Instructional Planning

The first day of my observation I thought that Mrs. Garza had a very insightful lesson plan and I wanted to know how she varied this throughout the days. The first thing Mrs. Garza mention when asked about what type of lessons she followed by saying that they were those of Diana Ramirez Strategies. The curriculum they had for the summer was the same one for all the eight gradeReading classes in B.L. Garza Middle School. The daily worksheets were placed in the eight grade office for al the teachers to get when they need more copies. She said that the lessons they followed where done on a day to day basis and they just continued where they left of the day before there was no exact timeline of when thing should be done. She said that most English Language Art classes in B.L. Garza Middle School were all the same. The only routine she followed on a daily basis is that at the beginning they read the book assigned then they followed by a worksheet and they finished the class by doing a TAKS passage. Since the observation was done in the summer there wasn’t a yearly planned out lesson plan.

I wish I had had a better visual way of looking at a lesson plan from Mrs. Garza.

Personal Reflections

In going into my first field experience I knew what kind of students to expect because I have experience working with them at the Boys and Girls Club; however, many of the students like to speak up and that’s exactly how the class I observed was in B.L. Garza Middle School. I do believe students are at an age of critical were a lot of guidance is essential. If students feel comfortable with their teacher chances are they will feel comfortable with the lessons and I believe Mrs. Garza did a great job in doing so. I was glad that Mrs. Garza gave me the opportunity to work with some student towards the last days of my observations because I do believe that that one student I helped I made a difference for her in helping her go onto high school.

I know many of the frustrations educators face is keeping students engage but it is difficult not for students to deviate from a lecture. I can tell Mrs. Garza wanted attention on her 100% of the time and many of the time this wasn’t achieved.

Many questions remain unclear to me and I would want to know how a class with more students would turn out to be. I know that it is something to look forward in my field observation in the fall because it’s going to be something to observe how the teacher manages her class with more students at once.

I do believe that the most important aspect to every successful classroom is the classroom management. This is something that I saw and an excellent job done by Mrs. Garza but I would like to see more students in a class. I want to gain insights in these aspects because I want to teach a class of more students and it would be beneficial for me to see how educators handle these situations. My overall, fell for my observation was rewarding and I know having these opportunities to go into a class is going to provide me with better understanding of what to expect when I go into working field.

Interaction with Teachers and Students

As far I can remember the best moments all throughout school were those in which you got to work with your classmates. Having teamwork for many teachers and students it is beneficial because it allows students to work on social skills. Teachers on the other hand are not lecturing and telling the students what to do step by step they just guide their students. In Mrs. Garza’s class I didn’t get to engage with students in their group activities the only interaction I had with them was when the students need to be monitored to make sure the students stayed on TAKS because they were disruptive.

There was a young lady Mandy in the class of my observation that seemed to be working really hard on the work she had assigned. She however seemed to have trouble getting the correct answer. I sat with her one day trying to explain the procedure in trying to figure out what she could do to ease her process of finding the correct answer. I asked her why she thought it was hard and she said it was because she would read and all she would read was information that went in one ear and went out the other super quick. I told her why don’t you try to take notes after each paragraph you read. She took this into consideration and on her next passage she got a passing score on the assessment. Her reading skills are there and she is smart she just needs to be taught the right techniques that are going to help her improve her testing skills.

Many of the interactions that I had with the students were mainly me monitoring them if they kept up with the lesson and their work. Many of these students tend to get easily distracted and I facilitated the lesson by helping the teach focus on helping the students with the lesson and their work.

Since my observations was during the summer session many of the extracurricular activities where not available for the students. The main study was focus on the core class that in my case was reading.

Technology Integration

In Mrs. Garza’s summer Reading class for preparation for the TAKS students didn’t have much use of technology helping them on their class assignment. The main source of technology but it was used by the instructor to conduct the lesson was the use of the document reader or the ELMO machine. Most of the assignments where placed under the document reader and the students followed along so they could keep up with the teacher; even though, much of the assignments where shown through the document reader she also incorporated the use of online websites to engage the students in the lesson from the beginning. She used online sources and projected them through the projector onto the white board in the front of the class.

Much of the lesson was during the summer so there really wasn’t a setup schedule to introduce students to the use of technology. There were no computers for the students to use during summer school in the room the only one there was was a laptop were the teachers and through that one the students were engaged in the lesson. I don’t think that the use of technology would of made the instruction better for the teacher I believe in some ways technology can affect students in the sense that it distracts them from the course matter; however, if I had to incorporate technology into the classroom I would use the resources of blogging for purposes of helping students on their writing skills. I believe technology is one of the hardest things today that gets in the way of students learning. Many students are constantly online networking sites even on their phones and they loose all focus of the lesson being taught to them.

As my observation went on I realized that the use of technology in Mrs. Garzas class was the perfect amount of technology because in a way it keeps students engagement. There is sufficient amount of visual they can look at besides the book they have in front of them to keep them engage in the lesson.

Classroom Management

In Mrs. Elizondo class she imposes a daily routine for the students which is as soon as they walk into the door in her classroom the students are expected to go to the supplies table and pick up their folders. The teacher always begins the class with a review of what was thought the previous day and made sure the students remembered what they were thought. She then continued with reading the book and then proceeding to the handout that came with it. After that they worked on reading TAKS passages that helps students on their TAKS techniques. Many of the assignments where routine and the students know that ten minutes before its time for lunch and the end of the class the teacher will begin to tell them to place everything away.

The teacher took care of the attendance in a way that the students are not disturbed from their class time. She has a seating arrangement impose and she knew simply by looking at seats if students were missing. After she takes roll sends the attendance roster to the office every day with a student. Usually she picks a student who is not disruptive to take it to the office.

Since I went to the classroom a week after the school had began for the summer session the rules were not mentioned; however, one day a student who was falling asleep in class was sent into the counselors office for disturbance in the class to the other students. She constantly is monitoring what the students are doing and if they are staying on tasks. If students overly talk to other students she moved the students to a seat in the back of the class so they wont disrupt others.

Students do have permission to go into the restroom not one student asked to go to the restroom constantly; therefore, going into the restroom wasn’t a problem for the students in the class. If they did have to go the restroom was visible from inside the classroom glass door. Having this was great for Mrs. Garza.

Mrs. Elizondo is an authoritative teacher who managed her class in a well manner she never had to raise her voice to her students because they all respected her. Before the class ended she always connected with her students by asking them questions about what they did for fun or how their weekend were.

Lesson Obsevation

At the beginning of the lesson Mrs. Garza gained the students attention by continuing what they had learned on the previous class. She talked a little about what they had learned on the previous day and then showed them a You Tube video emphasizing what they had learned about black holes. This helped the students understand the concept of black holes. She also asked them if they knew anything before about black holes and many of the students said they didn’t. She also reviewed the vocabulary words the students had learned on previous day and asked the students what the definitions of them were.

Much of the information had to be done through reading a chapter in a book. The main focus was for students to read along and she did this through reading a part and then letting a student pick up where she left off. This was a great technique because student knew they had to keep up with the reading because at any moment it could be them who would read next. After they read the chapter they did a worksheet as a class and the teacher guided the students in finding the answers. Not at one moment did she give the sudents the answer she only provided them with guidance into finding the answer. After the worksheet what completed the students would share their answers to the class and agree or disagree on their answers. After they worked on the chapter and the worksheet the students then began reading a reading passage that was in prepartation for the TAKS test. The students read through the passage then began answering the questions following the passage. After doing so the students check their own work and go over as a class the questions the students missed.

I believe Mrs. Elizondo doesn’t provide enough feedback to her students. The students lesson to me seemed a bit rushed because there was a lot of information for them to take in all at once. The overall lesson seem great but rushed maybe if it would have been broken down a little and had more time spent on each area students would retain and work on the assignment carefully.

Students

Observing a class during the summer comes with different variables. The students in the class I was assigned to only had ten students. Out of the ten students there was only one girl. The class was composed of mainly lecture and discussion; therefore a lot of the students paying attention where those who would join the discussions. Many of these students had problems with staying on task. The teacher had to constantly remind them to do their work. All the students in Mrs. Elizondo’s classroom were very interested in the assignments. They all had something different to offer to the classroom and many of them had different discipline problems. A Juan in particular would normally want to stretch his legs and place them on the desk in front of him. Mrs.Garza constantly had to remind him to take them off because if he continued he wouldn't focus on the class work. Another student Ismael was constantly arguing with the teacher he was the most memorable student to me because the first day of the observation he came late because he wanted to be in the open gym practicing basketball instead of the classroom. He was a bright student had improvement from when my observation began to the last day I was there. He was the funniest student in the classroom as well. He connected the book they were reading to the real world. He would make analogies that made the other students laugh but also allowed students to see what they author in the book was talking about in locally way for them. The teacher’s most challenging moment had to be tied in with a Marcos who had a lot of sarcasm and would turn everything the teacher would say around. He did his work but he would distract others around him and would want to start conversations. The teacher did a well job in noticing her students personalities and this helped her know how her students where normally. One of the days Erik kept falling asleep in class Mrs. Garza knew this was an uncommon behavior for him and immediately send him to the counselors office to see if he need to talk to anyone. Even though, there were four students who had a lot of class disturbance the over class had good behavior and most students stayed on task.

On the last day I was there I think I had the most rewarding moment and most memorable moment. The students worked hard and it paid of when they took their reading passage examination. They all did well and the students all wanted to help each other when they went over the correct answers in their exams. I also noticed that the students were highly motivated by extrinsic rewards which made them want to do good on their exams. Mrs. Garza normally if a student got a perfect score she would reward him or her by given them a candy bar.

Classroom Arrangement

Upon arriving into the classroom for my field observation I instantly knew it wasn’t an English or reading class. The walls were covered in United States history material. The first thing I looked for was the teacher’s desk and it was located in the upper left hand corner or the northwest part of the classroom. Along the teachers desk there was a podium for the teachers use. The teacher sat behind the desk waiting for the students to arrive. The teacher rarely spend any time along the desk however because only important papers where there.

The students’ desks where scattered around the classroom and where in vertical rolls all facing the chalkboard and the Smart Board. No two desks were ever right beside each other because all the work was conducted on an individual basis.The class had two storage units that was nailed into the walls and ran on the right side of the classroom. The storage unites were cabinets and storage units containing materials for the class that takes place during the regular school year and not the summer session. On the north side of the class the wall was covered with a white board. The white board was what used most when the teacher had a lesson. She used a document machine or an ELMO machine to reflect the material used for that lesson. This machine was located in the middle of the class where she could keep an eye on her students at all times.On the left side of the room the teacher had a table set up with materials the students need on a daily basis such as their folders, crayons, and scissors. On the side of the table there was a bookshelf that was used by the students to select the book they would use all throughout summer school.

The class didn’t have any centers of specific areas of study and it didn’t have any computers. As an observer I can tell that the teacher doesn’t really have a focus on what the classroom looks like for the students engagement because it’s a summer class; however, I know if I would of gone during the school year it would have been a different story.

Mentor Teacher

While in B.L Garza Middle School I had the pleasure of observing Mrs. Garza. Mrs. Garza has had a total of twenty-five years experience with middle school students. She had been and educator for elementary for four years prior to teaching secondary students. The reason she chose not to teach elementary students was because she really enjoyed working with middle school students.

“ Many of these students are trying to find themselves at this age and time and might feel alone. I like for them to know they are not alone and that there are teachers who care about them.” Mrs. Garza said with such joy when asked about why she chose middle school students versus elementary teaching.

There is not specific grade level Mrs. Garza teaches because she is a reading specialist and main job is to work with certain students who need help on their reading TAKS. My observation however was during a summer session that was composed of eight grade students who were working on passing the TAKS exam to move onto high school.

I asked her what was her main drive into becoming a teacher was and she said thats what she wanted to be since she was a little girl and always knew that was going to be her career as an adult. She also said that the most rewarding aspect of becoming an educator is making a difference in a student’s education. She believes that all students are smart and some may need extra attention but that isn’t an excuse for teachers not to teach and fight for their education.

I asked Mrs. Garza what are some good tips for student teachers and what to await on the field? She proceeded and told me that it is good that younger generations are becoming teachers because many teachers are leaving and those spots are left vacant. The younger generations of teachers are the future of the world. She also pointed out that it’s a thrill of no other to work with adolescence. They are at a critical point in their lives where they can be molded and can be lead into becoming successful adults.

Field Obsevation: School

Field Observation: School

The thought of waking up in the morning to go into my field observation at B.L. Garza Middle School was nerve racking for me. The school that was assigned to my classmates and I was B.L. Garza Middle school located in Edinburg, Texas. I felt like a student again as I waited in my car for 7:55 AM to walk down and go into the school. When the time came and I walked from the parking lot into the school I felt like I was a student again on my first day of school, but as soon as I made my way into the school the ladies in the front office greeted me with smiles and in friendly ways of answering my questions. As I walked into the office they send me to I noticed that the school had more than one security guard. To me this wasn’t shocking but there was around four of them for the summer school program. The securities were in every corner of the school as I walked down the hall into the eight-grade office. Even though, the security guards appear to be threatening they greeted us, the UTPA students, with friendly smiles but also the students in B.L. Garza Middle School. The overall feel of the school faculty and staff was warming toward their students.

The school had many of the students’ accomplishments on display, which showed me that the school had a lot athletic, academic, and extracurricular activities for their students. They had showcases and trophies in the entrance hall of the school. Consequently, I noticed that the school had a lot of school pride and had banners of their school mascot on display. This can contribute with the level of achievement of their students because they have pride and like to represent their school and achieve recognition. This is good for the students so they can have pride from their school. Nevertheless, the school also had a lot of motivational banner covering the walls of the school. I did notice one that was in the center of the cafeteria and had a message for students to go onto post secondary education or college. These motivational messages where on all the wall of the school as well in the halls.