Observation 1

On Wednesday February 29, 2012 I went to PS 48 to observe for my first time this semester. I was assigned Mrs. Whalen’s Fourth grade classroom and I must admit I was a little nervous. I had never been in a 4^th grade classroom before as I had completed my other observation hours in a High School or Middle School. My fears were quickly lessened as I walked through the doors of the school and began meeting teachers and students in the Halls. Everyone seemed happy to be there and they were quick to say hello, smile or wave.

            My Fourth grade class had gym first period and it was a very interesting experience watching them. Mrs. Frascati was the gym teacher and she had a basketball lesson planned out for the students. It was interesting to note that the students did not have a specific uniform or dress code for gym and many were running their warm up laps in jeans and some even had Ugg boots. After the warm up Mrs. Frascati called the students to the middle of the gym and made sure they all sat around her quietly. She then explained the lesson and made sure they understood how to play the game. After, she divided the students into two teams and assigned each student a number. Once their number was called they would see which student could get a basket the fastest. Whichever team scored first would get a point. Once during the game a few students were saying negative things about their teammates. Mrs. Frascati stopped the game and stressed the importance of teamwork and encouragement. She warned the students that if they said any bad words or started criticizing their friends, the game would end and they would sit in silence the rest of the period. It was also interesting to note that Mrs. Frascati included adding and multiplying into the gym class. Instead of simply calling out one number she would call out an addition problem for the students to solve together and the sum of the two numbers would be the number called. For example two plus three equals 5 so the students who had the number 5 would run to score the basket for their team.

            After gym the students lined up in two lines and headed upstairs to their classroom. Their teacher stopped them half way up the stairs to regain control of the very rowdy class. She managed to get the students to walk the rest of the way in silence. Their next class was English. The students sat in tables seating 4 students each. The classroom was very small and cramped. Mrs Whalen told me that they couldn’t even have a teacher’s desk because there was no extra space to put it. In the classroom there were 10 girls and 18 boys and they all seemed to work well together. There was also a Para for one of the students and currently there is a student teacher as well. The Student teacher in the room called all the students to the reading rug where she would conduct the reading lesson for the day. They were reading and discussing a story called Freedom Summer. The student teacher recapped the lesson from the day before and then had the students work in pairs to show inferences. As an assessment after she went over the group assignment the teacher asked the students to put their hands up if they understood. She counted the number of hands and then asked the students to raise their hands if they were unsure. There were more students who understood then didn’t so they quickly went over it again for the students still confused and then moved on.

            My first few hours in PS 48 were very informative and interesting and I can’t wait to go back next week!