Observation+Notes

I did my observations with two teachers, Mrs. Honeywell and Ms. Fosdick. My notes are organized by teacher. >>>
 * Observations ** – May 9, 10, 11
 * Mrs. Honeywell **
 * Literature
 * Read “Sideways Stories from Wayside School”
 * Read a chapter by themselves, then listened to the next chapter on a recoding that Mrs. Honeywell had on her computer.
 * They had to follow along in the book while they listened
 * Wrote down words they didn’t understand – looked up later
 * Kept notes on main character, problem, setting, and plot.
 * Students had self made goals of number of book they would read in the quarter. The goals were displayed with a “prize” at every step (every book completed). A few students turned in their write up on the book and got to move farther on their chart.
 * Some students chose to talk to Mrs. Honeywell about the book. I liked that the students had a choice because they will choose the one that they feel most comfortable with and hopefully the one they will succeed in the most.
 * Students created a slideshow on there favorite chapters
 * This allowed students who had trouble writing still be able to do the assignment
 * There was a lot of time for independent reading.
 * The students were divided by grade – 6th graders in the desks, 7th graders at the back table.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The two groups were usually doing different things
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The next time I came in for an observation they were making Diamante poems.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">These were great to review nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Students had trouble remembering so Mrs. Honeywell did some examples of the words.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The students then created an example on the board with the teacher about school.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">This was something they could go back and look at if they got stuck on what came next
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Before the students wrote their poems, they brainstormed different topics that they knew a lot about.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">For a while some one the time in class was used as a study hall.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">When the students were studying and doing other homework, Mrs. Honeywell would bring each student to her desk to go over any missing assignments for the week. They would also go over grades for each class.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">This was a great way for the students to keep organized and know what they have in each class.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Ms. Fosdick **<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> – co-taught 8th grade math/english – taught 8th grade literature – 8th grade study hall
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">In the English class that Ms. Fosdick co-taught, she basically walked around the classroom and made sure the students understood what was going on.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">She didn’t do too much teaching herself in the class
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The first thing the student did in class was take a spelling test.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Ms. Fosdick walked around to be sure all the students heard the word and understood.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Students corrected each others papers
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Those with 100% or their personal best got recognized with a piece of candy
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">After the spelling test they got directions for their 8th grade project. Ms. Fosdick walked around again to be sure that all the students understood the directions.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The next class I observed was her 8th grade literature class. She only had 5 students in the class so it was more individualized.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">To start off the class she put on a soft song and gave the students 5 minutes of free writing.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Their only direction was to keep writing the whole time, whatever came to them.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">They could write about anything and everything
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">After the students did their writing the got the opportunity to share
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Only one student choose to share what she wrote
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Ms. Fosdick says she collects them to be sure that they do I and never reads them because she wants them to be as personal as they want. Some students will ask her to read it by herself, in that situation she will.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">One of the days Ms. Fosdick did some evaluations on the students to check their progress.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Students had to read a passage and then Ms. Fosdick asked them questions about it. Some were comprehension, inference, and other were sequence of events.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The results were used for their meetings to keep their parents and files updated on their progress.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Ms. Fosdick also co-taught a math class for the 8th grade.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The same procedure as the English class happened
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">She didn’t do any actual teaching herself, she was more of just a teacher’s aide
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The students were reviewing how to simplify polynomials.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The students just raised their hand if they needed help and she was come over.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">In her study hall class, she was helping them write their papers about their future.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">They got to use lap tops and research different colleges and professions.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">This was a great project because it got students thinking about what they want to do after high school. They learned that there were many opportunities for them.