Oscar Garcia

EDU 201
Thursday/11:00a.m.
ASSIGNMENT ONE (Observation):

1. My first impression of the classroom environment felt timid and innocent, but kind and

bubbly with an enthusiastic teacher. It was an orderly classroom with understanding

students whenever the teacher would make a mistake.

2. When describing the classroom, it had a wide open space in the middle to create a

pathway. The classroom was organized with no trash, backpacks, and paper on the floor.

The students use tables and have a chair rack to put their belongings. Many posters on the

walls, such as calendar, spelling words, class work, and review work (sentence starters,

grammar marks, etc.).

3. The class is made up of more boys than girls by a lot. The ethnicities are equally divided

between Whites, Hispanics, and Blacks. With the IEPs, there are only a few, but the

teacher believes a few more will get identified by the end of this school year.

4. The classroom rules are: 1) Follow directions quickly. 2) Raise your hand for permission

to speak. 3) Raise your hand to leave your seat. 4) Make smart choices. 5) Keep your dear

teacher happy.

5. The teacher enforces the rules on the first week of school. After that, she enforces them in

an unconditional way by having private conversations or reminding them to remember

the rule. For example, one rule is to raise your hand to speak, so if the student is talking

and raising their hand or just talking without raising their hand then the teacher reminds

them how to raise your hand by showing them how the other child does it. The only

rewards that have occurred are tally marks while consequences is taking away the item

distracting the child.

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ASSIGNMENT TWO (Instruction):

1. The daily schedule has changed about 4 times since the school year started according the

teacher. The class works on writing, reading, and science in the mornings while in the

afternoon they work on math and reading.

2. Instruction is usually delivered in partners and the class as a whole.

3. My cooperating teachers teaching style is a visual learner, but when it comes to her

class, she focuses on the students than her own learning style.

4. The teacher incorporates all sensory modalities into her lessons. For example, all the

activities are modeled with mirrors on before the students do it on their own. She tells

the students to listen carefully when giving instructions (auditory). She also writes part of

the sentence on the board (visual). Finally, has the class say the instructions using

gestures along with her (kinesthetic).

5. The students are engaged in the activities, but the teacher goes around partners to make

sure they are working.

6. The teacher handles the transitions by using the acronym C.H.A.M.P.S. The C is the

voice level the class should be in, H is what the student should do to get help (e.g. ask

partner or raise hand), A is what is the assignment being taught, M is what kind of

movement is acceptable (e.g. stay in chairs, multipurpose room, floor to sit), P describes

the way the students will participate with the assignment, and S means that the students

will be successful from the outcome. The transition is not really mentioned most of the

time, but it is not a problem with her class.

7. One of the types of attention getters the teacher uses is saying a word 3 times, which

means the students face towards that direction and have their eyes set (e.g. board, board,
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board and students face board and is used on people, too). There is also the Oh yea!

where the students depending on the groups say it when the teacher gives them tally

marks. The teacher also uses Hands and Eyes where the students sit criss-cross and hands

on their lap.

8. Some behavior issues the teacher has to deal with are students getting distracted with an

item, forgetting to raise their hand when wanting to speak, and the way students travel

back to their seats or carpet.

ASSIGNMENT FOUR (School/Classroom Culture):

A. Physical Characteristics.

1. Considering the surroundings of the school, the gate has a banner that says BE KIND

due to the death of a student, so that has become one of the main mottos in the school.

For example, the school announcements follow a Be Kind pledge daily and the t-shirt

merchandise has the words too. There is a playground and a huge grass field and tall trees

on the other side of the grass field. After school, there are many staff members taking

roles outside to control traffic issues, such as setting traffic cones to create structure for

parents to pick up their kids with a car. This is due to the parking lot being small.

2. Every bulletin board seems to be mostly decorated by the status of their students reading

level from the program they are using called Reading Rangers. One of the bathroom

walls has a mural, which was drawn by the art teacher.

B. Culture of the School.

1. As a tradition, the whole school does a little celebration once a month on a Friday where

they reward students who have advanced to the next reading level. They call it the

Reading Rangers Train and teachers and students gather out in the halls and outside
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portables and watch students get on the train as it goes around the school picking up the

students.

2. The interactions between the staff and visitors in the main office seems to give off an

occupied feeling since all the staff members are always busy. They do maintain an

assertive and positive attitude whenever interacting with parents. However, it seems that

the parents do not understand how busy it is for the office.

3. The way students socialize outside is by either playing sports together, on the

playground, or walking around. On the other hand, students socialize inside the cafeteria

by sitting next to each other, and they seem to wave at other students they know in the

halls.

4. The school is organized by grade levels. They play outside and eat in the cafeteria by

grade level and the multipurpose rooms have classrooms of the same grade level. The

portables this year had 5th graders except for the exception of one 4th grade teacher since

she had to change because of a teacher quitting.

C. Culture of the Classroom

1. The teachers expectations for learning and success is structured. She believes that as

long as a teacher has structure in their classroom that it can create an independence

among the students.

2. When it comes to the student participation, the teacher has the same kids participating

when showing the modeling of the assignment. She rarely has new ones, although, most

of the students participate in the assignment. The ones who do not participate are the ones

who need some improvement in their behavior. Other than that, the class does a well job

in participation, but at times some students need redirecting.

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3. The interaction between the teacher and students happens mainly at bathroom break or

when the student raises his/her hand without talking automatically. The teacher ignores

negative behavior and praises those with good behavior. She does not ignore the students

with negative behavior but has private talks with the student outside the classroom to

practice or a few minutes during recess time to practice and praises them on the things

they do good during practice.

ASSIGNMENT FIVE (Cooperating Teacher Interview):

1. What was the primary reason you became a teacher? I had to choose a career that

counted for something in the grand scheme of this world. Children count! I began my

business career straight out of college in the private sector (Pepsi-Cola). I was a sales

management trainee and after 6 months in this position, not only did I learn it was not a

good match for me but I learned that I am not motivated by money.

2. What is the main challenge you face as a teacher? To teach the range of children with

various ability levels in reading, writing, and math. Also, to help children learn basic

behavioral/social skills which they have not yet mastered but are crucial for a traditional

educational setting.

3. What is the best part of being a teacher? The best part is the intrinsic rewards;

developing relationships with children, watching them become more independent,

confident, and competent as little people and as students, developing relationships with

parents, mentoring new teachers, learning to work well with my co-workers, etc.

4. How do you determine where students sit in the class? They get to choose their seat

when they come to the meet and greet before school starts. If it works out, then they keep
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their seat. If it doesn't work out, then they get moved to a better location "where they can

learn more".

5. How do you select the members of flexible grouping? Assessment based selection of

groups and based on day to day performance in class.

6. How often do you interact in person with parents? What are the main reasons for

the interactions with parents? Weekly, sometimes daily. Parents call, text, or send

notes to seek clarification or ask questions. Sometimes it is just easier to speak to them in

person. Before and after progress reports or report cards is a good time to meet with

parents (before the actual conference time).

7. How much grading do you complete daily and weekly? When and where do you do

most of the grading? I have my two volunteers do the majority of my grading both daily

and weekly. I double check their work and then I enter it into the gradebook.

8. How long does it take to prepare lessons for the day/week? It takes at least 8

hours. Usually a couple hours writing the plans and then the remaining time to put the

plans into action (copies, getting materials ready, locating the materials, rethinking the

plans/improving the plans, updating the plans to adjust for the gaps, etc.)

9. What behavior consequences seem most effective with this age group? Actual

discipline. Helping students to become self-aware and notice when they are making a

bad choice, coaching the student to make better decisions, modeling good choices,

practicing good choices, noticing the choices of others and the logical consequences,

helping the students to learn the concept of making a bad choice as opposed to "being a

bad boy or girl", helping the students to internalize that their teacher and others love

them, are fortunate to have them in the class, they are still cute, intelligent, lovable EVEN
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when they make bad choices. It is easier to change behavior (choices) than change their

mindset that they are a "bad boy or girl".

10. How often are you evaluated and what measurement tool(s) are used by

administration for determining your performance? Tool NEPF...new last year. At

least three times per year my supervisor observes and evaluates.

11. What surprised you the most about teaching and the teaching profession? How

many hours are required outside of the regular work hours and how deeply rewarding the

profession is in contrast to my initial career.

ASSIGNMENT SIX (Observing a student):

I chose to observe a male student. I was observing when the student was taking a

comprehension test. However, instructions were given beforehand to give the students all tips on

how to test well, such as reading the questions first and then reading the prompt enough times to

find the answer for the question and reading all answer choices. My recording towards his

behavior went like this:

Student is reading question then reads story. Follows along story with a pencil. Answer
questions one at a time while reading simultaneously. Is now reading and rocking back
and forth, stretched, and moves around with chair. The student goes back to reading and
is now answering the next question. Keeps reading even when the teacher spoke at
times.

Based on my evaluation, the child must be a kinesthetic learner, then visual, and least

auditory.

ASSIGNMENT SEVEN (Reflection):

Throughout my time in the classroom, I got to work with a variety of children from

writing sentences, to spelling tests, to having them practice reading to me in order to test

their comprehension of the book. I stayed positive the whole time, which the teacher
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appreciated. She also appreciated me for everything I did in the classroom and vice versa

because I appreciated the experience and helpful advice I received from her. I was upset to

leave her class because I easily get attached to the students. I know that goodbyes will be

one of the hardest moments I, as a teacher, will face. Ms. Salazar notified me how much the

kids missed having me in the classroom and the impact I had on her students. They wrote

me letters, so I decided to visit another day in the classroom to pick up the letters, which

were kind and sweet. I did give Ms. Salazar a thank you card and a treat for her and the class

before I left to show my thanks. She wanted to keep in touch in case I learn anything new

and helpful that she can apply to her classroom. The only thing I would add to my classroom

that I did not see is a reward system. I did learn that a teachers job is time consuming and

busy, but it is the children who make me want to teach.