SED 407 Observations

The What:

      For my observations my co-teacher and I went to Ms. Garces classroom. She teachers English 10 and currently has a RIC student teacher, Mr. Bonaldi. Together, they're teaching the book Lord of the Flies. In some classes Mr. Bonaldi takes the lead and in the more challenging ones Ms. Garces takes the lead.  When Ms. Garces hands the class over to him she's still a asset to the classroom by watching the student teacher and looking about the classroom to see if students are following directions and how they're responded to a different instructor. Some of the things I noticed first was that each student was handed an agenda for the day. It had the "do now" on it which gave them choices of which questions to answer and relates to what they're doing (symbolism). The agenda sheet on the  exit slip on it as well as the do now so that could hand all 3 things in before leaving class; the do now, day activity, exit slip. I noticed the school starts at 8am when most schools start much earlier. After the bell rang, there were some brief announcements addressing dress code.  After the announcements its a bit noisy as students settle down and many were walking in late. I saw the essential question on board and the objectives for the lesson.    

During the lessons he asks a lot of questions, some lower level, vocabulary based but talking about personification and he asked them to give examples. The were reviewing personification of previous chapters. He forgot to give everyone agenda handout with the do now and some didn't ask until he was done going over the do now. This is something that might seem minor but if 3 students didn't have the handout then they weren't following along but still could have been listening. At another point in class he was asking for the answer to his question and then says "Lay it on me guys". This was meant to be a care-free way of asking for the answer, but I found it a bit inappropriate. The kids didn't seem to think it was a big deal but one student might find it inappropriate. After reviewing the do now, they began to read another chapter of Lord of the Flies. They did Popcorn reading where you read a paragraph and when they're done or don't want to read anymore you say popcorn and something continues. While the students were reading the student teacher and the teacher would stop the reading to discusses what's going on, check comprehension and understanding of concepts in reading. Ms. Garces asked the question, What does it mean to you? and asked them what images come to mind after reading a passage.

The so what:

      

    At the beginning of the class I was just observing. I was looking what was on the walls, listening to what was being said and seeing what was going on in the classroom. When I finally had my ah-ha moment was when all I kept thinking was distractions distraction distractions! At the beginning of the school day, 5 students came late at all different times. Throughout the lesson students kept asking to use the bathroom. People coming and going from bathroom, students were not paying attention, talking, getting distracted. As people walk in late or come back from the bathroom the student teacher had to catch up people who are behind. One of the 6 students who went to the bathroom was gone for 15 minutes. Other students were in the bathroom 8-12 minutes at a time when there is only 65-69 minutes in a period.This makes me wonder because this student is going to be behind because he's missing the material but also what is he doing during that time.  Two cellphones went off in class but Mr. Bonaldi didn't take them away, he just asked the students to shut the sound off and put them away. Ms. Garces saw that students had their hoods and headphones in the ears and she asked them to put the hood down and the headphones away.

While they're reading Ms. Garces said she wanted to "Hear more voices" asking for different readers for participation because it counts towards their grade. I thought this was important because she's giving them opportunity to participate and reminds them of the need to be active. On another observation day the student teacher gave students the option to read in roles or just to read in paragraphs. One student said it was hard to follow when everyone has different roles so they chose to read in paragraphs. Within 10 minutes a group of students said it was boring so they went back to roles now they did it yesterday. He should have just done it the way he knows works, and not give students the option.

The now what:

Now is when we look at the bigger picture and see what it all means.  One of the big things I noticed was lateness. I found it extremely distracting watching the teacher constantly having to refocus his thought because students kept opening and closing the door. But reality is; a large majority of the students walk to school. That day I was running a little late myself and as I was driving towards the school I could see students walking. Due to the location of the school I always have to park 2-3 blocks away and walk. This usually takes me maybe 5-7 minutes depending how far I park. Imagine living 10 minutes driving from the school, that could take up to 20 minutes. I think going forward, we can't lower our expectations for the students simply because they are walking to school. But maybe have empathy and have a conversation with students who are late after class and discuss how to use the morning time more effectively and to leave at the time that allows you to get to school on time.

Another topic I thought about was how to avoid having bathroom distractions. I thought it would make sense to allow students to go to bathroom at during the first 5 minutes of class during the do now, while the teacher is taking attendance, not during the middle of instruction. If it's an emergency then it's ok to go during class. Perhaps discussing with the class how to use transition time between classes more effectively and to use the bathroom then. The teacher could talk about how going to bathroom during class is disruptive and distracting to the teacher and the students. After thinking about this for the three observations, I asked Ms. Garces what the bathroom rule was and she said they weren't allowed to go during the first or last 10 minutes of class. So this was a really dead moment because you're left with an unsolved problem because students are leaving the class during instruction time. I also thought about how sometimes teacher have to pick and choose things to let go, especially when they can't win. I thought about maybe the thing for Ms. Garces was, bathroom breaks, because she seemed equally as frustrated with the distractions.

One of the last things that made me think was the toss up between different reading strategies. Reading as a whole class can be hard because everyone learns in different ways. This class might do better in reading groups since the students were split. Some like reading in roles and some liked just reading by paragraph.

Some lasting thoughts...Ms. Garces was absent the day before our third observation and only twelve students came to class. Where were they? Library? cafeteria? I asked if they were punished for skipping class while the student teacher was there and she said no because once the administration finds they're skipped class its too late. During the last observation the fire alarm went off and took up 10 minutes of class time. When the students all came back to class Ms. Garces addressed that they have to refocus and get back to reading. This reminded me how something so small as reminding kids to refocus can be very helpful because high school teens don't know how to refocus they have to be taught how to and told.  She did this by talking about it for a little, getting it all out, and then getting back into Lord of the Flies. The student teacher speaks really quickly and it was hard to follow sometimes. It reminded me of myself because I often mumble or talk fast so for myself I can see this as being something I have to work on.