Observation Blogs

1. Observation Blogs Classroom Management Summer 2014

2. The Environment • “…greeted with an abundance of warm welcomes from the teachers and principal.” • “I had never been in a classroom so small in my entire life, however the teacher seemed to make it work.” • “…neatly decorated with student work and multiple motivational signs.”

3. Rules? • “…in her classroom there are no rules. She continued by saying how her primary goal was to make this room a place of safety and comfort for her students and giving them rules would not be beneficial. Her students are extremely well behaved and she said the reason for this is she spent the first month of school building their trust and respect and in return they have grown to show her the same trust and respect.”

4. The Traffic Light • “…Each day the students start on green, if they need to be spoken to they get a warning which is the yellow card, if they receive multiple warning she flips their cards to red, which then means they lose the opportunity to participate in an upcoming activity.”

5. Tone • “…feeling the overwhelming enthusiasm, encouragement, and positive attitudes within the school building, and especially within the classroom I was placed.”

6. Behavior Contracts • “These students have been given numerous chances to earn their spot back at the table, but fail to do so. One of the students has signed a written behavioral contract from the assistant principal back in February and has the contract taped to her desk to remind of her what she should be doing.”

7. Lost! • “I have been with this class since September and know each child's behavior and unfortunately, this same child lost the privilege of attending field day, a field trip coming up, and cannot attend the two class end of the year parties.”

8. My Structure or Ours? • “I noticed that many of the students seemed to be struggling on similar questions… It is interesting to note that none of the students in [the] class have an IEP or are English Language Learners.” • “[The teacher] had a clear structure and protocol for group work as well as individual work. The students knew what was expected of them, and when rules were not followed, [the teacher] called them out on it right away.”

9. Tips from a Veteran… • On this day I took notice of some of my mentor teacher’s management strategies. She told me … • having a class website for the parents and students to stay up to date. • note home pad with carbon copy paper which allows her to have records of all communication with individual parents. • routine with the class • be their teacher, not their friend. • students learn math the best in math groups. The groups are flexible… • working with peers • peer tutoring during lunch. Struggling math students will come to the classroom along with students who are excelling.

10. A Case for Cooperative Learning? • “[The] instructional strategy of breaking the students up into small groups allows the students to receive more hands-on attention from the teacher in order to comprehend the material. The students were better behaved and more focused when in the smaller groups as well.”

11. Who is the teacher? • “My first day I observed a second grade class. [The teacher] has twenty three students and five of them have IEPs. There was an assistant, who works with this 5 students.”

12. Collaboration / “Partnering” • “[The teacher] has a very firm belief in allowing students to provide feedback about their opinions and preferences. She allowed the children to determine in what order the songs would be rehearsed and even allowed several students to assist her in leading the rehearsal and creating dance moves.”

13. Only after State Assessments? • “Usually they are preparing for state exams, or tests given by the school. However this week I saw the students working together at field day, and for their invention projects.”

14. Threats, threats, threats… • “The teacher threatened to leave students behind before the trip even began that morning. She repeated these threats about four times throughout the morning (a thirty minute period).” • “I was saddened by the students behaviors, but I was even more confused by the teachers expressions and ways of dealing with the students.”

15. Engagement! • “The students brainstormed words and phrases that they wished to write in their cards. The teacher encouraged the students to be creative, thoughtful, and genuine. The students were very motivated and excited… The students were very into making their cards that you could hear a pin drop at times, which is very different from when the students are engaged in the common core read-aloud literacy program.”

16. Blame it on next year’s teacher! • “…this type of behavior will not be tolerated in third grade next year.”

17. Choice = Enjoyment? • “The students are really enjoying their unit on poetry. They have their choiceon what to write about and they choose different poems to read. When students are done with their unit projects, their projects are on the walls in the room and outside in the hall.”

18. The 4 Cs • “The students all got blank books to create their stories. It was great to see how the students interacted during the research project. The students were comparing their countries together. One student in the class has a reading and speech disability. It was great to see she had a program on the computer to help her with her writing.”

19. Carrots and Sticks! • “…the teachers explained that in order for the students to receive the cupcakes they needed to be on their best behavior.”

20. The Pajama / Breakfast Party • “To my surprise, my mentor teacher pulled out mathematics worksheets and had the students who were throwing food to sit in the back of the room and silently work on the worksheets…. She then had a dialogue with the student and made a deal with the student. She said if he behaved perfectly on Thursday, and in the morning on Friday, that meant staying in his seat, raising his hand, not disturbing the other students, and not fighting with his peers that he would be allowed to participate in the ice cream party on Friday afternoon. She said she usually does not do this to students who get parties taken away, yet she felt that this past week he has been working hard and improving on his behavior and she simply felt bad for him because the principal took away the field trip, recess for the rest of the school year, and the pajama party.”