Middle School Observation

I observed a sixth grade classroom (eleven to twelve years of age) at a middle school in Ringgold, Georgia. The classroom seemed to be fairly even in regards to how many children of each sex were in the classroom. The majority of the students were white with a few african american and hispanic children among the mix. The sixth grade classes did not have enough employees to only teach one subject therefore, the teacher that I observed taught language arts and mathematics. The first thing you notice when you walk into the classroom is the mathematical shapes all along the upper wall like a wallpaper border. These shapes were projects from her students in the years before. The next thing that you’ll notice is the way the desks were set up. They were set up in three separate groups. One group of around twelve desks faced the

o Ensure opportunities for children to interact with one another and adults on an informal basis.

Berger, K. (2011). The Developing Person through the Life Span. (8th ed.). New York: Worth Publishers

On August 5, 2016 at 6:20 am I held Aaron Mills after the morning check in to discuss a situation that arose at Annandale High School. Present at the meeting was Craig Carney, Liaison and Steve Passino, HVAC Supervisor. The previous day Aaron was responding to a service call for the Athletic Directors office area Rooftop B1. Upon arrival at the jobsite I twice questioned Aaron if he had thoroughly checked out the Rooftop unit. Aaron responded “YES”. I then asked if he had checked the Freon charges in the system and Aaron responded “NO” as this is critical to a units operation. Prior to our arrival Aaron had informed Joe Lanham and Ed Bowler that everything was checked out on the Rooftop unit. While inspecting Rooftop B1 Steve Passino asked

Since completing the Agency Observation Checklist, I have taken a deeper look into the district I am currently employed in and the inequities that exist in its policies and practices. South Middle School is part of the Wentzville R-IV School District in Wentzville, MO. Wentzville is about 40 miles west of St. Louis and is considered a suburban city. Wentzville has grown significantly since 2010 and is continuing to rapidly grow. Wentzville School District currently serves close to 17,000 students. There are three high schools, three middle, schools, ten elementary schools, and one early childhood center. I work at South Middle School and have focused my observation and analysis on the English Language Learner structures

I attended Rudd Middle summers school program for EL students. I witnessed students from 3rd grade to high school students. The location of Rudd Middle School is within the city limits of Pinson, Alabama. Rudd Middle School is one of 9 middles schools within the Jefferson County Board of Education. Pinson, Alabama exact location is 33°41′11″N 86°40′55″W/ 33.68639°N 86.68194°W. Pinson is approximately 7 square miles. Rudd Middle School is a rural community. You can find the school surrounded by a nicely laid out neighborhood. The school has a small town community feel to it. The technical building is an older structure that seems to need to be replaced in the near futrure. The classrooms were average, but many of the instructors were

Out of all of my community service efforts, Volunteering at Travis Middle School is how I give back to my community. The athletic program at Travis Middle School taught me perseverance and discipline, coach Eric Casas being a huge factor.

For this scenario, I am a general education 6th grade math teacher, at the amazing campus of Our Lady of the Lake Middle School. The school that I work for has 8 periods each day, and I teach 6 out of those 8 periods. The classes do range for each period, but I roughly have 23 students in each class and with a diverse set of students; Hispanic (50.1%), White (40.8%), Black (4.8%), two or more races (3.1%), Asian (1%), and Pacific Islander (.2%). At Our Lady of the Lake Middle School the student’s population is broken down to 46% females and 54% males that attend the school. Socioeconomic details for the school is broken down to; eligible free lunch (43.3%), eligible fore reduced lunch (8.2%), and ineligible for free/reduced lunch (48.5%).

For the third observation, I made changes to grammar and fixed my sentences so they could flow better. I started by breaking the third sentence into two in the subjective portion. I did this so that the sentences could remain clear and flow. Next I changed the words "seen alone" to "one on one" to keep a professional tone in explaining that the client was seen by the clinician alone during the therapy session. In the subjective portion I also added details about when the client had his stroke, the effects of his stroke on his facial muscles on his right side, and his personality. For the objective section, I made changes in the spelling of the clinical term rote and used the term "tactical cues" to describe how the clinician helped the client

Panther points. I read this chapter with both of my observations in mind. My observation in North Minneapolis with Erik, at the middle school, at first seemed like I wasn’t going to learn anything. However, I think I have seen the example of what NOT to do in a school environment. My co-operating teacher along with all of the teacher’s in the middle school have decided to give Panther points out as a way to positively enforce good behavior. Eric’s yellow and red card system, followed by removal from class was used as the reinforcement of bad behavior. I directly witnessed a kid, let’s call him Marcus. On day one he was helpful in helping other kids with projects and was given a Panther point for his awesome leadership. On day two he even stayed after class to clean up and pushed many chairs in to straighten up. I even commented he was so well behaved when the rest of the students were out of control. On day three I saw a change. Marcus was told by Erik the co-operating teacher, that he should be doing these respectful and nice things without the Panther Points awarded as Erik had given him a lot of points throughout the days. This child turned his attention not in a good way. His behavior went from model student back to disruptive in one twenty-four hour period. Why? Toshalis writes the answer, “….students reach the following conclusions: nothing is worth doing unless it comes with a reward.” (Toshalis. p. 281)

I hope everyone has had their breakfast/brunch/lunch before reading what I am about to type. Otherwise, it might ruin your appetite.

During my second scheduled observation, I was observed doing several things with the whole group. First I lined up the class and walked with the class to and from their bathroom break. I had students meet me at the carpet for a quick math fluency. This fluency involved up one/ down one. Then I had students go back to their seats and I guided them through rocket math. The last activity I did with the class that was observed, was a math application problem that was to be completed in student math journals. I had students solve a problem in their journals, and called a student up to come share their work with the class.

“Make me a teddy bear pillow!” pleads Cesar, as I take out materials for our craft project. It is another Tuesday where I spend my time volunteering at Blythedale Children’s Hospital providing companionship to the patients of the facility, and in return I receive a smile and thank you. Given that I have been to this children’s hospital numerous times before, I always notice new faces. Each time I am there I form an unforgettable connection with a child. After volunteering for almost two and a half years at this facility, I came to realize how fortunate I am to be healthy. Many children, both near and far from home, when admitted into the hospital, often are unable to have their families stay with them overnight. These children are away from the familiarity of their own homes, living in a hospital and just desire to feel a little of the comforts of home.

Or teachers do not currently observe each other. They may talk about instructional practices they use with their students at lunch or a work meeting, but we do not provide them with time to observe how other teachers practice. I feel this would work to help identify PD teachers and solutions, but also to provide a stronger connection as an educational community. I would look to provide them an hour to observe another teacher in their center on a monthly basis, four hours to travel to another learning center in our region to observe every other month, and a day to travel to another region once a semester. I would be able to provide leadership (Principal, AP, regional trainer, or instructional coach to cover the in center and region observation, and a substitute for the day long observations.) The protocol for these observations will be developed in the meeting the teachers have during the regional in-services. ISSLC Standard 4.1.a states, “The administrator has knowledge and understanding of emerging issues and trends that potentially impact the school community.” Once the teachers in my region have been given the time to identify issues and the data that points to or explains the issues, they can

During my observation time in a kindergarten classroom, I have noticed that the students have a wide variety of abilities, attention spans, interests, and love for learning. When it comes to the teacher’s instructional strategies, she intentionally takes into consideration all of the above characteristics to make sure each student gets what they need to be most successful. During lessons students are engaged because of the teacher’s ability to implement interests of the student’s into things and giving them options. If an error occurs during a lesson, the teacher normally, allows for the student who got something wrong to try again, or to call on a friend to help them out. This way the students are still giving the answers and not the teacher just telling them the information. The teacher chooses a lot of small group instruction and centers where she can work with a small group, but then, easily monitor all the other groups to make sure they are on task and doing their work.