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Courtney Krueger
Professor Sullivan
Educational Psychology
December 5, 2018
Observation Written Report

1. Demographics

For my observation, I visited an elementary school in Mendham, NJ which is located in

Morris County. According to The United States Census Bureau, the population of Mendham is

5,845 people, 91.2% of which are white, 6.7% of which are Hispanic, 0.7% are black, 3.2% of

which are Asian, and some of which overlap. Not only is this community majorly white, but it is

also a fairly wealthy community. The median household income is $176,875, the median

property value is $900,100 and the poverty rate is only 2.5%. From these statistics and from what

I observed in the school, I would suspect that these children do not know a ton about diversity.

They most likely get some exposure but not much due to almost all of the town being white and

wealthy. Most of these children probably do not have any idea what it is like to be discriminated

against or struggling financially.

2. Educational Facility

The school I observed was called Mendham Township Elementary School in Mendham,

NJ. My time at the school composed of two visits, one on November 13th from 11:15am to

1:45pm and the other on November 14th from 9:45am to 1:30pm. The first class I observed on

the 13th was Mrs. Parke’s 3rd grade class for an hour. This class had the one teacher as well as an

aid that helped struggling students. There were 16 students; 9 boys and 7 girls so it was balanced

in terms of gender, with only slightly more boys. While they were sitting on the carpet, one of

the students pointed out that the class happened to sit with all of the boys on one side of the
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carpet and all of the girls on the other side. This class was not diverse as all of the students were

white, aside from one boy who had darker skin (I am not sure his specific ethnicity). In regard to

ability, there were some children in the class who seemed to struggle more than others and there

were some students who seemed to want to answer every single question. The atmosphere of the

classroom was very pleasant and relaxing. Everyone got along and interreacted well and the

classroom was decorated in a relaxing way. All of the children seemed comfortable with their

teacher and classmates and were super eager to learn as they were constantly raising their hands

and participating.

The second classroom I visited was Ms Mastrogiannakos’s 1st grade classroom for an

hour. The classroom had the one teacher and 19 students which were close to even in terms of

gender but favored the boys with 11 boys and 8 girls. There was no aid and most of the class

seemed at an equal level aside from one girl who seemed to be a little lost. There was little

diversity within the classroom as the class was majorly white, with one boy who had slightly

darker skin. The atmosphere of the class was very focused as the children really seemed to want

to learn. Out of all of the classes, this one seemed the friendliest as they seemed very

comfortable with one another and the teacher and gave me a very warm welcome into the class.

The third classroom I visited was on the 14th for around two hours, this was Mrs. Riina’s

3rd grade classroom. This classroom, like Mrs. Parke’s, had one teacher as well as one aid who

helped out, this one specifically helped with a couple students who had special needs. In terms of

ability, this class had a variety of abilities within it as some seemed to do very well where about

three students needed a lot of extra help. This class had 19 students, 9 boys and 10 girls, which

was the only classroom I visited with more girls in it. This was the least diverse class I observed
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with all of the students in the class being white. From this class I got a feeling of not only

comfort but of fun. The children were so eager to participate and seemed to really enjoy learning.

The last classroom I visited was Mrs. Reed’s 1st grade class. This class had one teacher

and no aid, just like the other 1st grade class. This classroom had 19 students, more of them boys

with 11 boys and 8 girls. Out of the classes I visited, this classroom was the most diverse,

however, not by much. The class was all white with one African American and one Asian

student in the class. This class seemed energetic, but not as much as the other classes I visited.

They did seem to interact well with each other, the teacher and the material.

3. Classroom Climate

For Mrs. Parke’s class, the classroom climate was very enjoyable and well decorated. My

first impression was that Mrs. Parke was a very kind and friendly person and the class was an

enjoyable class for everyone in it. There were a lot of decorations and posters on the walls with

useful things, for example, one of the walls had a strategy station on it with posters of different

strategies to succeed in school work. Other walls had tings like class rules, job charts, schedules

and class objectives. A lot of the children’s artwork was displayed on the wall and included

everyone in the class’s work. There were fall decorations and even a teepee set up to celebrate

thanksgiving. In addition, she had a lot of plants set up in the classroom which gave the room a

very homey/relaxing feel to it. The environment was warm and friendly as well as neat and

organized.

My first impression of Ms Mastrogiannakos was that she was one of the friendliest

people I have ever met, the class was extremely welcoming and the students were all super

excited to have me observing them. When I first came into this class, I could tell how much the

teacher cared about the students and how well the whole class go along. They made me feel like
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I was part of the class and very comfortable being in there. For the classroom itself, the first

thing I noticed was that there was a ton going on. The walls were completely covered with

posters, so many I didn’t even bother counting them. They were all helpful things like reviews of

things they have went over, number lines, and how to’s. But although there was a lot going on, it

was still very organized and everything in there had a purpose. The classroom seemed very

personalized and had a lot of warm colors in it like beige and cream. There was no work

displayed on the walls but there were a lot of things like class rules and many other posters.

Overall, this class seemed like a clean and caring environment to be in.

Mrs. Riina’s class, which I was in the longest, was a very energetic and warm classroom.

It had a warm color scheme to the room and was very personalized. There was a lot of the

children’s work on the walls and there were fun things like emojis. There were also rules on the

wall and a schedule for the day, showing the teacher was very organized. The rules all consisted

of telling the children things that they should do, not just a list of “don’t do this” which modeled

good behaviors instead of pointing out bad ones. The room was clean and organized and had a

lot of materials for the children to utilize. One thing I particularly liked was she had a poster that

was about expressing emotions, as well as a “how do you feel today?” chart, which is a huge part

of the hidden curriculum in that classroom. When I first entered the class, I knew right away it

was a very enthusiastic class and the students were excited to learn.

The first thing I noticed when I entered Mrs. Reed’s class is how personalized it was.

There was a frog theme going throughout the room, which included frogs as name labels, lots of

frog stuffed animals and a poster saying “the frog class rules” which listed class rules. This

classroom had a lot of posters with useful information for the students like the lyrics to the Star-

Spangled Banner and a list of activities for them to do whenever they are done with their work
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early. Even their carpet had a map of the United States on it that went over all of the states’

names. There are also loads of materials for the students to use like computers, books, glue,

pencils, markers, etc. The classroom was neat and gave a warmth feel when I entered. The

teacher and students were very friendly, and the teacher gave me a very thorough introduction of

who I am. She explained why exactly I was in their classroom and I was not expecting that big of

an introduction. The class was well organized and there was place for everything. All of the

children in this class seemed to get along with each other as well as successfully retain the

information and learn what they needed to.

4. Social Climate

I was not there when Mrs. Parke’s class entered the room, as I walked in during their

lesson. However, the students in the classroom seem very happy to be there and excited to learn.

They seem to like their teacher as she is warm and friendly and what she teaches them seems to

click. She appeared to challenge them but in a relaxed way where they were not stressed about

their work. One student actually made a comment about being stressed and the teacher made a

note to the class to not be stressed. They were doing a preassessment that was not graded and she

stated a lot of times that there was no pressure and that they were to do their best. The teacher

give the impression of really understanding her students as all the activities they did interested

them and they enjoyed. Overall, the classroom had a very positive and relaxing nature.

For Ms. Mastrogiannakos’s class, the children seemed truly excited to be there when they

entered the room. The students looked comfortable with their teacher and also with each other. I

noticed that during their breaks they were very chatty with one another and all seemed to get

along well. The teacher also allowed them some opportunities to go over answers with a partner

to allow them more social interaction. The teacher was very friendly which created an optimistic
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atmosphere for the class. The children didn’t appear to be stressed and wanted to participate a

lot.

Like the other two, Mrs. Riina’s classroom was an encouraging and confident class. They

were very eager to answer questions and participate in the activities they were doing. There was

this one math question the teacher asked and I had never seen so many hands go up so fast in my

life, the students looked extremely eager to answer the question. The teacher was kind and the

children seemed to like her a lot. For one of the activities, the students were given a math

worksheet and were asked to in groups figure out the answers, which was an opportunity for the

students to interact with their classmates during the lesson. The children appeared very

comfortable with each other and I noticed a lot of them were helping out the other people in their

group that were struggling. Another thing I observed was how the aid interacted with the

students. The aid was a very friendly and kind person, however she seemed to not have any

patience for the children she was working with. She threatened him numerous times when he was

not listening, with things like going into a different room or taking away his recess. However,

she only gave him warnings and never went through with any of the punishments when he

continued to misbehave.

When the students entered Mrs. Reed’s class, they were very energetic, as they had just

come from recess and lunch. The teacher had to talk to them about their behavior in the hallways

and how they were to wild and were throwing their jackets and lunch boxes around. After she

talked to them, the students calmed down and were ready to learn. There was a lot of

participation in the room and everyone wanted to put their answers on the board during their

lesson. The children in this class were excited to learn and looked happy. They conversed with
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each other when given the chance and interacted with the material well. They listened to the

teacher and appeared to respect her as well as relate to her and comprehend what she is saying.

5. Educator Assessment

Mrs. Parke was the first teacher I had visited at MTES and she was a very kind and

friendly person. She gave me a warm welcome into the classroom and the way she taught the

class worked well. Her instructions were very clear and the children could understand what she

was saying to them and they listened very well to her. The format she wrote one of the

assignments on was a little unclear because students kept asking questions about them, but she

explained it better and the students then understood. She asked a lot of open-ended questions

which gave room for creative answers and the students wanted to participate. All of the students

seemed to benefit from the instructions and learned what they were meant to. One thing they

really benefitted from was they did a preassessment and a post assessment for each unit and the

students got to see how much they learned and how they improved. The teacher was very kind

and energetic and appeared to care a lot about the students. She gave the students feedback with

their assignments which seemed to be both negative and positive, but the negative feedback

came from a place of helpfulness and was put kindly.

The teacher used the materials appropriately and even made use of materials that were

not meant for the subject she was teaching. For example, for one of the reading lessons they were

learning about features of nonfiction books, such as titles and graphs, and they used their science

textbook to go over it and find examples of the features. She also checked a lot for their

understanding to make sure that they were all following along and understanding what she was

saying. She did this specifically when they were doing their reading section and once in awhile
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she would ask the class questions about the reading to make sure no one had questions or was

confused.

Ms. Mastrogiannakos was a very enthusiastic and her positive energy transferred over to

the students and made them excited to learn. She constantly tried to pump them up about

learning math and boosted their confidence by calling them mathematicians or complimenting

their use of math vocabulary. She was vey friendly and welcoming and introduced me to the

class and explained why I was there. Her lesson was very clear and planned well, it was easy to

follow along and the kids seemed to understand it as well. She was outgoing and cared about the

students and their learning. When one student would get an answer wrong, she would make sure

that specific student understood how to get the answer instead of just calling on someone else.

She was nice about telling them if they were wrong and guided them to solve the problem. She

would do so by using leading questions such as “does 7+4+=10?” or ask them to elaborate on

their answer. This would to get them to understand their mistake and figure out the right answer

on their own, rather than her just telling them. She also spent extra time going over math

problems that the class seemed to struggle with more. During their breaks, she would walk

around the room and check their papers for understanding to make sure everyone got the right

answers and no one needed extra help. She was a very fair teacher and encouraged all of the

students to participate in the class, as well as ensured that the class was retaining the information

well and were prepared for their exam on the material.

Mrs. Riina gave me a warm welcome in to her 3rd grade class and introduced me to the

students when I first got there. Because I was observing her class for longer, I was able to

observe more than one subject and watched their math unit as well as their reading/writing unit.

For both subjects, she gave very clear instructions and answered any questions they asked. She
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expressed an investment in the children’s learning and clicked well with them. The children

followed along with the material very well and even begged her to give them more problems and

harder ones, which showed their understanding of the ones they were given. For part of their

lesson, she used chrome books which allowed the children to work individually on problems at

their own pace and allowed her to walk around and check their understanding. She also checked

for understanding when she asked them questions and had them write their answers on white

board and hold it up for her. Mrs. Riina used a variety of materials and different types of

teaching to ensure that all types of learners benefitted from her class. She went over math on the

board, had them answer questions using a whiteboard, allowed them to work individually on

chrome books, and also had an activity for groupwork. For writing, they were doing peer

evaluations which also allowed them to get feedback and to have the students help each other

out. Her lessons seemed to really interest the children, she was friendly and she had a strong

connection with the class.

Lastly, I visited Mrs. Reed who, like the other teachers I observed, was a very friendly

and kind teacher who the students enjoyed learning from. I felt very welcomed into this

classroom as she gave me an introduction to the class and a very detailed explanation of why I

was there. Throughout the lesson, she was very effective at explaining things to the children and

did so a lot in order for them to comprehend the material to their best ability. And when the class

felt like she did not explain something the best, she re explained it to emphasize what she was

saying as well as provided a different explanation. The students understood the questions and

how to solve the problems and greatly benefited from the class.

Although it was less open ended because it was a math lesson, she gave students the

chance to explain things to the class. She was going over how the order of addition does not
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matter but how putting the larger number first might be easier, and she asked the class if

someone could explain why. One boy, excitedly, explained how for 2+9 you have to count up 9

but for 9+2 you only have to count up 2. This allowed the class to get an explanation that came

from one of their peers and they were able to understand, as well as giving that student a chance

to participate. She used the material she had effectively and let the children do the problems on a

sheet as well as on the smartboard. She read the question out loud and allowed student to explain

the answer for the auditory learners, had the problem posted in two places for the visual learners

and allowed them to try to solve the problem themselves for the kinesthetic learners. She

assessed their understanding of the material on the sheet they used and made sure that they all

understood the review and were prepared for their test.

Interview: Mrs. Riina

1. How to things like tests, quizzes, seatwork and homework contribute to the student’s grade?

Mrs. Riina explained to me how the children were given a score that was based on an indicator.1

And the tests, quizzes and homework all contributed to assessing that score. Seatwork does not

count, however it is practice for the things that do count.

2. Do the children get a letter grade?

No, they do not. The children are assessed based on indicators they should be at for their grade

level, such as “demonstrates a understanding of whole numbers” for math. They are then given 1

out of 4 scores:
S+ = Above grade level
S- = Grade level
P = Progressing to grade level

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Mrs. Riina provided me a copy of an old report card that is attached to this paper
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M = Minimal progress to grade level

3. Do you use a point or percentage system for your grading?

For math, they get a percentage grade and for reading/writing they are graded from a rubric,

which uses a point system. Or sometimes for reading/writing there will be multiple choice, which

is graded by percentage.

4. Do you use computers to help you grade?

She grades everything by hand because she feels it’s the easiest way to do it. However, they are

required to enter the marking period grades into a computer program called Oncourse

5. Do things like participation count?

On the report card there is a section for effort, which they are graded on how much effort they

put into each subject they are graded on. The grading is done by points:

1 – Inconsistent effort
2 – Satisfactory effort
3. Excellent effort