Laura+Cohen

Site A: Jones

1) I went on an observtional visit to the fourth grade at Jones Elementary, on Feb 14th. After signing in and receiving a name tag, I was taken to Mr. Martin's fourth grade. When I came into the room it appeared that the class was finishing a valentines party/freetime. The kids were loading their pockets with candy as Mr. Martin announced it was time for gym. He specifically said not to bring any candy. As soon as he left the room, leading a line of kids towards the gym, the stragglers at the end of the line stocked up on sugary treats. The gym teacher had a playful and enthusiastic relationship with the students. They were hyped up and eager to let out some energy. The teacher did a variety of activeties with the students beginning with jumping jacks, sit-ups, rock paper scissor battles, line jumping and a "sharks and minnos" parody. The majority of the students were excited to participate, but one boy in particular was not interested. He was a overweight boy at the opposite end of the gym from where I was. He looked embarressed and unmotivated, expecially towards the more physical activities. He received some encouragement from the gym teacher, but for the most part was left alone in what looked like an uncomfortable sitation. This boys physical diversity posed a social challenge, apperently more so than the different ethnicities within the class.

2) On the second visit to the fourth grade at Jones I was able to work with a few of the children instead of just sitting in the corner as I had done before. The students each had a sheet of math to do. One of the girls asked me if I could help her. It was clear that she wanted me to just give her the answers, but instead I encouraged her work them out. We were doing fractions, and by drawing out the different "parts" she could visually see and count how many there were (and then turn it back into a fraction). Another girl came over to the table and asked if I could help her. She read the problem quietly and hesitantly contrasting to the extroverted behavior of the first girl. A boy came over wanting to look at the answers. I told him I could explain how to do it, but one of the girls said, "he wouldn't listen". This stuck with me.

3) The last trip to Jones was on a sunny day. Luckilly my class was playing outside, so I got to observe them play and have time to talk with one of the teachers. He pointed out the different groups playing and was happy everyone was running around and getting exercise. "Some of the students" he said, "don't like to be active", but that day they all found some reason to play.

Site B: Oakley

1) After a short drive we arrived at Oakley elementary school for the first time. The building was recently built and we had to “buzz in”. The lobby displayed murals and student artwork. I went to visit the fourth grade that was on the second floor. When I entered the room, the teacher was sitting at her desk with a swarm of children around her holding dry erase boards. The class was learning about simple fractions. The students returned to their desk and sat behind colorful cardboard blinds, like they were on a game show. A problem was given and the children had to write down their answer, and more importantly their reasoning. While the competitive games show feeling was new to me, I liked that the teacher emphasized showing your thinking. That way she could help the student understand where they went wrong. On the blackboard behind her desk was a behavior chart. My interest gravited towards the children at either pole of the spectrum the graph. A mature girl had her name at the top, and a small blond boy had his name at the bottom. The girl was a leader, and often helped others. The boy required the most attention in the class. The class sat together in a group with the schools “advising” counselor. He mentioned bullying in the classroom and suggested alternative ways of treating each other. Then he listen to the fourth grade have a class meeting. The main teacher asked if there was anything the kids wanted to tell the group. They talked for over 15 minutes about deaths and injuries. The subjects included pets and family. I was surprised at their fascination of death and the brief sympathy they received. The little blond boy told a few stories that the teacher thought sounded questionable as to its truth.

2) I was visiting a different class then I had prevously. When I came into the room, music was playing and people were dancing around the room. The teacher told me they were having a break from practicing for a creative wrting test. After the children got out some of their energy they sat back in thier desks and listened to each others stories. They read imaginative tales of other worlds. The writing skills of this class was impressive, as were the comments and questions the students make to each other. The teacher was highly responsive to the class and had a lot of constructive energy.

3) The fourth grade were making fraction cards. They drew out a fractions (from a list) and pasted it onto a notecard. The teacher was encouraging of my visit and wanted me to interact with the kids. She asked me to walk around. The kids were mostly working in groups. Some of them were consumed with the project at hand while others conversed and worked slowly. One of the groups I sat with had three boys and one girl. The boys were aware of the girl and even though they seemed to like her they still wouldn't tell her their "secrets". One of the boys proudly said, "God is a man, so girls have cooties." Another group were arguing about which colors they used to color the fractions. They made a destinction between boy colors and which were for girls.

After fractions it was time to clean up. A girl showed the teacher one of her fraction cards to see it it was right. The teacher asked if I could help her fix it while the rest of the class cleaned. I sat on the floor with this girl looking at the fraction card. She quickly revealed that she was taking medicine and her mom had forgotten to give it to her. She said that she is a psycho and continued acting out the label she had learned. This girl was a handful, I knew I couldn't do much for her as I had to leave the class in 10 minutes. I stayed with her an tried to support her to do the activities the class had begun. She was bright. After telling me she was Indian, she told me that I was English and Russian (which is an accurate guess). She had trouble cleaning up her pile of papers that had accumulated on the floor. She tried jamming the paper into a folder, quit violently. Most of the things she said were about the negative things other people thought about of her. I told her that they were not true. She took out a large book and wanted to read to me. It was time for me to leave, I left her as gracfully as I could. I knew the needed positive attention, and I really tried to be that for her. When I left she told me I was her only friend, this made it even more difficult to leave...

I went to Oakley as well and felt that the teachers appreciated and welcomed my company. I felt very comfortable in the classroom and got right to working with the kids. While at many of the other schools I was only able to sit and watch. Oakley was probably one of my favorites for this reason. ~emma

Hey Laura, Wow! I am so moved by that little girl who called herself a psycho. Do you know what exactly was going on with her? It just seems that she really needs individual attention and maybe she doesn't get enough of it at home nor at school. She seems to be pretty intuative and really sweet. Maybe, even if you don't observe that school anymore, you can still go visit her from time to time. I think it would make her really happy and it would feel really rewarding. ~ Sara Methven

Site C: Art Space

1) No visit (School break)

2) The seventh grade was is the middle of a few different projects. They were preparing for a hunger banquest, in which each of the students were assigned a different country. The students learned about the people and culture of their assigned country. In addition to doing a report before the banquet, they also had differing roles in the classroom depending on the economic class of their country. Those assained to the most industrialized countries could sit anywhere they wanted in the room. Second world countries were only allowed to sit at desks and those in the third world sat on the floor. After they came in from a sunny recess a few of the boys began complaining about sitting on the floor. The teacher wrote a list of vocabulary words on the board which were supposed to be copied into their journals. A girl from the wealthy role asked if she could have one of the poor people write them for her and the teacher agreed. The other task within the class was studying for a science test. The teacher split the students into two groups who competed on a test review. Most of the questions were multiple choice and were asked in a rotating order within the groups. A few questions required the students to draw on the large dry erase board (where the score was also being kept.) The studetns seemed to have the most fun answering these questions and were able to show thier ideas visually. A girl and one of the roudier boys were passing a note back and fourth. When the teacher caught them she threatened to read it aloud to the class. You could see the fear on the girls face. The teacher read the note to herself and announced to the class that it was love letter. The girl skwirmed in disagreement. The teacher replied that in seventh grade this is what a love letter often looks like. At the end of the class the teacher read the note. I was surpirsed she did this as it was clear the girls was uncomfortable with it's contents and felt vulnurable. After the studetns left the classroom for another period, the teacher explained that reading notes cuts down on how often they try to pass them in class. She was proud her manipulation of peer pressure to minimalize distrations in class. Nevertheless, the same teacher had a small dog in the room. It played in a little baby crib/cage. When the pooch started crying one of the students brought the dog back to her desk and comfoted it. I was suprised that there was a dog in class, and more surprised at how little distration it caused–likely becuase they were used to having it there and knew how to take care of it without disrupting class.

~katie
 * response: That's harsh... while it may be an effective classroom management technique, I'm sure that girl (and perhaps the boy as well) will never forget that day. All through middle school my friend and I passed around a journal, thinking that was less likely to be receipted than a piece of paper, but we would have felt so awful if anyone else had read it, especially if a teacher had read it to the whole class. That's strange there was a dog as well... was it the teacher's dog? Or a classroom pet?

3) Because Art Space doesn't have their own theater or auditorium, the fourth grade was practing a play in what felt like a hallway. I had intended to walk past them towards the seventh grade, but instead stayed to watch the play rehearsal as it seemed rude to walk through their set to get to my observation destination. There were a few kids "on stage" while the majority sat in the audience and watched. There was a tech crew that recorded the scences in the back of the room with camcorders. Another boy was behind a screen that displayed large pictures that he put on a projector. The end of the play was a song. All the students who had been seated came to the front of the stage. The director annonced that they should be standing "boy-girl-boy-girl". These kids were still having difficulty holding hands with the opposite sex. It distracted them and invited giggling and awkward faces. When it was time to sing, the group was not enthusiastic. The director tried to encourage them and said they would have to "Sell it" better. He tried to explain that they were singing about freedom and that their voices and bodies should show that liveliness. The fourth grade were able to increase their involvement in what they were singing about after the teacher spoke bluntly to them.

LT 4/16

Site D: Buncombe Community East

1) Couldn't observe, communication difficulties. One of the teachers who was in the main office when we were discussing the situation told us tht this was an introduction to the bureaucracy of public school. He also told us not to be afraid of it.

2) I observed a freshman english classroom. They were reading the book "Flowers For Algernon". Each student sat at their own desk with a copy of the book. The class was primerilly reading the book aloud and although after each section or paragraph the teacher would stop and ask question. The teacher did an amazing job facilitating the class. He asked each student to read a paragraph and the task would rotate throughoutt he classroom. Reading aloud for many people is challenging and can be intimidating, The teacher recognized which studetns were most pressured by the task and allowed them to read smaller sections. One of the freshman in particular was vocal about her hesitation to read. She sadi that there were too many words she didn't know. The teacher helped her through it and encouraged her to make an attempt and figuring out what the words were. The teacher asked questions from the book which were relevant to the teenagers life. He asked questions about relationships and responsibilites. As an observer (along with Sara M.) I had to read as well. I was glad the teacher incorporated us into his lesson and gave us a sense of what it felt like for the students having to read out loud.

3) I went to a different class this time, and observed 10th grade english. They group were seated in pairs at tables and were completing a work sheet about readings that had done the previous day. They were working with a large text book called "The Language of Literature". The students were encouraged to use dictionaries and work on vocabulary.

One boy finished his quiz and wanted to return a book to the library. The teacher looked at the book and noted that the student hadn't finished it. The boy said he didn't like the book, but the teacher suggested the boy continue with it. The teacher then said the boy could return the book. The boy decided not to take it back, but instead began reading it.

The class took place through the worksheets with a little interaction from the teacher wwho paced throughout the classroom answering questions and monitering the students. The teacher was talking with one of the students about her grade, and that her attendence was not consistant.

The 10th grade was doing world literature the teacher explained. He said that the class travels the world through books. They were in Nigeria now(reading Dead Mans Path), and would be going to Russia next week. The teacher gave me his special copy oft he text book the used to see what other information it included. This was my first encounter with the teachers text. It showed the page which the student swould read and then had additional summaries, word definitions, vocabulary, questions that could be asked and answers that were acceptable. I liked that the text also included ways to "customize to different levels." The teacher told me that he often adds history to the literature lessons so they make more sense and have a context.

LT 5/15