RUNNING HEADER: OBSERVATION, November 22, 2013

Observation New Mexico State University EDUC 368 Miriam Cromer

RUNNING HEADER: OBSERVATION, November 22, 2013

I observed a 6th grade class at ZIA middle school. The cooperating teacher was Ms. Suggs. She has been a teacher for 21 year, but 15 of them were ZIA. The class is a science class; it is the first time students will have a class strictly for science. This was important going into the class, which is the first time for most students to actually do science. Ms. Suggs philosophy for her class is very relaxed, she has most the students work at the own pace. She usually has to work hard with every one of her students, because most of them are inclusion students. Most class work is done in groups, this keep the students focused, being allowed to move and talk. Since the students are so young, it is hard to keep the students on track for big lectures, so she tries to break topics into sections. The overall setting of the class room was very relaxed. Since there is a lot of group work and labs in science the room was set into groups. There are 8 tables that seat 4 students. Since this is a smaller class not all tables was used. Surprisingly the students sat on the tables to the outside rather than the middle tables. This set up worked really well for most projects. Mrs. Suggs and I were able to help more students at once with this set up. When I observed the class room I saw that students grouped up based on gender and social status. The 5th period class I observed was very gender biased with only 5 boys and 13 girls. It is my opinion that they grouped up on social status to me it was almost smartness level, some groups I had to help with the whole project while other took charge and finished in a couple minutes. This impressed me but also I noticed students will do better if groups were assigned and help each other finish the project.

RUNNING HEADER: OBSERVATION, November 22, 2013

After every one sat down the teacher, Mrs. Suggs started a clicker question! I was stunned that 6th grades were using clicker questions I use in college. But this did the trick to settle students down and have them start working on science. The clicker question uses the computer program, work processor, and CPS clickers. These are the exact same clickers I have used in my college science classes. The clicker questions are usually in the form of true or false answers. The topics we have gone over in class are scientific method, metric system, periodic table, and energy systems. The topics usually follow the same pattern, an introduction lecture, research lectures, and then a quiz. Most of the research lectures are done in group work, by exploring patterns and then experiments. This form of learning prepares students for further science classes instead of just trying to memorize the material. All topics are needed for the next section the student will go over. This is important to have the student learn, at their own pace so they are prepared for the next lectures. Finally most of the technology used in the lesson is for clicker question and a short video at the beginning of the lectures. These are used almost everyday in the classroom. The clicker questions are used to start off the class period, by calming the students down and preparing the minds for the lecture. The video is just to inform the students by using another perspective of the topic. There are also times where the students have computers in the classroom to do research for their science fair projects. For a science classroom I think having technology in the classroom is important for giving informant in many different ways. I think that it helps the students and teachers reach the goal for the day.

RUNNING HEADER: OBSERVATION, November 22, 2013

Overall the class is very effective the teacher uses technology to assist the learning process. I feel like the student will be prepared not only for their school tests but for their next science class.