On February 13th, I had my first visit to Maury Elementary school with my partner Joe Murray. We sat and observed a 5th grade classroom that is studying immigration. Throughout the class period I jotted down observations of the physical environment and also the relationship between the teacher and students. During my visit I was able to talk to a few of the students and help them with their classwork. This gave me the opportunity to observe closely how some students were more engaged than others. What I noticed about the teacher was how soft spoken she was. It seemed that she focused more on teaching while her teaching assistant walked around and kept some students in line. Later I found out that the teacher assistant can be assigned to students that might have physical or special needs for the classroom. At first I thought the teacher was going to be a pushover because it seemed like she didn’t do anything for the students that spoke out without raising their hand or checked on students who weren’t doing their work. I was quickly proven wrong when I noticed that there seemed to be classroom standards that were well established at the beginning of the year. The students kept their binders neatly in the corner of their desk, at the end of the class when she was giving her closing remarks students who stood up were quickly reprimanded. I am excited to go back and hopefully engage more with the students.
This was a great observation. I enjoyed that you focused on a specific aspect of the teacher. The only thing I suggest is that you include a bit more from the reading other than that I enjoyed your observation of this fifth grade class.
-Jingle
I too was surprised by my class rooms independent nature. I thought at first that my class like yours was going to be unruly due to their open environment. Thankfully like your experience, I was pleasantly surprised by their level of engagement.
Elizabeth, I’m glad you found your observations productive, especially when you had time to observe the teacher over the span of a full period as she guided students towards finding their own way into the song, This Land Is Your Land. I would like to hear more specifics describing this classroom. What were some of the other “signs” of learning that you noticed in the physical environment. In addition, what PBL or EL principles were followed in the classroom?
MAJ Hodde
I find it interesting that you thought the teacher would be a push over. I find it cool that you noticed how orderly the teacher kept the classroom. I also find it interesting how quickly the teacher reprimanded students. I would have thought she’d be easier on elementary students.
We also had an assistant teacher in our classroom who did the same thing. This is a very interesting dynamic within the school. I feel as though this does help the teachers focus more on teaching while the assistant teachers can focus on disruptions in the classroom.