Classroom Observation

Classroom Observation

On October 24th, I visited the pre-school classroom of Ms. Darling at the Mason Early Childhood Center (MECC). MECC is a public school serving pre-kindergarten through 2nd grade. The school is very clean and well maintained. There are safety procedures in place and the overall the atmosphere is warm and inviting. Ms. Darling’s classroom is a pre-kindergarten class with 14 students and one teacher’s aide. The classroom setting was warm and inviting. There was one teacher desk in the back of the room, sink and counter by the window, huge table with each child’s name taped to it so that the students knew where to sit. There was an arts and crafts area to the side of the door at the front of the room. In the middle was the circle time rug and a smart board. In the back by the teacher’s desk was the play area.

The lesson being taught on the day that I was there was one about grocery shopping. The teacher sat in the circle time area and asked the kids who like to go shopping. She then asked them what their favorite fruits and vegetables were. The students sat at the table and worked on the different vocabulary words that were introduced in the lesson. During circle time, they counted different fruits and vegetables. Then in the play area they all got to grocery shop. By the end of the lesson, every child could count appropriately, recognize the shapes and spell the vocabulary. During the lesson, there were accommodations were made for one child that was on an IEP. Her intervention specialist was present during the less on to help her. She worked with her in small groups to help her.

The teacher used guided-discovery as her instructional strategy. This strategy involves teachers providing students with information and then guiding them to an understanding. During this lesson the teacher first provided the students with information about grocery shopping and then guided them to understanding by having them learn vocabulary, count and recognize shapes.

        During this observation, I saw many examples of the different characteristics of teaching. Classrooms can be unpredictable in the fact that as a teacher you never know what might happen next. The younger the children the more unpredictable they can be. I also saw how there are many times when events are going on simultaneously and you must learn how to work through this without getting off track. I also saw how teaching can be multidimensional because students often learn in different ways and at different rates.  

        I saw collaborative colleagues at work during my visit. The teacher, the teacher’s aide and the intervention specialist all worked very well together to ensure learning. The intervention specialist did a very good job of creating a productive learning environment for the student that she was there to help. All the teachers were caring professionals. They all showed compassion for the students and really seemed as if they enjoyed their jobs.

The educational philosophy that I feel that this teacher practices is that of progressivism. Her philosophy is to prevent real world problems and then guide the children on how to solve those problems. The lesson that I observed presented the students with the problem of grocery shopping and then guided the students on how to make decisions on what to buy.

The three characteristics of effective schools that I observed where optimal school and class size, safe and orderly environment and interactive instruction. The school serves students ranging from pre-kindergarten through second grade. This appears to be the appropriate number of grades for the building. There was a very orderly and The explicit curriculum that I saw took place when the teacher was teaching the children shapes, colors and counting. The implicit curriculum was that of grocery shopping and how to do things that grownups do every day.  safe environment throughout the entire building. Everyone did what they were supposed to, when they were supposed to. During the observation in the classroom there was a lot of interactive instruction taking place.