Anecdotal Records

Kathy Roark
Collin College

Day 1
Hour 1 - Physical Arrangement
My first hour of observation was exciting. I came in right at the start of class and got to
experience how the students entered the room in the morning, started working on their morning
work, and listening to the morning announcements. Ten minutes before the official start of class
at 7:45 a.m., students were allowed to come into the room, put their bags on their assigned
hooks, pull out any necessary folders/assignments, and head to their desk to quietly work on
morning work items. About the same time is when the school announcements start, and the
teacher pulls up a video link on the SmartBoard so that all of the students can watch their peers
and the principle deliver weekly reports, as well as recite the American pledge and Texas pledge.
At this time, the teacher makes any of her special announcements she has for the class, like
taking up money collections for the school's FunRun, picture money, and yearbook cover contest
submissions. I was here for these morning announcements, followed by the start of the students
already beginning work and engaging in their writing assignments that were assigned earlier in
the week. My first day of observations also happened to be picture day at school and was a total
nightmare of a mess. The teacher and students had to stop on three different occasions to line-up
and attempt to have their pictures taken, only to be sent back to class because the photographer
was running so far behind. The interruptions were a major nuisance and a lesson killer for the

teacher and students, but no one was bent out of shape over it. It was just a challenge for the day
and everyone - students and teacher, alike - just handled it and moved on. Taking advantage of
this short window of opportunity, Mrs. Morris introduced me to her students, as well as gave me
the opportunity to introduce myself and say a little something to the kids, who, in turn,
welcomed me with open arms.
On my first day, I spent time observing the classroom arrangement. Mrs. Morris had her
student desks grouped in an arrangement of either 4 or 6 desks and arranged towards the back of
the room to provide enough space at the front of the room for classroom instruction. Typically,
she gives instructions utilizing the SmartBoard in this area at the front of the room while her
students are seated on the rug. There are posters of positivity all along the walls, and in one
corner of her room, she has a bookshelf filled with different books and a small rug to help make
it a softer reading corner. There is also a teacher table next to the reading center, where on the
walls surrounding that area are displays of student work, concepts, and strategies that the
students have been working on all year for each subject, like Science, Social Studies, and Math.
She has a tech knowledge area that gives student access to a computer and multiple iPads that
her students use daily. I believe Mrs. Morris has an excellently balanced approach to all learning
styles in which she provides open centers that are easy to view the SmartBoard from anywhere
on the rug or from the desks. The room is spacious, clean, organized, and decorated, which
makes it a very inviting area for all students.
Hour #2 - Routines and Procedures
Hour two of my observation consisted of the students taking part in a writing lesson. The
students were gathered on the rug to listen and watch Mrs. Morris draw out a visual example of
one brainstorming strategy that they would use to develop their personal stories that they will be

writing. After the lesson had been completed, students were dismissed to begin working
independently on their stories. If students felt that they needed more instruction, they were
allowed to remain behind on the rug. About 4 or 5 students stayed behind and Mrs. Morris
provided each of them with more direct instruction; as the students felt more and more
comfortable, they would leave the rug and begin working. While Mrs. Morris was working with
her remaining students on the carpet, I walked around the room observing what the students were
doing, different things in the room, and answering questions for students when they asked, like
how to spell a word. Just as the kids were getting into a good working rhythm, it was time to
line up again and try to take their school pictures. Students were asked to place any working
material on their desk and line up at the door.
By the time I arrived, Mrs. Morris was already in her classroom, allowing students to put
their belongings on their hooks and getting started working on their "Word Work" at their desks.
Until she allows students to enter the room, students, typically, line up along the wall outside of
her classroom in the hall. A basket of books has been placed just outside the door so any student
who wishes to read quietly may do so. When its time, the teacher invites her students to enter
and pulls in the basket of books into the room. She says "Hello" or "Good morning" to each of
them and also always uses their first name when addressing them. Occasionally, she would
lightly pat one on the shoulder as they walked in, but she always had a warm, inviting smile on
her face. Morning Announcements start about 10 minutes before the onset of school, so Mrs.
Morris always has the SmartBoard on and open to the announcement link. Student
announcements start off with the American pledge, the Texas pledge, and a moment of silence.
Then a student and the principal lead the school through the video announcements. When the
announcements are completed, Mrs. Morris stands in the front of her room and asks for any

lunch money, FunRun money, Yearbook Contest forms, Field trip slips, or any forms that need to
be turned in. Then she gives a quick overview of what they all will do next and what they should
be doing at that moment.
Before starting my observations, Mrs. Morris had covered general procedures with her
students, like when and how they were allowed to use the restroom. For Mrs. Morris, she has two
signs hanging on her whiteboard - one that says Girl and one that says Boy. If a student
needs to use the restroom, they simply get the sign, place it at their desk or wherever they are
sitting on the rug, and go to the bathroom. When they return, they replace the sign on the
whiteboard. Unless it is an emergency, a student must wait for the sign to be available to use the
restroom. Also, there is no leaving the classroom to use the bathroom during the instruction part
of a lesson. If Mrs. Morris is teaching, the students must wait to go until an appropriate time.
Hour 3 - Students
Hour three of my observation started out with the students at recess. I followed Mrs.
Morris out with the students as she was on duty for recess time and it gave me an opportunity to
ask questions without interrupting her teaching. The students played in groups using their
imagination in the dirt, some played with footballs or basketballs that they brought from home
(mostly the boys), and some were just loaners off by themselves, seemingly doing nothing. There
were multiple teachers out there watching the students, and to my surprise, they did a great job
not clustering together and just talking. And if I did hear them talking, it was about a lesson that
they had come up with or about one they had just completed and they wanted to know how their
fellow teacher's students seemed to grasp the concepts. When it was time to go in, Mrs. Morris
blew a whistle. The students had previously learned that blowing it once meant freeze and look at
the teacher, twice represented a car was approaching and to get to the side of the road, and three

times implied that recess was over and to line up. Each class lined up in front of a cone based on
their classes. Once everyone was lined up, the classes being the most well-behaved would be
released first to start walking in. Upon returning to the class, Mrs. Morris gave the students about
15 more minutes to continue working on their writing, as they had been interrupted so many
times that morning due to student pictures.
Mrs. Morris seems to have a pretty level class with regard to student diversity. She has
two students with visible disabilities, but from what I witnessed, that had little to no effect on the
other students. In fact, on multiple occasions, I observed several students making an effort to
make sure that the students with a disability were included in group activities. I watched as they
invited the students to join their team or to ask the student's opinion when discussing the topic of
a story plot. I also observed a student stop and offer to help when a bucket of books fell off a
desk. The student character in Mrs. Morris class is at a level I would have hoped to see in high
school, so it warms my heart that such an amazing group of third graders was showing me just
how remarkable students can be. I would also like to point out that almost all of Mrs. Morris'
students came to school with a great attitude for learning. And, it was very obvious that their
positive attitude bled into every area of the school for them, from friendships with peers to
tackling tough assignments.
Hour 4 - Introductions to Lessons or Activities
Hour four of my observation started with the return of students from recess. As the
students came in, they calmly and quietly walked down the hall to their room in a straight line.
The line leader stopped the line at the door, prompting all the students to stop and line up along
the wall until the teacher arrived at the doorway in order to give them permission to enter. As the
students entered the room, they grabbed their snack and headed to the rug. Before starting into

their Math lesson for the day, the teacher read a section from the book Bunnicula by Deborah and
James Howe. The students were allowed to eat their snack and either sit or lay down to listen
while she read aloud to them. The teacher was great about fluctuating her voice for each
character and pausing to ask questions and point out complicated vocabulary. Most of all, the
students were highly engaged and seemed to enjoy the way she was reading to them. She read
for about 20 minutes before switching the focus over to Math. To change gears, all she had her
students do was sit up because laying down was only allowed when she was reading to them.
She then drew their attention to the SmartBoard where she displayed a word problem. She asked
the students to use mental math to solve the problem and use their hand signal to indicate when
they settled on an answer. The students used a thumbs up to show that they had an answer and
when the teacher called on a student to provide their answer, the other students would use a
different set of hand signals to indicate that they either agreed or disagreed with their answers.
Students were then asked to get a whiteboard and dry erase marker to work on the next problem
presented on the board. As the students worked, the teacher walked around the room observing
the process in which the students tried to solve the problem; she would point out the supportive
aids on the wall that provided different Math strategies that her students could use to address the
problem. They were only able to work a few problems before it was time to head off to lunch.
Having observed Mrs. Morris' class for multiple hours in a day, I had the opportunity to
notice how she transitioned into new activities, and almost always, she begins with a mini lesson
while her students are on the rug with her. Different tools are used, like the mini dry erase
boards or clipboards, but the lesson all started out on the mat with her. If the lesson carried over
from the day before, she provided a recap, much like she did when they were learning about
folktales, and refreshed their memories on the elements that make up a folktale. However, I did

get to see her introduce a new concept in Math. She started out using the dry erase boards with
the kids on the rug to teach them a strategy for subtracting using a number line and estimation.
Other than missing the review from the previous day, it wasnt that much different. Instead, she
did a quick review of estimation, number lines and addition, then jumped right into the lesson of
subtraction.
Day 2
Hour 5 - Transitions
Hour five observation started much like the onset of day 1. The students were greeted at
the door by the teacher and welcomed into the room. As they entered the room, the students put
their belongs away on their hooks, pulled out any folders and went to their desks to begin
working on their "Word Work." The teacher also had the morning announcements up on the
SmartBoard so all of the students could watch and listen to their fellow peers and principle
provided them with the menu for lunch, information about special events, mentionable birthdays,
and any necessary reminders. They also sang the National Anthem, said the Pledge of
Allegiance, and recited the Texas pledge before sitting down quietly for a moment of silence.
The students worked on their "Word Work" for about 10 minutes after the announcements were
over while the teacher filled me in on a few behavioral concerns that she saw in the class. Then,
she asked all the students to join her on the rug in a big circle. The kids sat knee to knee, with
chris-crossed legs, hands in their laps and eyes on the speaker. Per the teacher, having a morning
meeting was not a common occurrence, but today, she was going to take the opportunity to talk
to them about the school's monthly theme - manners.
Mrs. Morris has a bank of different transitions that she uses in her classroom, but the
most popular, or at least the one I witnessed in action the most, was a counting down to the next

activity. When the students would be engaged in a small group or individual activity and it was
about time to move on, Mrs. Morris would start a countdown letting the students know that they
only had two minutes left, one minute left, etc., and her students responded well to it. When she
was in the middle of a lesson and about to release the students from a group discussion or a mini
lesson to begin working on an activity, Mrs. Morris would always repeat the instructions at least
two or three times and no one was to be moving until she gave the go ahead. If students seemed
to be having trouble with basic tasks like walking across the room correctly, she would release
the students to work by groups or by their table numbers.
Hour 6 - Procedures
Hour six observation started while the students were already working on a reading
assignment. The students were learning about story plots. While having the students on the rug,
Mrs. Morris drew out a story plot on the SmartBoard. The students could copy it into their
notebooks, then together, they created an anchor chart on the wall that explained each step in the
plot story mountain: Introduction, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, and Conclusion. When
they finished the anchor chart and the example for their notes off the SmartBoard, the students
were provided a short story to read, either as individuals or in small groups and a little worksheet
that showed the outline of a plot story mountain on it. The students were to read the story and fill
in the different sections about the plot. While the students began to work, I walked around the
room listening to the students read to each other and watching how they were analyzing the
different parts of the story and which part belongs in which sections. The teacher also walked
around offering any assistance and taking down notes about what she was observing from her
students as she went.

Mrs. Morris spends only a small portion of the designated curriculum time conducting a
teacher-directed lesson, on average about 15-20 minutes. The rest of the time is spent with
students mostly working in small groups. During Math, the student-directed learning is most
often done while working in centers, where groups of 3 to 5 students transition daily from handson activities to games, to small groups with the teacher, then to technology. If students finish
with their objectives early, they are always free to read or continue working in a center that they
may not have completed from an early subject. Also during those center times, the teacher is
working with small groups that need additional help to grasp the concept. All of the third-grade
teachers have devised a plan where, based on the level and needs of the student, they will be sent
to another teacher's room for more isolated help. This idea allowed the teachers to help more
students with the same need faster than trying to figure out how to help them individually within
their class.
Hour 7 - Materials and Technology
During hour seven of my observation, the students transition from working on Reading to
working on a Science review. This is a change of schedule because normally Science is at the
end of the day; however, due to the students having a guest in the afternoon for Writing, they
rearranged the schedule. This is the first time the students are getting to do a review like this and
they seem to like it. The teachers used a program called Plickers, where each student gets a
unique card that, when held in a certain way, will indicate which answer they select. The teacher
explains all the how-to of the process and then begins the review. A question is posted on the
board and the students hold up their Plicker cards with the answer they selected in the top
position. Then, the teacher uses her iPhone and scans the cards. The answers are tallied and the
students can then see how many students chose which answer. When the correct answer was

confirmed, the students would get excited and shout things like Yes and I knew it. It always
provided the teachers with instant feedback and an opportunity to re-teach a concept before
having their exam. Right at the end of the review, it was time to line up for recess.
Mrs. Morris has a plethora of materials and technology at her fingertips in her classroom,
but she also has her favorites. The tools I observed the most used by students were the mini dry
erase boards, clipboards, and iPads. She does have a section dedicated to materials like math
manipulatives that students would go and retrieve when working in their math centers. She also
has two full bookshelves full of educational and entertainment based literature at all reading
levels. I often viewed students reading after they were done and heading over to her library to
pick out and read a book. As for technology that Mrs. Morris uses in the classroom, I observed
her using the SmartBoard with almost every lesson, but she also uses a document camera, a
computer, an iPhone, an iPad, and a printer; and that was all used in day one of observation.
Hour 8 - Team Teaching
Hour eight observation started off with the kids at recess. Upon returning to the
classroom, the students retrieved their snack and headed to their desk to begin working on the
warm-up math problem the teacher had posted on the SmartBoard. The students worked
independently in their math journals trying to solve the problems while the teacher walked the
room drawing attention to the various math strategies she was seeing students use to address the
problem, as well as drawing the students' attention as to where in the room they could find those
strategies to reference. After a few minutes of allowing the students to solve the warm-up
problem, the teacher asked the students to join her by calling on one table of students at a time to
come up and get a dry-erase board and a marker then finds a spot on the rug where they could
see. The teacher was introducing a new lesson on estimation, so she proceeded to give a mini

lesson on the carpet and then break the students up into their small groups that had different
math-based activities. This allowed the teacher to pull small groups of students who required
further instruction to understand the new concept.
I had the pleasure of getting to tag along to one of the third-grade development team
meetings during my observations. I was excited to see how the team works together to plan and
develop lessons. I was surprised to realize that even as paid professionals they, at times, were
just like students themselves and easily sidetracked with conversations of the topic. However,
the team worked together to assign each person a role within the meeting to help them stay on
task. Each member of the team was assigned to a particular content area that they were
responsible for creating. Mrs. Morris covered the ELAR topics. Within the meeting, I heard
conversations about how activities were going to be graded, and for what percentage of a grade; I
witnessed brainstorming and participation by all teachers for all areas, not just the areas they
were to be presenting. I watched as the team developed a plan to take a concept they had been
using in ELAR and mold it to work for math. The teacher decided to divide students by need
and send students with the similar need to a designated teacher for a re-teach or a guided lesson.
Dividing the students up allows the teachers to focus on helping more students at once with the
same issues.
Day 3
Hour 9 - Conclusions to Activities and Evaluations
Hour nine observation started off with the students working on their "Word Work." While
the teacher explained to me that the students were grouped into one of three categories based on
their ability, and that the student's ability was determined by the assessments she conducted at the
beginning of the year, as well as the periodic evaluations she completes each grading period.

Students work on their "Word Work" for about the first 15 minutes of class following the Pledge
and the morning announcements. Today, the teacher used a countdown to indicated how long
before transitioning to the next subject, Reading. At the transition, the kids were called to the rug
to review what they already knew about folktales. As I am coming in on the middle of a unit, the
students had already started creating a passport of information about different genres. Today,
they were adding to the details about folktales. As the teacher wrote her notes on an exact copy
of what the students had, she displayed them on the document camera so that all the students
could copy down what she had written. When they were done writing their notes, the teacher
began reading to them The Legend of the Bluebonnet. While reading, the teacher would ask
questions and draw the students attention to specific details.
It is hard to see the conclusion to activities because most often lessons were concluded on
Friday and I was only observing on Tuesdays and Thursdays. However, I did get to witness Mrs.
Morris preparing students for a unit exam for Science. She used the Plicker cards and prewritten review questions to prepare the students for an upcoming exam the next day in an
interactive, hands-on activity. The students loved the concept, and I have no doubt it will be
used again. What caught my attention about conducting a review in this manner was the ease of
obtaining assessment data before the exam on an individual basis. Mrs. Morris keeps a binder of
all assessment data and evaluation data on her students for easy access and efficient record
keeping. Plickers, allows you to keep and maintain records, per the student and/or the class,
which she prints off a copy and puts in her binder. Because of the files, Mrs. Morris was able to
see which student benefits from the review.
Hour 10 - Teaching/Pupil Interaction

Hour ten observation began at the end of the teacher reading the story. She then provided
them a handout of questions and paired the students up to work on the assignment together.
Students can work anywhere in the classroom and I was surprised at how many students take
advantage of that freedom and choose to work on the floor, at the teacher's conference table, or in
the technology center. Very few students stay at their desk to work. Students were given about
15 minutes to work on the handout together and only a few times needed to be reminded to stay
on task or keep their voices low. While the students were working, the teacher took the
opportunity to show me the week's lesson plans and explained the writing assignment that they
were about to start next.
Every morning Mrs. Morris greets her students at the door as they enter the room. She
always has a smile on her face, welcoming words and a hug for the students who ask for one.
Mrs. Morris was always very positive in how she spoke with students and provided specific
feedback on desired behaviors she was observing. For example, she would let all the students
know how resourceful X-student was being by looking at the anchor chart they had created
earlier for strategies on how to solve a problem in multiple ways. During teacher directed
lessons and individual center time, students with questions would raise their hands and wait to be
called on or for Mrs. Morris to walk over to them to help. Calling out and just walking up to her
and beginning to talk was never an option Mrs. Morris allowed in her class. If a student did do
that, she always politely reminded them of the rules and asked them to follow them. She was
very consistent in how she would handle students speaking out of turn.
Hour 11 - Teachers Handling of Diverse Students
Hour eleven observation began at the beginning of writing. Students were called to the
rug and given a mentor sentence that they then glued into their writing journals and dissected

individually before working it as a group. Students were dismissed by tables to head back to their
desk and retrieve their papers. They are working on a story where they are creating a folktale of
their own. Again, students are allowed to work anywhere in the room, as long as they are
working and quiet. While the students are writing, the teacher pulls small groups back to the
teacher table to work on individual assessments and complete running records. The rest of the
students continue to work alone on their writing, or when done, they pair off to peer edit each
other's papers before starting in on a final draft. At the end of writing time, it is time for the
students to head to recess.
In Mrs. Morris classroom when students of differing abilities require things like
additional time to complete assignments, it is always given. I observed Mrs. Morris on multiple
occasions offering her students opportunity to complete unfinished assignments when and if they
completed the current center they were working on, during their tier time class period, during
recess, coming in early from lunch, or taking assignments home to work on it as homework. I
liked the way Mrs. Morris set-up a stress-free environment when it comes to getting assignments
completed within a set amount of time. The only activity I witnessed being held to a stricter
timetable was the exams that the students took in math. Even for the few students that required
extra time due to either an IEP requirement or just because Mrs. Morris is an observant teacher
and recognized students that struggle with timed activities, she provided an opportunity for
students to come in at recess or finish during their tier time.
Hour 12 - Teachers Questions Posed to Students
Hour twelve observations start with the students at recess while myself and the teacher
have a chance to catch up and discuss what they will be doing next in math, how she handles
modifying her lesson plans and more. As normal when the students return from recess, they line

up at the door and wait along the wall outside the classroom for the teacher to give them
permission to enter. As they enter the room, they retrieve their snack and head to their desk to
begin working on the warm-up question. After a few minutes, the teacher invites the students to
join her on the rug; today, they are starting to review multiplication strategies. The teacher has
already created the bones of an anchor chart that will be hung on the wall under math, but first,
the students help her to fill in the guts of the diagram. Once they have added to the diagram,
reviewed the warm-up problem, the students are handed a piece of paper with word problem on
it, a particular weak skill the students seem to have, per the teacher. So, every day they work on
a word problem. The students are dismissed back to their desks to paste the word problem in
their math binders and begin to work the problem. After a few minutes, they review the challenge
together and the teacher helps to point out how multiple strategies could be used to solve and
check the answer.
Mrs. Morris asks a lot of higher order thinking questions and the way she does it comes
across so natural that I had to concentrate to realize what she was even doing in the first place.
Questions are asked throughout all sections of a lesson, but understandable, more are asked
during the mini lessons conducted while the students are sitting on the rug at the front of the
classroom. During a lesson in math, I listened to Mrs. Morris ask the students to stop and think
about How do we use scales? A few of the kids instantly shot their hands up into the air, but
most, you could see, were thinking about her question. She picks on one of the girls to answer
and then asked the class if that answer made sense? Students had previously been taught to use
hand signals to indicate if they agree, disagree, or were not sure. Using the hand signals kept the
kids calm, quiet, and more focused on the task at hand. Many of the same kids often raised their

hands to answer, but Mrs. Morris was quite good at making sure everyone received opportunities
to answer.
Day 4
Hour 13 - Classroom Management
Hour thirteen observations started like every other morning. First with the pledge of
allegiance, they morning announcements, and then word work. Today was the day the students
focused on Crazy Links with their words. They needed to make five complete sentences using
2 to 3 of their vocabulary words in each sentence. As typical students are given about the first 15
mins of class to work on word work, then they moved into reading. The students are asked to
come to the rug and listen to a story. Then they are given a handout and paired into small groups
of 3 to 4 students. I was impressed that students in the class were aware and remembered about
students who were out to the bathroom or that would be returning from a resource room and
volunteered to have them in their group upon returning. The students spent the rest of the hour
working in those small groups to complete the handout. The teacher did remind students at the
end of the time that if they did not have a chance to finish the assignment they could work on it
later during tier time.
Disruptions are part of a classroom, and Mrs. Morris knows that well, one of her students
struggles greatly to stay on task, control his behavior and uses many different avoidance
strategies. He is not a diagnosed students, but Mrs. Morris does believe testing may be in his
future as his actions are impacting his education. This student is often in close proximity to Mrs.
Morris, and on many occasion, she would give a verbal reminder in general to the class about
expected behaviors like no laying down while she was teaching. I observed her a few times walk
over to the student and place her hand on his shoulder while she was still teaching so not to

disrupt the lesson but get the student's attention to correct his actions. During one of the math
lessons the students were at their desk working with counting blocks and the student was unable
to stop touching the blocks he had in front of him. Usually, I dont think that would have been an
issue, but he was picking them up and dropping them back down to the desk making a loud bang
that was interfering with the lesson and learning the students around him were trying to do. After
a class reminder to place their blocks into the center of the desk and leave them alone, then a
directed reminder to him personally, she finally had to take the blocks away until she was done
teaching the lesson.
Hour 14 - Group Management
Hour fourteen observation started with the beginning of social studies today. The students
were given a note card and a handout of a map. While the teacher explained and displayed an
example of what she wanted the students to do with their notes cards, the students mostly
followed along. A few students off task and not focused had trouble following along. The teacher
displayed on the smart board and activity that walked students through answering questions
based on using the map. Students who seem to be having trouble understanding manages better
when the teacher replaced the black and white copy of the map overhead with a color copy she
pulled up on the computer and displayed it overhead. Teacher and students together worked
through the assignment.
Getting the classes attention was something I didnt realize would be so hard to and
keeping your voice calm and quiet. I natural raise my voice to be louder so the kids could hear
me over there talking but Mrs. Morris never raised her voice. I was in awe of how she managed
it and tried to keep track of the many attention getters she used in the class. One of her favorites
was a Shh techniques used. She would say Shh Shh Shh in a pattern and the students would

echo it back to her. It worked every time. She also used the one, two, three eyes on me where
the students responded with one, two, three eyes on you. Or If you can hear me clap one and
the students clap once. Mrs. Morris never used the lights out or yelling techniques which made
her classroom environment a much calm and relaxed atmosphere to learn in.
Hour 15 - Paraprofessional and Specialized Teachers
Hour fifteen observation starts while the students are still working on social studies.
Students who have finished the handout, are given a blank piece of paper and a list of
requirements for the next assignment. The students will be creating/drawing a map of their own
island. Up on the whiteboard, the teacher has posted all the required objects like a name, capital,
a river, ocean, a key. Everything is optional except the name of the ocean; that they have to pick
and name an actual ocean. The students begin working and seem excited to create their maps as
well as share their maps with their peers and me. I was called over to several of the student's
desk to have them show me their maps and what clever names they picked for their islands,
rivers, and the capital. The students worked on their maps right up until it was time for recess.
Two of Mrs. Morris students require the assistance of a paraprofessional. Short of letting
the para know what they were currently working on in class at that moment there was not a lot of
other interaction with the paras while in the class that I got to observe. The paras would sit
with the students, take notes for them, help read books and worksheets and just be there for
overall support. They were never in the class long as the students often left to spend time in a
resource room. From talking with Mrs. Morris, I know she would communicate with the special
education teachers often to help make sure they know what was being worked on in class and she
could know what they were working on when they were in the resource room.
Hour 16 - Volunteers

Hour sixteen observation began with the students at recess while the teacher and I stayed
in the classroom to prepare for their lesson in math that day. Upon returning from recess, the
students waited at the door to be welcomed in and then retrieve their snack and begin working on
their warm-up problem. When they were done, the teacher had the students come to the rug, and
they reviewed the problem together as a class, followed by their continued lesson in
multiplication. After the mini lesson the teacher handed each student a word problem and
dismissed them to being working on it. When they were done with the word problem, they
review it from their desks and then were allowed to break up into their pre-assigned groups to
begin working on math stations. The worked on math stations until it was time for lunch.
In all of my hour's observing, I did not get to see the use of a volunteer. However, I do
know that Mrs. Morris would often submit items to the library and office to be laminated and
copied for her. I happen to know the school utilized volunteer a lot to come in and make copies
for teachers. So, where I did not personally witness the use of volunteers, I do know in the
background it happens. I also know the third grade has a field trip coming up to the Dallas
Arboretum and many, more than ten parents have volunteered to go and be chaperones.