Noelle+Lethem-Wanchic

Site A- Jones Elementary

2/14/2007 Jones was an interesting school structurely. We first walked into the wrong entrance, and were re-directed to an ajoining building which was the office. There seemed to be at least 3 buildings, all of which you had to go outside to go between. I thought this was pretty interesting, due to the changing climate of this area. We were directed to our classrooms, in different buildings, and I was guided to a 5th grade class. When I entered, the scene was a little chaotic. They were cleaning up their desks in preparation for the Valentines day party. The teacher (seeming a bit flustered) introduced herself, and apologized that I was coming during a party time. I said that it was perfectly fine, (after all, that meant I got to share in the chocolate cookies I was eyeing). Looking around the room, the first thing I noticed was the cluttered nature of it. There were lots of loose books, papers, and folders. The teacher had their desks organized into 4 'islands' of kids with four kids on each side, facing eachother. I thought this seemed like it could definately be an easy setup for them to be distracted by eachother. Other than that, the room seemed pretty well stocked with lots of books, and materials, so it was decent. The kids were still being pretty rowdy, and so the teacher threatened taking away a ball out of the compliment jar as punishment. She took out at least 3 before some of the students urged eachother to "shut up!", or "sit down". She told me later that when the compliment jar gets full, they get to do a fun project with the whole class, and when it is empty below a certain line, they have less privilages and fun activities. The fun activities were usually either science, or art related. I thought this seemed like a pretty good reward for behavior. One of the boys in the class told me about the last project that they did, very enthusiastically. At this point the class had finally settled down, and so the party commenced, with lots of giggling, and candy trading. Overall, it seemed like a pretty typical classroom. The kids were definately wired that day, on sugar, and prepubecant flirting!

//I saw a similar setup with the desks at Oakley. I too thought it might be distracting, but I also saw that it was beneficial; the arrangement encourages the students to help one another with tasks.// //Ansley//

2/19/2007 I was sent to a different class on my second visit to Jones. My former class was taking a drug class taught by a local police officer, which they told me is mandetory for all 5th graders. I made my way to my new room, and walked into a very different scene than I had on my last visit. Kids were sitting quietly at their desks, or on the floor, or in the corner, writing in pads of paper, while the teacher floated. They were finishing a writers workshop, all writing about nature. The writing was really good, and overall I thought the students were very expressive. They finished that up and started on a science project making a "humdinger". They gave the kids some different materials, (rubberbands, bells, sticks, paperclips, etc) and then had them pull a string coming out of a paper bag. The paper bag buzzed and dinged, but they couldn't tell what the object inside looked like. They were split up into groups, and the goal of each group was to create a humdinger on their own, without ever seeing what one actually looked like. It was a really interesting and engaging project for the kids. What I thought was interesting about the hour I spent in this room was the number of visitors they had. They had a science teacher helping them with the project, then also the spanish teacher was in there just kind of walking around, and there was another woman who apparently was a student teacher, but not in that classroom, and also another man who worked in the office just kind of observing, and then me on top of all of them. For the most part the visitors just wandered around, and listened in on the groups and their work. It seemed a little strange to me to have so many outsiders in the room, but it was a really interesting project, and a very organized classroom.

2/21/2007 For my last visit to Jones, I went back to my original room. They were reviewing what they had learned in a segment of their science class. The class was still rambunctious even though it wasn't V-Day. The teacher had to remove 2 kids from the discussion during the hour I was there. The information they were learning exited the ones who were engaging in the discussion, and the teacher clearly had taught the segment effectively, however, she did not insist that everyone answer questions, which made me wonder if they all had such a good grasp on the material, or if just the ones talking did. I wasn't there for long that day, but I concluded that the teacher in the other classroom had a better system of organization and discipline in her room, but I also think that she had less difficult kids. I guess it's always a toss up what your class dynamic will be year to year, but I definately think that teachers can have a positive or a negative effect on that dynamic as well.

LT 4/16 LT 5/15

OAKLEY I observed an incredibally well behaved and engaged class. The room incorperated all of the elements I find most essential to physical classroom environment condusive to diverse learners. The room was arranged and organized thoughtfully. It was a small room, but she managed to learning spaces, with different lighting and learning resources. The kids were almost eerily well behaved and quiet. But I think alot of it had to do with the fact that they were genuinely engaged. She was doing computer tests, where as the lesson was going on, kids would one by one go over and take their spelling test on the computer through a program. She had it organized really well so that it wasn't distracting at all. There was a really cute kid who lives near Wilson, and he was exited to have a Wilson student in the room, and asked me about bike riding trails we have.
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Again the class was quiet and behaved. I think that the volume level of a teachers voice might have a corrilation with a classrooms volume level. At jones, the teacher I observed secondly spoke very quietly, and the kids as a group weren't yelling or talking loud, but the other class I saw there was really loud, and so was the teacher. The Oakley teacher spoke very quietly and calmly, and even moved with a calm sort of aura. I was at the school for their recess time. The students are required to walk 2 laps around the track they have on the playground before they play. The teacher said that if she doesn't require that, some of them will just sit around on the playground, and not get any exersize at all. I saw what she was talking about, and it was kind of sad. When I was a 4th grader, I ran all around the playground, and played all sorts of games. They didn't have any balls on the playground!! She said that they didnt bring out balls anymore, because they always got lost, or damaged. Whats the point of having soccer goals and a basketball hoop if you cant use them?? Also, there was a grassy area, but the rest of the playground, including under the equipment was gravel. Ouch!
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Recess was going on pretty much the whole time I was there on my third visit, so I mostly just talked to the teacher. She told me some really interesting things. She told me the whole backround of one of the little girls, and I wasn't sure that was really appropriate, because she was telling me about negative aspects of her home life, and some pretty personal stuff. Apparently, the girls mom moved here all the way from New york to be with a star wars fanatic she had met online. Also this was the girls first year of school ever, and they went ahead and put her with her age group, (4th grade), but the teacher was talking about how she basically had to have and entirely different lesson plan for this girl, and tons of one on one time. She felt like because of this, it took away from her attention towards the other kids, and she didnt think that was fair. She wanted the girl to recieve good schooling, and not have to be with much younger children, but she thought she should be placed with a one on one tutor or something. It was an interesting dilema, and made me think about what should be done with kids in that sort of situation.
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FRANCIS-DELANEY

The set up of this school is so strange. There were 5 or so small house buildings that looked almost trailor-like for different classes
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LT 5/21