A.
There are many societal factors
that have helped with the learning
environment at Cotter that I have
noticed. The first if the
“institutional practices” the school
is a private school that is based on
Bishop Joseph B. Cotter. The
founder of the school. The first
thing the students do on Friday
when they start class begins with a
prayer. This prayer lets the
students stop their world and take
a minute to gather their thoughts
which help to relax and focus on
the problems at hand. The next
thing I noticed is that Cotter is a
very well funded school. They have
chrome books for the teachers to
check out for classrooms. They also
have projectors in the classrooms.
While walking up to the classroom,
I noticed on the wall there are
words written down like strength
and courage. This serves as a
reminder to students to be
encouraged. The next thing I
noticed in the morning
announcements they mentioned
their work with Relay for Life and
walking to the main office there is
a large chain fence with a bunch of
decorated locks on it. The locks
were available for the purchase of
five dollars, and they could
decorate them and place them on
the fence the proceeds go to a
charity. This school also does of
charity work. The teacher I am
observing also does a lot in her
classroom to fight racialization
within her classroom. She does an
excellent job of staying patient
with all the students and will go
above and beyond when one
student doesn’t understand. The
main ideology I wanted to focus on
is that there is a stereotype for
C. . Eric Jensen said in his article
Poverty and Classroom Management:
“Students who show little or no effort
are simply giving you feedback. When
you liked your teacher, you worked
harder. When the learning got you
excited, curious, and intrigued, you
put out more effort.” (Jensen, 27) He
said this to enlighten teachers that
when they put in more effort, their
students are more likely to see this and
be more interested in a teachers’ class.
This helps to shape my understanding
of working with impoverished
students because Jensen helped to
show that if a student seems bored in
the classroom that they might have
something else going on in their lives
and not to take it personally.
D. My cooperating teacher does an
excellent job helping students address
many soft skills. The first week I
observed her classroom she had the
students doing a group poster on
events of the cold war. By doing this,
they had to use teamwork on getting
everything done in time and also, they
had to use leadership skills on
assigning who was going to do what
and how they were going to go about
their poster. I watched as one group
had to work on their communication
skills between each other because
there was an argument among them.
Lastly, for this week she had them do
independent study time for the
summit, the summit involves public
speaking which a big soft skill and the
ability to practice this is huge. For this
summit though that have to use the
soft skill time management because
they are given three class periods to
 history classrooms that girls find study a person of their choosing and
history boring. get to know how they would feel
during the cold war. The final, soft
B. There are a few learning theorists skill they are learning is how to use
that this classroom reminded me
their tech tools wisely and how to use
of. On Friday, they were working
independently and with their them for good, not just games. They
tables to discuss the upcoming are allowed to use the chrome books
Summit. The summit is where each when looking up the information, so
table is given a time- period during they are learning how to search for a
the cold war, and they had to find more detailed search.
someone that was assigned to E. For the most part, my cooperating
them either military personnel, teacher follows the six C’s in the
U.S. member of the cabinet, article “Much Done, Much Yet to Do”
member of the politburo, a U.S. by Robert B. Cooter, Jr., J Helen
entertainment/media member and
Perkins. She is especially significant
so forth. After researching, they
then are going to discuss events at the last one consequences.
and how they would have been Consequences in the article mean
handled by the person they have expectations and results that should be
chosen. While watching them met (565). She understands that not all
perform their knowledge base was students are at the same academic
declarative as told by theorist John reading level as others which is why
H. Flavell the students were very she allows for multiple ways to find
reliant on the teacher helping them information whether from chrome
and telling them exactly, what to books, textbooks, or even other
do and what to research. Pavlov
reading materials. When something is
also fit for this classroom because
they were "call to response," they not going as smoothly as she had
rely on a bell system to tell them planned, she remains incredibly
when they can leave and how long patient with her students.
they have to be in class for. Lastly,
Bruner’s theory on constructivism
is at play with the important
societal factor because it is a theory
that all students are not blank
slates they all have experiences
and can learn from them. Bruner
helps prove that the institution
societal factor is a resource
because since it is a school that
offers a lot of charitable work and
offers a lot of afterschool programs
they can gain more experiences.
His theory also comes into play
because the teacher I am often
working ties in other subjects with
U.S. History. I have heard her
bring in a book that the students
were looking at in English and
during the fall they also write a
research paper that connects with
their English class.