells the students the ones she is keeping for a
small group and lets the other students work on “Zern” and lets them know what time
they should be coming back for each group. It is an efficient transition because the
students do not get bored easily and they each come back at the given time the teacher
tells them to. Before the students log on to their next class, the teacher tells them if they
know where to go and make sure they are going to come back.

8: List ways the teacher uses “attention getting” commands, word phrases, signals, etc.
Are they effective? Some of the attention getting commands that the teacher uses for
her students is singing the “Head & Shoulder” song and so the students follow along and
touch their shoulder, knees, and toes etc. That is an effective command to get the
students to listen and have fun at the same time. Another example is she uses the
phrase “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” which signify if they are ready to do something or
understand a lesson. She also encourages a lot of her students, by saying, “good job”,
“excellent”, “awesome”.

9: What specific behavior issues does the teacher have to deal with? How does the
teacher handle the behavior issues? Be specific.
Some of the behavior issues the teacher deals with is students not doing their work,
sleeping, or having cameras off. She handles this by letting them know once or twice
and if they don’t listen the third time she lets them know she will be talking to their
parents about what is going on and why they are not doing what they are suppose to be
doing. For example, one student was in a small group with her and all the student did
was not be in the computer screen, avoiding the small lesson, and so the teacher told
the student to leave the live class because he was not paying attention for most of the
time.

10: Are there any policies or procedures that help or hinder instructional time? Please
explain them and how they help or hinder instructional time.
No, no policies or procedures hinder instructional time. The teacher has a procedure
before the lesson starts while every student is joining the live session, the teacher has
her screen shared that says what they will need before she starts teaching. For example,
she will have something like: Things you’ll need: 1. White board or Notebook 2. Pencil
and 3. Your Smile. This helps a lot because the students will not be in the middle of the
lesson trying to reach for their stuff.
ASSIGNMENT #5 (Observing a student): Discretely observe one student in your assigned
classroom during direct instruction.

1: What drove you to choose this student?

 This student was different from the whole class. He pays attention, kept his camera on,
stayed muted, raised his hand before talking, asked questions, completes all lessons
from the website “Zern”, checks in with the teacher, if he can’t login to a website he pops
into the smaller groups with his camera off and microphone muted and then waits to be
called on from the teacher to get a response on what he can do. Aside from the other
students, he sits still in his seat and is ready to learn. He was more behaved, and
calmer compared to the other students in the class.

2: Explain what the student did during the observation.

Whenever this student comes into a whole group or small group lesson his microphone
is usually off and camera is off until the teacher tells him to turn it on. He sits still on the
computer, he comes on time to class, and participates. During a lesson in math, the
teacher had started off with mental math problems and she called on students to answer
the questions and some student did not really know what the answer was and this
student answered it correctly. The teacher asked how he got the answer, and he
demonstrated his mental math strategy, and a student commented “He is very good at
math”. Then the teacher asked if anybody had any questions for the student. From this I
can tell he is an intelligent kid. He also asks questions about a certain website such what
is “The National Geographic”, and he reads passages along with the teacher when it is
reading time.
3. Summarize the lesson given and the student’s responses to the lesson.
The lesson that was given was in reading, the class was learning about phonics and
sight words. The teacher had asked everyone to mute their microphones and to lip sync
what phonics she was saying aloud. Each student was just looking at her or doing
something else while the one student I was observing followed along with her and lip
synced the words back to her. From there she had a list of sight words and each student
has their own booklet of worksheets and sight cards so the student who I was observing
hurried to get out his word cards without the teacher asking to. Once the teacher saw
that she pointed him out and others began to follow along. As she was moving along
word by word, he would say it through the muted microphone while finding the word card
each time. Another lesson that was taught was listing their alphabetical words in order.
For example, the teacher had the words said, saw, sat. She then asked how can she list
those words in alphabetical order in they have the same 2 letters in the word, the student
I was observing then raised his hand and answered “by looking at the third letter”. The
teacher then continued the lesson for about five more minutes and if the student I was
observing didn’t get called on he would use his fingers to indicate what letter they should
look at when organizing those words in order. The student was attentive and focused
throughout the whole lesson.
4. Make sure to document ALL behavior in relationship to what was being
presented by the classroom teacher.
The student talks in clear full sentences and gets to the point in what he is trying to say, goes
over any assignments that he needs to do, he is also a strong reader in one of the small groups
he is in, which is interesting to me because he is proficient. Another thing I observed was that
when the teacher had breakout sessions of small groups while others had to go do “Zern” or ST
Math random students will pop into the breakout session where the teacher was teaching and
interrupt, but when the student I was observing popped in he would have his camera off and
microphone muted until the teacher told him it was okay for him to ask his question.

5. Please describe what you discovered about the student’s learning styles,
involvement in class, and his/her educational needs. This student participates a
lot in class, especially in math. He raises his hand to answer a mental math
problem, and then he shows how he got the answer. He usually uses a
decomposing method and shows his work from his whiteboard to the teacher. I
believe he is more of a visual learner because of the strategies he uses for math
such as the decomposing method, number lines, and using his fingers to count.
From observing this student, I have learned he goes to speech therapy so the
teacher had to make adjustments to her schedule where he can go have time to
go to speech and also attend the small group lessons. He also comes early to
class and addresses any questions that he is concerned with to the teacher. For
example, when the teacher was reading a passage during class, once she was
done, the student raised his hand and mention that a vocabulary word was in the
reading passage. Also, if he cannot log into a page, he tells the teacher his
problem and they both figure out what they can do to solve the problem.

ASSIGNMENT #6 (Cooperating Teacher Interview): Arrange for a convenient time to

interview your cooperating teacher either on the phone or by video conference. Ask the
questions below. Include any school document, handouts, etc. the teacher provides.
Mrs. Tratos, 2nd Grade Teacher
1: What was the primary reason you became a teacher?
To see students’ “glow” of learning- day in and day out, there is always such a moment
2: What are the main challenges you face as a teacher?
Time- you cannot “check-out” at the end of the day. There is so much to do, especially
when you want to adjust and make things work better.
3: What is the best part of being a teacher?
The student’s personalities and humor: boring things can be very fun.
4: How do you determine where students sit in class?
First by personality- they must be able to get along with others in their group and not
distract others either (you cannot force people to like each other, nor can you expect two
good friends to ignore one another when it’s time to pay attention). Next by ability- try to
have various skill levels in a group. They can support one another, and you can help
them identify strengths each individual has to contribute.
5: How do you select members of any flexible groups?
First by data. That may come from assessments, observations, or both. Next by
confidence. Sometimes a student needs to feel “success” by working in an easier-level
group for a week or two before they are ready to attempt that same success in a group
of similar leveled peers. On the flip side- some students may respond better to a bigger
challenge as it motivates them to work harder. You have to know your students.
6: How much grading do you complete on a daily/weekly basis?
Between 3-8 assignments a week. That may include quizzes/tests, writings, or exit
tickets. Even if assignments are not always for a grade- you still need to check over the
work to know students understanding of the concept or skill.
7: How long does it take to prepare lessons for the day/week?
While thinking in “units” of 3-4 weeks, I usually plan for a week at a time, then make any
adjustments daily as needed. Familiarity with standards, curriculums, and Learning
Management System (new this year!), greatly affect my planning time. I spend much
time thinking about plans and preparing/ensuring I have materials I will need, long before
I ever sit and write my plans. If I had to average the time, I would say typically it I spend
3-6 hours over the course of the week. More this year due to a new system.
8: What procedures or strategies do you use to maximize instructional time?
Preparation: Plan out each step- from having students gathering materials, to turning in
materials. Do your best to predict what supporting materials students may need to
support them, in addition to what you planned: have them within reach. Know what the
next few lessons entail. Know the overall goal and individual steps to that goal.
Read your Students: Be ready to adjust your teaching on the spot. You may need
reteach, backtrack, explain/practice differently, or jump ahead to the next day’s lessons.
Be flexible. Take advantage of teachable moments- while still focusing on the
standards.
9: What positive reinforcements have you used successfully? What behavioral consequences
seem most effective with this age group?
Have clear expectations and reward with praise. The more personal and specific the
praise is, the better. Focus it on growth, self-belief, and effort. Prize-type rewards
 should be used seldom, as it usually focuses on outcome instead of effort. For
consequences, also make them more personal and specific. The more time you invest
in helping a student understand their choices and consequences (both positive and
negative), the less challenging behaviors you will face with them in the long run. For any
privilege that must be lost, there must be a plan made with that student to earn it back-
the sooner the better.
10: How are specialist teachers involved in your instructional planning and process?
Often, there is a coordinated effort to support a theme, or at least inform one another of
skills/focuses. If not, try to learn from students what it is they are learning, and connect
such concepts in other subjects. The more cross-content connections, the better
mastery of concepts.
11: How often are you evaluated, and what measurement tool is used by the administration for
determining your teaching performance?
Between 3-5 times a year, from 10 minutes to 40 minutes. The Nevada Educator
Performance Framework (NEPF) is used to measure my teaching performance.
12: What consequences are there if your evaluation is not favorable?
Support is provided- through coaches, strategists, or trainings. Making a teacher more
successful feeds into making his/her students more successful.
13: What surprised you most about teaching as a profession?
You cannot switch off planning for individual students. Knowing each student, their
needs (including ways to challenge them), makes constant planning thoughts run within
my head. Even summer vacation is spent with such thoughts for the overall classroom
and curriculum. However, such percolation can lead to great ah-has.
14: What drives their lesson plans? What standards do teachers use during lesson planning?
The grade level team decides on Long Range Plans, which combines any curriculum or
resource with our subjects to match the standards we need to teach. We adjust
curriculums or content as needed to teach the standard. Great lengths are taken to
ensure that the sequence of the standards makes sense, and that we incorporate review
or even spiraling of the standards. Often there are a few focus standards in a unit, with
many supporting standards.
15. How do you accommodate ELL, GATE, General Ed and Special Education students?
Work with the other teachers to share strategies and ideas and be flexible with
schedules. But more than that treat each student for who they are- as an individual. Everyone
has their own strengths, needs, and goals. When you model that attitude in the classroom, the
students feel it. They recognize that everyone is different (with strengths as much as needs),
just as much as everyone is similar. Celebrate those differences, make everyone feel supported
and expect everyone to be supportive of one another. Suddenly, each student has a classroom
full of teachers- their peers. It is so powerful.
ASSIGNMENT #7 (Summary): Thoroughly summarize and reflect upon your entire 10-hour
Field Observation. What did you observe, learn, realize about teachers, students, instruction,
the school environment? How has this observation better prepared you to understand the
teaching profession? How does the observation relate to the text information and class
activities? What specific ideas on teaching will you remember to include in your classroom?

Throughout my observation I have learned and realized many things. To start off, the students
behaved how they were supposed to, it was a sometimes difficult for them to sit up, stay awake,
or stay in one place because of virtual setting. One can only do so much about that, it is out of
the teachers control. I saw that they were good about being muted and waiting for their turn to
talk when called upon as well as being prepared for the lesson in whole group instruction. Every
day I observed during whole group sessions, the students would read aloud “classroom
expectations” the teacher (Mrs. Tratos) made for them and so that conditioned the students into
doing their best and following directions. I also saw that some of the students wanted to go back
to school, to the actual classroom setting. The student had asked the teacher, Mrs. Tratos that
when was she going back to school, because she wants to see her classmates and the
classroom, she also explained her frustration with covid due to her not being in class. Another
thing that was interesting to me is that usually more than half the class knew where they were
going after whole group sessions, the other few that did not know were ones who are not
focused or away from the computer most of the time and the other few was that they were just a
bit confuse or needed reassurance on where they were going.
The sense of how the teacher interacted with her students, such as attention grabbers, keeping
them engaged into the lesson, asking questions etc. She would also give her students a break
by telling them to stretch or walk around before the lesson started. She also implemented
different strategies for math, demonstrated visual problems for her students to grasp an
understanding of how to solve a problem mentally. She also had math number charts, base 10
blocks, some change to demonstrate how much worth it had, used her fingers to count etc. I
noticed that once the whole group session for math was over, she would immediately switch to
smaller groups to incorporate a more understanding of how a math problem needs to be solved.
The students in the smaller group were a mix of high- and low-level students. This made the
group balanced because one can help the other and see how that student solved the problem. I
also learned from my cooperating teacher about parent teacher conferences. Since the school
system is based online, the teacher has already met those parents due to them being by their
kid on a regular school day. She told me that usually conference is about 20 minutes or so
because you are barely meeting the parent but as far as online school it did not take her over 20
minutes for the conference. This is because she has already gone over things with parents
since the beginning of the school year, it is basically like a follow up but if it needs more than a
follow up length of time then she discusses goals for the students, how they can be attentive in
class and just how the parents can support the student as well.
She also told me about IEPs and how they function, I also observed an IEP revision meeting
with a resource teacher, the parent of the student, and translator. It was amazing experience
because I did not know the parent has rights to what their child can have taken away. This child
had lost their two front teeth and the speech therapist held a meeting to let everyone know that
speech was going to be taken away from the student until the teeth grow back and the mother
was okay with it because her child was having a hard time pronouncing and saying words
without her front teeth and everyone agreed to that. This observation helped me understand that
teachers work hard and the number of hours in planning lessons to teaching students the
understanding of each subject is amazing. My cooperating also sent me examples of lesson
plans, strategies, discussed how parent conferences worked, and let me know how long it took
for lesson planning, managing canvas, and teaching the students. I am so appreciative that I got
to work with my cooperating teacher because she made me realize so much.

Remember that before receiving the final grade for this EDU course, the CSN student must
submit the completed Cover Page, Field Observation Activities, Time Log, and Student
Evaluation to the CSN instructor for grading.

The cooperating teacher must also email the instructor to confirm the successful completion of
the observation. The student is required to provide the CCSD cooperating teacher with their
CSN professor’s email, so the cooperating teacher can send an email to verify that the student
has successfully completed the 10 hours of observation. The instructor’s email must be
provided on the first page of this packet, and on the next page for the cooperating teacher.

Remember that completion of the Field Observation is a PASS/FAIL component of the course.
Students must save this completed packet in digital form, and as a hard copy for the Education
Department’s capstone course, (EDU 299) Education Portfolio or (EDU 220) Educational
Psychology
TIME LOG - CSN Field Observations - VIRTUAL MEETINGS:
CSN Student: Monica Ayala

CSN Instructor: Olivia Grant

CCSD School Assigned: Vegas Verdes Elementary School

CCSD Cooperating Teacher: Brianna Tratos

CCSD Grade/Department: Second Grade

CCSD School Principal: Kelly Grondahl

CCSD School Phone:

Date Log On Log Off Hours

1016120 9:15 11:15 2hrs

1017120 10:00 11:25 1hr 25min

1019120 12:45 2:20 1hr 35min

10/12/20 10:00 11:16 1 hr 16 min

10/13/20 8:16 9:10 54 min

10:00 11:15 1hr 15min
10/15/20 10:00 11:15 1hr 15min

10/16/20 10:00 11:20 1hr 20min

10/19/20 8:20 9:10 50 min
10:00 11:15 1hr 15min
10/20/20 8:20 9:10 50 min
10:00 11:20 1 hr 20min

10/22/20 8:20 9:00 50 min

Total Hours: 14 hrs 50min

CCSD Teacher Signature: Date: 10/28/20

Please complete the following evaluation using the Performance Indicator Scores below (with
the student) once the total observation hours are met. Your constructive comments are
extremely valuable to the student. Return this page to the student along with their Time Log to
be submitted to the instructor with the completed Field Observation Packet.

Enter the appropriate "Performance Indicator Score" in the spaces below

(4)=exemplary (3)=consistent level (2)=not consistent (1

4 Professional appearance, adherence to CCSD dress code

4 Reliability, punctuality
4 Communicates effectively with teachers and staff
4 Demonstrates manners, graciousness
4 Reflects upon observations using critical thinking
4 Demonstrates enthusiasm and curiosity toward the profession
4 Models respectful behavior with students
4 Uses appropriate language
4 Exhibits pre-service educator success indicators

Comments:

Ms. Ayala was a pleasure to have as an observer. She took an active role in asking questions
and seeking clarity and understanding in what was being observed and everything leading up
to and following the observations (lesson planning, student independent work, assessments,
and next steps). Ms. Ayala was also quick to connect what she is learning elsewhere to what
she was observing. Her positivity and enthusiasm, along with her communication skills and
earnest questioning show great potential as a fellow educator. I cannot wait to hear her
success stories as she begins to work with students!

Cooperating Teacher's Signature: Date: