Examples Of Focused Observation

Focused Observation
After having assisted at Cragmont for the last couple of years, it is hard to remember what I noticed first. However, this time I did walk through the library to get to her new classroom and the first thing I noticed is that it was small. It was stuck upstairs kind of in the passing of classrooms. It was located in the middle of the two wings of the schools, so you walked through the library to get to the classes on the left wing or the right wing. The library was a little bigger than a classroom and neatly organized with bookshelves containing books both in Spanish and English. Ms. Cherene’s class being right next to the library caused students to stop and look at books during any transition time, whether from snack back to class, or on their way to the bathroom. I think the library surprised me because at my Elementary School it was

a separate room that was locked during times of inactivity, but was also big enough to hold the staff and teachers for their staff development days.

However, besides that descriptive moment I have a tie between my most memorable moment being a student interaction as well as the discussion that went on during the sinking ship activity.
While we were completing the sinking ship activity, there was a student who was raising his voice, saying “you shouldn’t be part of this table group”, “my ideas are better than yours”, and “we are bringing the axe not the bow and arrows” to his table partners. His face sagging with arms crossed across his chest. I went to sit at their table and discuss what was going on. When I sat down there was two girls to my right at the table and two boys to my left. They were at the southern coast table. They quickly blurted out that the problem was they couldn’t agree on whether to bring an axe or a quiver of bow

and arrows. I had each of them present their ideas on why they believed they should bring one rather than the other and we went from there. The two boys said they wanted the axe and then one of the girls changed her mind and said she also wanted the axe. Even after agreeing on the axe, this one student continued to stomp his feet on the floor, punch his fists into the table and shout comments at the girls, such as “Lets just abandon them from our table group.” After I left the table hoping they would move on from that discussion Ms. Cherene approached the boys and gave them a warning, allowing them a chance to change their behavior. Once the class discussion begin the boys still continued to talk while other table groups were talking. Ms. Cherene sent them out of the classroom, one of the boys went to room 206 and the other went to room 210. She told them to stay there for approximately 10 minutes and when they had corrected their behavior they would be allowed to return. I learned a lot about classroom management just in this one interaction. I understood a new way to keep students in check by containing a clipboard and giving them two warnings before asking them to leave the classroom.
My other focused observation was on the discussion as a whole during the sinking ship activity. I passed by the different table groups several times. However, there was one table group that was not having a fluid discussion. They were all doing things themselves. I asked a prompting question to see why everyone wasn’t participating. They replied by quickly trying to start a conversation that was on topic, however it was mostly one girl who was dominating because her other classmates were not contributing. The thing that I noticed was Alejandro sitting in the back of the classroom wasn’t saying much during the group discussion because as he said it, “ His group wasn’t listening to his opinions.” However, once we called the class back to discuss, even though he had not collaborated with his group he shared several opinions with the class. He explained in his words that, “bringing the canvas sail was a better option than what his classmates had listed because it could serve as a shelter, as bandages (instead of a first aide kit), or as blankets.” Despite his disengagement during the group discussion, he had a lot to share with the class. I liked how Ms. Cherene let him have an opportunity to express what he wanted even though it was different from the group. It is ok to agree to disagree. I also thought as the teacher you could learn a lot just from observing this situation about when to do group work, with what students, and what assignments. Active research!
Reflection
When I think back to the first day that I was at Cragmont two years ago, I was honestly surprised. I knew that I was attending a school in the Berkeley Unified School District, but having attended some of the other ones I did not have high expectations. I knew the school was located in the Berkeley hills and I had seen pictures online. The pictures were more professional then the other schools, it looked better kept up with more modern architecture than most public schools in the area. The grass was dead outside the front of the school but I assumed that was because of our drought. I also thought it was interesting how the office wasn’t the first thing that you walked into. I figured in today’s day and age the security especially at elementary schools is pretty strict, and they usually want their office staff to all be connected. Despite school having just started the walls were well decorated with student’s backpacks hung in the hallway and artwork that had been completed containing their goals for the semester, or for the one Spanish immersion classroom their “metas”. I continue to go back to this school because I feel like it is my home elementary school. I belong there and the students and staff welcome me as if I am a part of it. The model of the school containing one main hallway, having a main floor, an upstairs, and a downstairs, causes this fairly large elementary school to feel small because it doesn’t take up that much land. As stated above, even though school just started and the walls are somewhat bare, they are still decorated. All of the decorations create a learning opportunity even for those passing by. As far as the decorations in the classroom go, it as well was very bare. In my interpretation, I felt like it allowed the students to feel like this was their classroom and it had a blank slate coming into it, allowing them to create whatever they wanted to. Instead of it being the “teachers” classroom, with all of her posters, and her rules. As I continue to return to this school I am going to pay attention to how the decorations change throughout the year and whether they just add more or if they keep it streamlined and directed. Despite my previous opinions about the area in which the school is located my teacher informed me with the statistics that she had posted on her wall. She likes to use it as a reminder that everyday is a different day, and we never know what the students are going through. She read it to me saying, “Cragmont has approximately 400 students of diverse ethnic and socio-economic make up: 35% Caucasian, 23% African-American, 27% Latino, 12% Multi-Ethnic and 3% Asian.  Last year 38% of our population received free or reduced price lunch. Our average class size is reported to be higher than the District average. Our percentage of English Learners is 17% and the District Average is 20%.”
After discussion of diversity, Ms. Cherene warned me that the fourth graders this year are notorious for being wild and extremely diverse. Before the beginning of class Ms. Cherene notified/descriptively described the learning level of these students. However, despite the one full of rude comments fourth grader, I didn’t see children struggling to learn I saw creativity. The students were asking challenging questions to their peers and the teacher. Ms. Cherene practices responsive teaching where you question their question with another question, to push their level of thinking. Another thing that Ms. Cherene does as a collaborating teacher is that she comes over to you (if not in the middle of a lesson) and explains the reasoning behind her activity or what she thinks might be going on with a child. I personally like how she tells me, “When I do this group work I occasionally assign children a specific color so that if I needed to pull someone out for a reading assessment I could do so, knowing that this child’s work would still be left for him/her upon return. She says the other reason why she sometimes likes to choose their colors for them is so that she can secretly tell how much that child is contributing to the group work without actually seeing anything during the discussion. The last point that she noted after this lesson was that whenever she draws a scientist, she always makes it a woman, and it always has darker skin. I found this interesting to create a “type” of person who does these occupations. However, when grabbing a book from another classroom that was doing a similar activity, the discussion was working. The kids were exclaiming how their scientist “looked like them” or the boys who still drew her as a girl even though they weren’t instructed to, said, “I like how she has darker skin”. These are all creative ways to start a discussion, just remembering as the teacher you have to be able to respond.
I look forward to what this semester has in store and I am excited as I get to know the students better the more I will be able to explore. I also look forward to debriefing with the teacher more as the semester goes on. I hope this experience provides me with different perspectives on learning and I also hope I can write down all of these creative assignments to hopefully use in my classroom one day.