Alternative Observation DAR
I observed teacher Heather Stewart’s kindergarten classroom at Calvert’s ABC Nursery in Aberdeen. This classroom reflects the Aberdeen district school setting. Teacher Stewart’ Kindergarten class has 12 African American students and 5 American students ages 5 and 6. The class has nine girls and eight boys. This class was painted yellow, with several pictures and charts that make it more welcoming and smart. I observed the kindergarten learners after school. During this time, I taught them and assisted with mathematics homework. They were working on 2D shapes such as circles, triangles, etc. I also helped them with sight words and beginning blending. The primary skill I saw from Stewart’s Kindergarten class was his instructional or classroom management skill. It was amazing to see a majority of learners concentrating, with only one or two distracted by unnecessary behaviour. Mr Stewart’s classroom management strategies consisted of classroom procedures or set rules and showing them what correct and incorrect behaviour entails.
Most importantly, teacher Stewart had eight class rules that were well written and pinned on the classroom wall. Before beginning a lesson, the teacher reminds the learners to review the class rules. Secondly, the teacher has a different picture that reminds the learners what incorrect and correct behaviour entails. The pictures had labels of blue ticks and red X symbols to denote incorrect behaviour. One striking thing the teacher used to control misbehaviour was the behaviour chart with four colours: red-bad call home, blue-good behaviour, black-office or no fun activity, and green-good behaviour. The teacher maintains a positive classroom environment by creating a good relationship with learners; the teacher interacts freely with the learners. Also, the classroom setting is welcoming as it is painted with different pictures and classroom toys, which makes it welcoming.
The class is painted yellow with stickers, toys, and pictures of students and family, making it so welcoming even to visitors like me. The pictures of rules and wrong and right behaviour help learners to be responsible and know what is expected of them. The teacher motivates the learners to achieve by engaging them in various challenges and then rewarding them or praising them in class in the presence of other learners. Besides, the teacher responds to off task by ignoring the student with undesired behaviour and praising or rewarding learners exhibiting good behaviour around the misbehaving student. Bear et al. affirm that praising or rewards are important strategies for achieving desired behaviour (p.89). This act serves as a prompt to the misbehaving student. Teacher Steward self-motivates his learners by rewarding them and giving incentives like story books to the best reader, sweets, etc.
Teacher Steward Heather primarily focused on Standard #8: Instructional Strategies during the teaching. The teacher understood and effectively used different instructional approaches to encourage students to develop a deep understanding of various content areas and their connections and to build skills to apply knowledge in meaningful ways (InTASC Standards 28). Teacher Stewart used effective instructional strategies when assisting learners with shapes homework. The teacher first divided the learners into groups and made them available with different shapes and markers at various learning centres where the groups were to learn. However, I noted that the teacher introduced the small group to all learners while they sat together before transitioning to different centres. She began transitioning the learners to centres using green, white, and red cards.
The students with red cards were to go to the maths centre, those who got red cards were to go to the writing centre, and those with white cards moved to the model centre. The first group was more gifted and could make their own shapes using available resources and name them. Every child was given shapes, markers, and available resources for making shapes. The second group (white cards) was in some way struggling, and they were given a shape chart, matching cards, markers, and labelled shapes. They would make shapes, identify them, and then match them to the shapes chart at their centre. The last group (red cards) were average learners, though they still needed help with identification. They were given incomplete names of shapes to fill in the correct names, then tried identifying the shapes without checking. She then re-introduces the activity by stating that they will learn to make shapes and identify them. Then, she makes a circle and asks learners. Which shape is this? The learner says Circle. The teacher says that is correct. The teacher showed the learners how to make shapes and used several teaching approaches to handle various groups so they could understand the concept of shapes.
Reflection
What I learned about the teaching from this artefact/situation (Feeling)
I learned how to meet learners’ needs by providing numerous learning materials. Different teaching strategies can help students understand a concept better because not all students are capable. I also learned that a teacher should be well prepared and a good planner so that as one group makes shapes, the other identifies and reads. In addition, giving learners equal chances to learn the concept of shapes in diverse ways is essential.
What I learned about myself from this artefact/situation (Feeling)
I learned I must use diverse teaching approaches to enhance learners’ understanding. I also learned I should work on my instructional strategies so that they can meet the learners’ needs and help struggling learners. Lastly, I learned I should challenge gifted learners and have remediation time for struggling learners by pulling multiple activities to meet the needs of every group while teaching a particular concept. I should also work on students’ self-motivation and learn various strategies for dealing with undesired behavior in class.
What I consider a success related to this artefact/situation (Evaluation)
The learners better understood identifying shapes, sight words, and beginning words. Most importantly, the teacher was composed, well-planned, and prepared for all the groups, and students effectively gained a lot from the small group activities.
What I consider an area for continuous improvement related to this artifact/situation
Remarkably, there was little to improve from the related situation because the teacher selected the quietest learning centres for the students to work in small groups. The only place that requires improvement is minimizing the group numbers to four or three students instead of five so that it is manageable.
Based on my reflection, I establish these goals as a future educator.
My primary goal as a future educator is to offer quality education for all students and give them a positive and welcoming environment that will help nurture their potential equally. Again, I will set achievable goals while organizing my classrooms to maximize learner achievements. I will also encourage diversity for students from diverse cultures to feel welcomed and included in learning by using culturally responsive learning materials. The other goal is to plan for more personalized teaching, catering to learners’ needs by observing and reflecting on my instruction each time. The last goal is to motivate learners and create more opportunities for them to learn while encouraging them to collaborate as they learn and share ideas with their peers or classmates.
Works Cited
Bear, Donald R., et al. Words their way: Word study for phonics, vocabulary, and spelling. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill, 2015.
InTASC Model. InTasc Model Core Teaching Standards Explanation Handbook. 2013. https://ccsso.org/sites/default/files/201712/2013_INTASC_Learning_Progressions_for_Teachers.pdf.
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Question 
For this assignment, you must complete a one-hour observation in K-6th grade classroom. It needs to be a classroom with a different grade and subject area than the one you are currently placed in. Don’t forget to observe Special Education if you get a chance.
Alternative Observation DAR
You will need to ask your mentor teacher to set this observation up for you. Remember, you will need two- to three observations. Once you have determined a place, date, and time for your observation, please email that information to your supervisor for documentation. You will record these hours on your field experience time sheet.
During your observation, you are not “participating” in the class; you are there simply to take in your surroundings and the interactions happening in the class. Take notes of everything that you see:
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