Addison Pink

DMACC EDU210
Lori Cory
9 December 2022
Journal Assignment

Journal #1—Classroom climate. Describe the climate of the classroom! How does your teacher
make students feel welcomed, valued, and safe in their classroom? This might also include how
they set up the room, letting students choose their seats, bulletin boards, classroom expectations,
etc.
When I first started my observation hours in Mrs. Hochstetler’s first-grade classroom, on

September 2nd of 2022, I noticed a variety of techniques my teacher used to create a positive

classroom climate. A classroom with a good climate means that the students feel respected, safe,

welcomed, and supported. One example of this was in this classroom, they do several diverse

types of reading, like reading to someone or reading to themselves. The expectations for each of

these specific reading activities are clearly displayed at the front of the room. This is a fantastic

way to create a positive classroom climate because all the students will understand what is

expected of them. Another thing that I saw that I feel created a positive climate in her classroom

was all the student-made artwork displayed clearly but in a non-chaotic way. She has a specific

bulletin board where she hangs their art projects for a week or so before sending them home. I

thought that this was great because it makes the students feel supported within their classroom.

Seeing their own artwork being used as decoration in their classroom most likely has them

feeling represented and appreciated for their hard work. There are other things that this teacher

does that are not about the classroom décor. She is particularly good at promoting interactions

between boys and girls. During their daily “carpet time” she has a boy always pick a “quiet girl”

to do the next activity and then have the girl pick a “quiet boy” in turn. She also has her assigned
seating arrangement where the boys always sit next to at least one girl and the girls always sit

next to at least one girl as well. This helps promote positive relations between boys and girls,

which is especially important. If girls feel like they are supported by the boys in the class, and

vice versa, that is excellent because it is something that I think needs to be developed at an early

age. When I was in elementary school, boys and girls being friends was almost unheard of and I

think I was missing a differing perspective while I was growing up. During my observation

hours, the teacher I observed used so many tactics to ensure that her students felt safe and happy

in their classroom.
Journal #2—Classroom management. Describe how your teacher conducts their classroom
through routines, student involvement, taking lunch count, passing out or returning student work,
etc. How does the teacher RUN their classroom and keep it running smoothly?
I first reported to Mrs. Stephens’s classroom for my secondary observation hours on September

1st, 2022. When I walked into the classroom at 7:30 am, my eyes were drawn to the whiteboard

where she had projected what was for lunch and what is expected of the students to start doing

once the bell rang. She has their notebooks sorted by each class period in various bins and she

sets them out on a table for them to grab depending on if they were told to by the board. Next to

the projection on the whiteboard, she has written the daily objective, and this is also where she

has her first-hour students mark their lunch choice. This teacher is great about keeping daily

traditions or routines. Her lessons will vary each day, but she always opens the class period with

15 minutes of reading where each student is able to read their free choice book. On my first day,

I learned about the partner system she has in place. Mrs. Stephens uses the classroom

management strategy known as, “clock partners.” This is where each student has a partner for

each hour on the clock, and when she says, “find your six o’clock partner,” or “your three

o’clock partner,” the students will find the student they are partnered with for that specific hour.

On this day, after their free reading was completed, she had them find their three o’clock partner

to discuss their book. Mrs. Stephens has her students in a seating arrangement where their desks

are arranged in groups of four. I saw the students being asked to discuss characterization within

their table groups. After they were given ample time to talk amongst themselves, she had them

share out what their thoughts were. While the students were working on their personal narratives,

she gave them work time toward the end of class. They were even allowed to move about the

room if they were not abusing this privilege. While they were working, Mrs. Stephens would

walk around and check in on the progress of various students.

Journal #3—Differentiated Learning/Exceptional Learners: Describe the way the teacher meets
the various learning need of his/her students? This can be described through classroom activities,
how the teacher sets up stations, how students may be “pulled out” to work with other teachers,
or maybe how a teacher adapts material and supports exceptional students.

Later in my time observing Mrs. Hochstetler’s classroom, I was tasked with holding short

reading interventions with a small group of students individually. Throughout my time in her

classroom, we worked through a reading intervention binder. With this binder, I had them

practice skills like letter names, letter sounds CVC words, and at the end, they must read a

paragraph three times. An important thing about Gilbert Elementary School is that they take the

time to test each student individually on their core skills early in the year and then give the

students what they need to grow. Each student is placed in a letter that correlates with their

reading abilities. They can advance and move on to the next letter if they test better with one of

the interventionists at the school. During my time observing, I would often see certain students

being pulled out of class by one of these interventionists, where I assume they were being tested

or given the extra help they need. On the other hand, I saw her helping the students on the more

exceptional side by holding special reading groups to ensure that they feel challenged. Another

example of differentiated learning I saw in this class was that there is a student who cannot

perform as well completing her work if she is surrounded by distractions. To best help this

different student succeed on the tests they take every other week, she has this student move to a

separate table. In addition to moving this student during tests, she also makes sure to remind the

students to be quiet because this student struggles when there is a lot of extra noise and to be

quiet out of respect. She is not the only student she chooses to move during tests, there are other

students who might find their regular desk distracting and she moves them so they are able to

complete their work to the best level they can. A tool that she uses in her classroom is the

kindles. Each student has their own kindle that stays at school, but they use it to learn about math
and reading. One program that she uses is Raz Kids, which is for reading. There are 29 different

levels of difficulty, so each student is challenged accordingly.

Journal #4—STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) The importance of infusing
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) into everyday instruction is a primary
focus for educators at the state and national level. Observe how your teacher teaches or
introduces STEM into daily lessons.

In both classes I spent my observation hours in, during September and October of 2022, the

focus was often reading. One of the classes, the eighth-grade language arts class, was solely

dedicated to reading and writing. Additionally, in my first-grade classroom, I was only there in

the mornings when the lessons were always about reading and writing. Despite this primary

focus on language arts, I still would see the use of STEM every day. There was the most variety

of STEM inclusion in my first-grade class with Mrs. Hochstetler. As I mentioned in an earlier

journal, every student is provided with a kindle that they keep in the classroom and use for

educational purposes. They not only use it for language arts, but they also have several math

programs that they use later in their day when I am not in the classroom anymore. Having

kindles in the classroom is a fantastic way to include technology in the classroom in an

educational way where the students are still learning. Mrs. Hochstetler also uses their carpet

calendar time to incorporate math into their daily routine. To help the students know the date and

how many days they have been in school, she uses a variety of activities during said calendar

time. For example, she has the students count how many days they have been in school through

coins, straws, and tally marks. When the selected student completes the task of adding the coins,

straws, or tally marks, Mrs. Hochstetler has them count on with their fellow classmates if they

need help. This is important because learning to count on is a required learning objective for first

graders as written in the Iowa Core. Not only does she have them count on or write the date

during calendar time, but I also watched her teach them how to know if a number is odd or even

by having them add a shoe to the board every day. She has the students do all these math related

activities every day during their carpet calendar time.

Journal #5—Journal of your choice. This could be in making connections with students, using
movement in the classroom, integrating other subject areas into their classroom, etc.

I have decided to write my fifth and final journal entry about how I observed Mrs. Hochstetler

helping her students feel cared for and wanted in her classroom. There were several instances

where I saw Mrs. Hochstetler helping her students with this part of the art of teaching during my

placement time in her classroom. The first example I saw was on my first day in her classroom

on September 2nd of 2022. At the beginning of class, Mrs. Hochstetler had her students pair up to

do reading for a partner. There is a particularly shy student in her class, and she originally could

not find a partner, this made her visibly upset. Recognizing this, Mrs. Hochstetler had this

student join a previously formed partnership and made a group of three so that this student could

feel that she was wanted in her classroom. Another instance of making her students feel cared for

that I saw during my placement was when a student was struggling individually while they were

working as a class. Both Mrs. Hochstetler and I watched as she put her head down in frustration

and stopped working on what they were doing. Then, Mrs. Hochstetler walked over and gave her

some one-on-one help. This personal help made this student feel like her teacher cared about her

success. I believe that the help she gave made her student feel that the sadness she was clearly

showing was noticed and cared about by her teacher. Those were bigger instances that stood out

to me, but I also saw Mrs. Hochstetler doing smaller things to make her students feel wanted and

cared for every day. This included listening to the long stories each of her students would tell

attentively so they felt that she cared about their lives. I think listening to them also showed the

importance of respect. Seeing her model this respect was a wonderful way to help them

understand how to be respectful towards her and their fellow classmates.