I.

Standard 3 Learning Environments

Artifact 1: Field Observation#1 Classroom Environments

Content:

Observations
Where, when, and how does the teacher acknowledge the students entering the classroom?
Students walk into the classroom. Students are not quite acknowledged. She is at her

desk, assisting another student who has stayed behind to get assignments he missed from the

prior class. Students attend her class every other day as A-B days. Students are talking to one

another, she begins to tell them to settle down and get the day before worksheet out. She

instructs them to begin that work. She finds the work needed for the student, and walks to the

front of the classroom, instructing the students to start their work. She turns on the overhead

projector which displays the worksheet. When the second and third class entered the room, she

greeted them with hello and hey from her desk. She reminded the students to put their

backpacks on the back of their cheers. Some she had to remind them to take off their hats. She

wrote a problem on the board between the first and second class for the students to complete a

drill. The second and third class were on a different lesson, and more accelerated.

What signals the shift from when students enter the room to when teaching begins?

The shift is made when the teacher walks to the front of the classroom and turns on the

overhead projector. Students began to get silent and look at the projection located on the front

board. The teacher circles the areas of the work sheet she wants them to work on. In classes 2

and 3 she walked to the front of the classroom after 10 mins, and asked who wanted to solve the

days drill for extra points. After the problem was solved she asked the class if the problem was

correct. She took a survey of how many said it was correct and how many said it was incorrect.
She asked students who voted correct why they thought it was correct and the other students why

they thought it was incorrect. She then either said yes it was correct or that is was incorrect. For

the answers that were incorrect she gave positive criticism as to what they did correct, and then

showed them why it was incorrect.

How is the classroom set up? What physical props or other materials provide students in the
classroom with information or resources associated with the purposes of the classroom? How
are the desks arranged?
The class is in a U shape. There are 4 desks in the middle of the U that she places her

students who are easily distracted. On the dry erase board is the objective. Under the objective is

the lesson for the day. Around the classroom are foundational math props that the students can

refer to. The pencil sharpener is in the back of the classroom, along with the pencil barrowing

station. Students must sign out the pencil they need for the day. Students are required to turn in

completed assignments in the homework and classwork bens, respectfully, located at the front of

the classroom. Text books are in the rear of the classroom on the window seal. Classroom is

particularly plain. There was little to no dcor around the room. There were limited posters and

mathematical models posted. There was a list of expectations on the front door, however she

kept the door partially open which obstructed the view. There were no classroom procedures nor

rules posted on any of the walls.

What was the percentage type of interaction in the classroom [you can estimate here, e.g.: 0%,
25%, 50%, 75%, 100%.] that takes place for each of the following?
a. between the teacher and the whole class: 100%
b. between the teacher and small groups: 75%
c. between the teacher and individual student: 100%
d. among students: 100%

Describe classroom routines and procedures. Take note of procedures that are new to you so
that the methods can be incorporated into your own classroom practices.
 In the first-class students come into the classroom, begin their work. There is no direction

on the board to begin a drill. The teacher is distracted by an unplanned situation. Students get

into their groups to finish the assignment from the previous class. The teacher only wants them

to answer 2 of the remaining 4 questions on the worksheet. She walks around to each group of 3

or 4 to make sure they are on task. Students who sit in the middle have assistants working with

them. She attends to individual questions. In classes 2 and 3 the students come directly in and

start on their drill. She directs them to pay attention to the board for the days drill. She does not

walk around to see if students are getting the drill. This is her way of assessing if they understand

the work from the previous class.

Once the 10 minutes is up, she walks to the front of the classroom to begin solving the

drill. She motivates student interaction by asking students to come to the board and by taking a

student poll. She transitions into her lesson in all three classes by explaining the objective. For

class 1 they were completing a lesson from the prior day thus she did not explain an objective,

but rather began where the class left off. She spent a lot of time in class 1 redirecting the

students, and repeating what she taught. I later found out that the students in class 1 were a grade

level below where the shouldve been. In class 2 and 3 she was able to move through the lesson

with very little distractions. She transitioned into the lesson, individual work, lesson assessment,

and group discussion smoothly. Note: She stayed very calm and patient with her class 1, she

referred to the students as sweetie and hunni. She gave real life examples for students to

visualize in order to assist them in their understanding.

Describe the relationships within the classroom (you can use words like: excellent, good, poor,

and non-existent).

a. teacher-student- Great! She was very calm, compassionate, fun, she smiled, she made
the students smile, and she focused on those students that she knew needed help.
 b. student-teacher- Students seemed to respond to her well. There were some students
that like to make jokes and play around, but were very respectful to her. When she
asked them to stop, or take their seat she listened. She appeared to have control of all 3
classes.
c. student-student- Students worked well together. They appeared to be sitting next to
students they liked and/or were friends with. Students were able to correct each other
on incorrect methods to solving the problem without anyone getting upset.
How does the teacher set and encourage positive expectations? Can you tell what the
expectations are? How are students prompted to achieve them?
The teacher has a list of her general expectations on the door when she comes in the

room. She stated she wanted the students in class 1 to try their best to answer the questions with

each other. She wanted them to ask each other for help before raising their hand. With class 2

and 3 she told the students she wanted them to ask questions, to not be afraid, that the lesson is a

challenging and will take more than one class period to complete. She consistently prompts the

students to ask questions, or ask their classmates. In one situation, in class 1 she had to remind

the students of her general rules and expectations. He called his group member stupid. She

immediately corrected him and asked him to read the rules and expectations on the door. He

acted if he could not see them. She told him to get up and go look at them. She asked him to read

them aloud to the class. When he got to rule number 5 (I will treat my fellow classmate how I

want to be treated), she told him to repeat it two times. She then asked him to take a seat. This

took away from class time, however it reminded the students of her expectations.

Write Up and Submission

I entered the classroom in the teachers second period. The students entered the room as if

they were unsure what the routine was for the day. They were talking to each other and

conjecting on the far left side of the classroom. Once the teacher redirected and gave them

instructions, the students immediately moved into routine. They huddled into small groups and

began to work together to solve the problem. I am unsure how the students knew which problem
to work on, as the teacher was still assisting the student from the prior class. There was no

indication that the students were working on the wrong problem, even after the teacher circled

the problems she wanted them to work on. From my observation, there was no allotted time for

the students to complete this problem.

They took 18 minutes of the class time before the teacher walked to the front of the

classroom and began to call on a student to tell her the process of solving problem number 3. She

did not want him to solve the problem, only tell her the steps. She wrote the steps on the board,

and reminded the students she expected to see these steps in their notebooks. She transitioned

into asked another student to solve the problem. She never asked the students to move from their

groups, and allowed them to ask their group members for assistants. She moved to each group (5

groups of 3-4) and asked them to help solve the problem. She reminded them to ask their partner

for help. Do to the fact that class 1 had a majority of students below grade level, it appeared that

she did not want to place a student on the spot, therefore, allowing the student to ask for help so

that they would not feel alone if the answer was wrong.

In classes 2 and 3 students moved right into routine. They did not need redirecting,

however she pointed out the fact that there was a drill on the board. It appears her transition was

a lot smoother with classes 2 and 3. The teacher appeared to be more trusting of these students

understanding of the routine, and therefore did not move around the classroom monitoring their

progress in completing the drill. She only gave the students 10 minutes to complete the drill, and

another 20 minutes to solve the problem. The drill was an evaluation of the prior classes lesson.

She wanted to ensure students understood the lesson, before moving on to a more challenging

lesson. As she moved into the new lesson, she took her time. She explained step by step, and

asked the student to write the notes in their notebooks. She highlighted important steps to
remember, by underlining, or bolding. She consistently asked throughout the lesson if students

understood, or asked them to repeat the steps. For this particular lesson, she spent the entire class

teaching the lesson. There was no evaluation, group discussion, or assessment given at the end of

each class. All three classes were diverse in race and learning abilities. There were students with

learning disabilities in all three classes.

After reviewing her process with each of her classrooms, there were quite a few areas I

believed I could implement in my classroom. The first key area was patients with students who

may take longer to understand a concept. She was very patient and calm; never raising her voice

and keeping a positive, friendly teacher-student relationship and classroom environment. The

second key area I believe will be useful in my classroom, is her very explicate explanation to

what the days lesson would entail. In class 1, this was not quite the process, her approach with

this class, in my opinion was due to the students inability to grasp the concept.

When asked, she stated there was no structured lesson for that particular day for that class

because they were behind from the previous class. With this knowledge, I applied it to a baseball

game. Sometimes there will be unexpected curve balls, you must adjust to it in order to hit it out

of the ballpark. My third key take away point, is to consistently remind the students of your

expectations. It appeared to be easier to remind the students throughout the lesson, instead of

only at the beginning of the year, class, or lesson.