Classroom Observation

Elementary Classroom Observation

(1) Feb. 23. Today I did classroom observation at Stocklmeir Elementary, Cupertino Union, first grade, Room 17. My eye was initially drawn to the decoration of the windows. The children made a lot of animals with heart shapes. Some were caterpillars, fish, butterflies, single hearts. On one of the doors it said, “We make a better school.” Beneath the words were 21 fishes with student names on them. On entering the classroom, to the left is a cabinet and sink. To the right are shelves for backpacks. Next to the shelves are windows. Above the windows on the wall are
ABC letters. Each letter was attached with a string with words starting with that letter. Underneath the window are cabinets with all different posters on their doors. Some are nouns, adjectives, shapes, and number charts. Some are just labels describing what is in the cabinet. Low book shelves stand against the wall. Some of the books are in the plastic boxes. Books are categorized, and also arranged by order of reading level. There are two fish shaped carpets in front of the bookshelf. Six chairs shaped like basketballs are over at that area. There are some wall posters at the reading area such as “What is a good reader?” and “How to use reading clues,” etc. A few stuffed animals are on the bookshelf. The area looks comfy and cozy. Next to it is a chair for the teacher and a large carpet of kids to sit down at the center time. There are two big white boards on the wall by the carpet. One board has a calendar and weather chart.

The other has some rules written on it such as “what a good listener does.” There is a TV in the classroom, not a computer. There are twenty desks. Four desks are arranged together into a big square. Some spaces exist between each big square. The teacher’s desk is in front of the square with a projector on it. In front of that are another two big white boards. On the corner of the board are two flags (state and national). Besides the posters on the wall is student art work. Children’s self portraits, snowmen, mittens. A salute to our President. There are birthday listings with pictures of each kid. Also there is a star of the week poster made by the kids with the picture of the birthday kid and information about him or her. There are five different shapes in different colors dazzling on the ceiling. The whole class looks very colorful, alive.

(2) Teacher Amy is in room 17. She is young. She stands at the door and smiles. She says, “Hi” to every kids and shakes hands with them. Inside class she speaks in a soft gentle but firm voice. First she tells the kids what they are going to do in general. She then has two kids take the attendance report to the office. Once they return, everyone stands to sing the National Anthem. First activity is journal writing. Topic: five things you did during the break. She repeats the rules. Everyone writes quietly no discussion. They raise hands for help. They jot down the main idea, which doesn’t need to be in a sentence. When the kids start to write, the teacher walks around to make sure everyone knows what they are doing. Once the students start to talk and are making noise the teacher repeats classroom rules again. Students catch themselves when they hear the rules. Also many rules are already posted on the wall. The teacher gives attention to individual kids. For example some kids are stuck during journal writing. The teacher will suggest ideas: Movies, Juggle, Chuckie Cheese--she tells them only to write a few word ideas rather than a sentence. She will have kids sound the words out to help them spell. At story time, she wants students to listen--if they have questions they need to raise their hands. Also when they answer questions they need to raise their hands, too. For example, she read a book about seasons. She asked, “Why is spring muddy?” Many raised their hands. She allowed all the kids that raised their hands to answer. The message is: different perspectives are good. One kid said “Because you plant a flower.” The teacher said, “Good guess. You used the picture clue.” Once students start talking, the teacher places her finger at her mouth, and raises her other hand above the head and makes a v shape, similar to Cub Scouts. All the kids mimic the teacher. The whole group becomes quite again. After reading the book, the teacher said that a season is part of a cycle. “What else is a cycle?” she asks. Kids all give different answers, such as environment,
plants, water, butterfly, 7 days of the week and so on. Kids are really involved in story time.

During the first 20 minutes a room parent was there--to help the children sign the birthday card for the teacher. She also helped light candles and sing happy birthday. The teacher repeated the etiquette of being a good listener before leaving the center. “Eyes on the speaker, lips closed, ears listening, sitting up straight, hands and feet quiet.” She emphasizes this because later the teachers will switch to read books to students in a different classroom. Overall teacher Amy controlled her class pretty well. Children respected her. They understood what was expected of them. Teacher and students interacted well with each other.

(3) Students are attentive and full of energy especially after a one week break. During center time, the kids are very interested in math. Some kids update the calendar, while the rest checked to see if it was correct. A few kids went outside to check the weather; they then came back to fill in the weather chart. All the kids read the weather chart for the whole of Feb. and try to discover the weather pattern. The math they are learning is about coins. Teacher asks about
the value of a penny, nickel and dime. Which do they like to carry? Five pennies or 1 nickel, 2 nickels or one dime? All raise their hands to answer and share. Some kids are counting how many days they have been in the school. They line three pockets next to each other. Each pocket stands for the one column, the ten column, and the hundred column. Feb 23 is the l09 day of school so far this year. After math center, children will go back to their desks to finish their journal. Before they do the teacher turns on the music to let the kids move around inside the
classroom. They have to do what the music says. Sometimes they must hop, or wiggle, or tiptoe; sometimes they do arm-in-arm turn around. To use the restroom or drink water they use a sign to ask permission. Journal time is when students work independently.

Most kids don’t have any difficulties. Only one or two kids get stuck. The teacher will go
to them and ask questions to find out what they did during the holiday, such as movies, jungles, trips, naps, etc. Then she says, just write it as a single words rather than a sentence. The kids who have finished writing can go choose a book to read but no talking to each other is allowed. Overall the kids are very engaged in all the activities. They follow the rules pretty well although they do need to be reminded here and there. Each day’s schedule is pretty much the same. Center time talking is about calendars, weathers, math, greetings, workshop time, then reading time. At 10:00 students have a half hour break. Some days they have library, computer lab and P.E. When one activity transitions to another the teacher will claps her hands three times in a rythm and that is the signal; the kids clap their hands in the same rythm. If they switch from the desk to carpet they move their chairs under the table, then tip toe to the carpets. Then they sit
“cross-cross applesauce.” The transitions seem very smooth especially when they understand what is taking place. The teacher also tells the students that first grader need to be flexible. She has trained kids to be flexible. Some days the kids are focused and

ready to go--other days they need more time to wiggle. The day I did my observation was

not as planned because teacher Amy had forgotten that there was school-wide shared

reading that day. So, there is flexibility in the daily schedule. If something doesn’t get

done it will be postponed to the next day. I realized that there is no time scheduled for

individualized instruction. But she does give individual attention to students when they

need it during class activity. Basically it is a teacher centered class.

(5) The teacher informed me that this year, many parents signed up to volunteer in

the class. They signed to help in the computer labs, the library, for book orders, to correct

math home work, to chaperone field trips. Also a room parent collects money for

classroom events, such as parties, Teacher Appreciation week, etc. Some parents signed

up for school walkathons, to help fund raise, for book fair, to book read and so on. The

teacher has two conferences each semester--students are encouraged to participate in the

conference. The first is about goal setting. Every parent participates in this conference.

Teacher will allot either 20 minutes before or after class. Also parents are welcome to

email teachers. A teacher usually reponds within 24 hours.

(6) The community is highly supportive of the school. They do fundraise for

the school. During the school year, kids see plays at the Community Center. The school

has performances at its library. Also kids go to carnivals organized by the community.

Children are encouraged to join the contest sponsored by the community such as fire

safety contest. Cupertino school district has 16,000 students. Stocklmeir has 33 classroom

with total of 900 kids. The school population reflects the same ethnicity as the

surrounding neighborhood and is highly diverse. The teacher feels supported by the

school administration especially by the principal. She feels she can count on them

whenever she needs them.