Observation

10/21/2016

Mr. Lawrence, 4th and 5th grade.

Observed from 8:00 AM to 9:15 AM

At time of observation there were 18 children, 9 boys, 9 girls

Class Schedule

8:00 8:40 Journal / Spanish

8:40 9:40 Math

9:40 10:25 Spelling (practice test)

10:25 11:10 Art

11:10 11:45 Square Activity / Guidance Activity

11:45 12:35 Lunch / Recess

12:35 1:20 Drama

1:20 2:15 Writing Conferences

2:15 2:30 Snack / PAX

2:30 3:05 Individual Reading

3:05 3:15 Wrap Up

Children come in and plug in their I pads, and they take their own attendance and select their lunch
choice. I think this is good, as it keeps them responsible for their own accountability. Afterwards they
sit down and do a journal entry, this may be a math problem, a brain teaser, or an opinion piece. Today
the entry had them compare themselves to a hard piece of candy, candy corn, or cotton candy.

After discussing their journal entries out loud and explaining why they chose the candy that they chose,
the kids move to the front for circle time. During circle time the students were asked who is the most
important person, they replied that the person talking is the most important. They had a guest
teacher this morning, I am assuming she comes in occasionally. She came in to teach them some
Spanish. During circle, they said

Hola!

Mi Nombre es ______ (My name is___________)

Yo me llamo ______ (My name is______)

They introduced themselves in Spanish and expressed how they feel in Spanish. I think this a big
difference between Hamilton and SOTA classrooms. Teaching Spanish teaches other cultures and allows
for exploration of other peoples.
The teacher then asked what went well, some said that it went well and others said that voices were
hard to hear (I agree) and more eye contact was needed.

After Spanish, the children had a question for what they call their Ethical Dilemma. The question that
was asked was: You are walking alone with a friend and they say something mean about another friend,
but its true. What would you do? I thoroughly enjoyed this as it made the children think about what
they would do as opposed to what they should do. I enjoyed this because it encouraged honesty
without fear of being told that youre wrong.

One of the kids who has a hard time focusing on what the task is on hand keeps close to the teacher, he
also will talk to me a lot.

During my observation, the principle came in to do his observation as well. The class continued as if he
was never there.

Some of the children left the classroom to go to the other classroom for math. After asking the teacher
why they do this, I found out that the 4th graders stay for math lessons, while the 5th graders go to the
other classroom for their math lessons.

The teacher used the smart screen for demonstrating multiplication using the area method and then
using the short cut method. Some of the students were brought up to demonstrate some of the
multiplication problems. During this time that the students are working on math problems, I am having
a hard time not being able to help. He did give them the choice of solving odd or even problems in the
math book.

At one point the students got sidetracked, instead of yelling to get their attention the teacher just stood
there until everyone was quiet.

There is not a whole lot of Literacy Rich Environment, not like there is in K-3rd grades. There is a word
wall related to math instead of sight words or most used words. In the back of the room there is a table
used for robotics, Lego club. There is a place in the class that holds the students rock collection. There
are books where ever there is space for it. On the build boards there are posters of science related
learning, there is one board with pictures of students pets. You can tell by walking in this classroom
that it is geared more towards math and science, and its not as colorful as the younger classrooms
are. I think this is I a symbol of the kids growing up academically. I did not see any maps for fire drills,
did not see any instructions for a lockdown.