Classroom Observation

Sleep, attention, learning, and memory all go hand-in-hand when trying to improve the ability to learn and remember things. First of all, getting adequate sleep is beneficial in many ways. According to the National Sleep Foundation, adequate sleep for people age 18-25 is 7-9 hours per night. Getting enough sleep allows a person to have more energy to do daily tasks such as going to class and learning. The more sleep you get, the more awake and focused you will be during the day. Focusing your attention is also an important aspect of learning and remembering. Attentional focus basically means focusing on the things relevant to the task at hand and suppressing distractions. If you do not get enough sleep, your attentional focus will be decreased

Every time I go to a salon I am very open about my life with my beautician. It made me wonder; Am I the only one who does this? I set out to observe this behavior by scheduling a pedicure. What better way to complete a homework assignment and to be able to observe without looking conspicuous? The salon I went to had ten pedicure chairs. As I walked in, I noticed that I was only the third customer there for a pedicure, so it looked as if I would not be able to observe what I came to see. An employee of the salon asked me to pick out my nail color, have a seat in chair number 7, and then proceeded to ask me what type of pedicure I wanted. After I chose my color and type of pedicure they then asked me if I wanted anything to drink. They offered me water, soda or wine! I thought about the

For this lesson students created bird feeders out of simple materials. Before the activity started, I had to make a change considering two students were allergic to peanut butter honey was used instead. This change was simple and did not affect the overall activity. When the activity was introduced I had a premade bird feeder so the students can see what it could look like. The toilet paper rolls had the holes cut out of them before hand and in order to make the stringer process a little easier for the students, I taped the ends so they wouldn’t flare. I did put the honey in a container with popsicle sticks so the students could put the honey on the toilet paper rolls easier. The birdseed was in a separate container that was large enough for 3 students to use without the birdseed overflowing the container. After the students finished their bird feeder they

In this particular class, the students were very independent as a whole. The teacher ran a free flowing class so the children were very chaotic a time. The students were learning about 911 safety and most of the activities were based on that topic. Children had the opportunity to create safety signs or work in the block are where they built a lay out of a town. It was also a student’s birthday so they had the opportunity of creating a birthday card or making jewelry out of beads and string for their friend, and then their family. When they completed either of those task they were asked to go into the carpet area and read a book.

During this observation I learned many tools and ideas that I want to bring and incorporate into my classroom. I realized that the beginning of the year in kindergarten is the hardest because they all come in with different levels. Some of the children went to preschool, some of them didn't. Some of the children learned things like the alphabet before, and some do not. This is the teachers job to bring all of the students to the same level, while stull pushing the students who do know this information. I learned good rewarding strategies, like getting to go first, for the students to then take responsibility for their actions and follow directions. Another huge thing I learned is that your students will reach your expectations, and you can teach people to be good people. The students treated everyone in the classroom the same, even though they were all different. That is an important part of being a good person.

Whenever I walk into the cafeteria I perceive all the tables and chairs set up around the room. I move to the back of the gym and put my backpack on the stage and save my spot at the lunch table. Most of the time I sit at the lunch table watching seventh and sixth grade received their lunch until at last eighth grade. I depart towards the back of the line whenever eighth grade is getting their lunch and the lunch lady hands me my lunch. Then I walk back to my spot at the lunch table and talk to my friends for the fifteen to twenty minutes I have left of lunch, then put my lunch tray back in the kitchen for it to be cleaned. After that I walk back to the table and grab my chair and put it in the chair cabinet. The teachers usually call us to

In the classroom, the teacher uses songs, clapping, and she sometimes switch the lights when transitioning the children to the next daily activity. Everyone in her classroom follow directions as she asks them to do a certain chore. The teachers had implement her daily routine and she is well preparing because she does not struggle with her children when they asked to move to the next activity. For example, in the morning when the children are playing, she would ask them to start cleaning up, singing a cleanup song. She starts singing “Clean up, Clean up, everybody does your share, Clean up, Clean up, lest put the way. Then she would ask them to wash their hands for breakfast, she started signing a wash hands song as she switched the lights,

The classroom i visited is very friendly with friendly care providers. There is a board on the wall that children can draw on if they wish to do so, pictures of the kids, and small stickers with animal figures such as cats, owls, birds, and dogs. The pictures on the wall reflect the multicultural aspect of the classroom since they demonstrate the various types of children that are in the classroom. There are children of many ages, races, and sex. Children can choose from a variety of things to do since there are small centers located within the classroom. There are areas that children can sit down and draw or draw on the board, areas for them to be more active and play, and areas for them to sit down and read. The child can choose what books

The first observation I made was how many students were placed in this classroom. I began counting each and every student, thirty-one students in total. I was initially shocked at the large number of students placed in one class. I have been used to working in Special Education classes where the number of students rarely exceeded fourteen. The first thought that popped into my mind was, “How am I going to remember all of their names?” I then noticed all of their photos and names posted to a wall, which would help me put a name to a face. Another thing I noticed about the students was how excited they were to have another observer come into their classroom. In my journal I stated, “The students were very excited and welcoming, they had a previous

Saugatuck Middle and High School was very traditional school. It seemed as though I was walking through a school that I would see on a movie because it was so traditional. There were signs here and there on the walls, they promoted a lot of working together as a school and doing your best, nothing crazy or unique. The high School and the middle School were separated very well and it was not confusing on which part of the school was which. This was very impressive and important because it made it feel like it was two different schools even though they were all in one building. The middle school had a big sign over the hallway that began the middle school that said “Welcome to Saugatuck Middle School” and the high school had pictures of old graduating

After analyzing my sleep for the past week, I’ve learned that on the average weekday I’m getting around 9 hours of sleep. While on the weekend I get an average of 8 ¼ hours of sleep. Even though I am getting the recommended amount of sleep of around 8 to 9 hours, I notice that I get more sleep during the summer compared to the school year. I conclude this is due to the different environment between the summer months and the school year.

learning to avoid anxiety or discouraging the student. Make them feel important and what you’re

When I arrived at the classroom, Mr. Art was in the room and appeared to be picking up a stack of books. He told me that the class was out at lunch and that when the class returned, they would be splitting into two groups. The 6th graders would be staying in the classroom with another teacher to work on math and the 5th graders would be going with him to another room to work on a few different subjects. Since the students were not currently in the room, I took this time before my observation to get a layout of the room and note all the information that was written on the whiteboard. I looked around to see what was on student’s desks and what materials seemed to be available to students in the classroom. The student’s desks were in a pod like

The engagement consisted of the teacher displaying all the color coordinated flower parts terminology on the word wall. The students were encouraged to do a talk, pair, share to come up with possible ideas for what the lesson was about. The teacher introduced and briefly discussed five vocabulary terms that were essential for the flower part dissection lab, which were: sepal, ovary, petals, stamen, and pistils. These terms were placed on their labeling diagram, which helped the students when labeling their flower parts lab diagram during the dissection. The students were extremely motivated to figure out what the lesson was a bout from the word wall terminology. Most of the students had a pretty good idea for what the lesson was about,

For the third lesson in this unit the students were to be Scientists and observe the sun's different locations in the sky. The students were to observe the different positions of the sun during the morning, noon, and afternoon. The students had to go outside and stand in front of the school to see where the sun was in regards to the school. When the students faced the front of the school, the sun was on the East side of the school so it was a great experiment for the students to see that the sun was in the East in the morning and it's position continued to change as it moved towards the West.