Observation Journal 2

            As of this post, I am a little more than half way through my observations at PS 48. I have had many interesting experiences in Mrs. Whalen’s fourth grade class. I am really enjoying my time at PS 48 and have learned a lot so far.

            The fourth grade class that I am observing in is deep in the throes of test prepping. It is interesting to watch the teachers in the room scramble to cover all the material on the standardized test while trying to teach other subjects. Mrs. Whalen and her student teacher have both explained to me how hard it is to plan all the lessons of the day while trying to focus so much on the reading and math material of the standardized tests. They also invited me to watch and help them prepare the lessons while the students went to gym class. They examined the math quizzes the students took the day before and decided they could move onto other material. According to the quizzes given as an assessment, the students had mastered multiplication and were ready to start division. The next day during that math class, the students were having trouble grasping their new math lesson. As a result, during the next planning session I attended, Mrs. Whalen told me and her student teacher that they were going to have to spend two periods of Math the next day so that the students would all master the skills they were having trouble with. Mrs. Whalen’s flexibility impressed me. Even though she would have to rearrange her day and find different ways to fit in all of the other lessons, she was dedicated to making sure all of her students understood division.

            Another thing that impressed me about this classroom was their use of technology. In the class they had a smart board and a document projector. Many of the student’s lessons are taught using the smart board and projector. For writing workshop, reading workshop and math workshop the students sit on the floor. The teacher then uses the document projector to show the students examples. When the student teacher was teaching a lesson about essay writing, she projected a sample essay on the smart board and went over it step by step with the students. I think that it is helpful for the students to actually see an essay clearly in front of them then go over the steps. I only have one suggestion for the use of technology in this classroom. That is using a blog to publish their work. During one of my observations the students had writing workshop where they were about to “publish” their essays. They had been working for weeks on drafting and editing and finally were getting ready to hand in their essays to Mrs. Whalen. If they actually published their essays I think they would have more fun writing them and then they could share their essays with each other online.

            Something I saw at PS48 one day did not impress me however. One morning, the Science teacher came in for science workshop. She had planned on completing a magnet lab with the students. It seemed like a fun and interesting lab but the teacher had no control over the class and it soon became chaotic. Once the materials were handed out magnets were being stuck to things all over the classroom, ruler fights erupted, paper clips were all over the floor, and one student thought it was a good idea to put masking tape in his hair. Even with all this going on, the science teacher just kept talking over the rowdy students. She kept threatening them with parent teacher conferences that night and she even said once “Today is the day I get my revenge”. Needless to say, not much was accomplished in that science class. They didn’t even review the lab and there was no assessment to see how much the students had learned. Her direct instruction was the explanation of the lab in the beginning of class (which the students didn’t listen to) as well as the directions about each lab experiment. Indirect instruction was the lab that was accomplished by the students.

All of what I have seen so far has been helpful in aiding my learning process. I am happy to be in PS48 and overall my experience thus far is positive.