Seventh Grade Classroom Observation

October 20, 2014

Stephanie Hauser

I began my seventh grade observation at Discovery Charter School in Porter. I was sitting at the
teachers desk while they had a geologist student from the Field Museum give a presentation. The class
was very engaged in the speaker. They enjoyed learning what he was talking about and laughed a lot
with him and at what he said. He mentioned volunteering at the Field Museum and the kids were all
about that! They were asking him tons of questions about it. They were very interested on doing
whatever they could to volunteer there.
Since I was going to be teaching this same class through Junior Achievement the teacher, Ms.
Kubik, gave me a little insight on the class. She said that groups are a good idea with this class since
there are 30 kids in there. They also enjoy hands on work. She also mentioned that they can get just a
little loud at times, but overall a great class.
The classroom had a lot of stimulation in it. There were funny, positive posters and signs on the
walls and bulletin boards. There were also many important happenings for the school hanging beside
them. They even have a chinchilla in their class.
Once the speaker was finished, the teacher used the three claps method to get the students
attention and had them thank him all together. The class then began to learn about the Mesozoic era.
The teacher mainly used slides from her computer that were projected onto the board while she gave
more insight to them. The kids got out packets that they had used for a previous lecture and were taking
notes as she was talking. Ms. Kubik has a commanding voice and it was needed a few times during the
lecture to keep the students on track.
Then it was time for the students to switch classrooms. I forgot that in seventh and eighth
grades the students switched classrooms, so it was a nice surprise to observe two grades! Discovery is a

fairly new school and has only been around for five years. There are many more students in the K-5
grades, and not very many eighth graders. It was about half the size of the seventh grade classroom.
The eighth graders were totally different from the seventh graders. When I was introduced to
the seventh graders they were very eager to say hello and question me on why I was there. They eighth
graders just gave nods and stares and went back to focusing on the teacher.
Mrs. Kubik was very good about showing responsibility to the students and following her
classroom rules. This stemmed from students forgetting their homework or not turning in assignments
on time. She said that it will not be tolerated anymore. I was not in the eighth grade classroom very
long to observe, but would have liked to see how the rest of the time went.
Reflecting on my time spent at Discovery, I felt that it was very apparent that eighth graders
have a longer attention span than seventh graders. Also, the boys in seventh grade were way more
talkative than the girls in seventh grade. It was a little disappointing that the teacher had to keep telling
the students to focus during her lecture. And it felt that the eighth grade students had heard many times
before about having more responsibility that they didn't seem to be affected by it much. I feel that I will
be a good fit for middle school or high school because I can talk to them on their level and show them
respect while guiding them to become responsible, mature teenagers.

First Grade Classroom Observation

November 17, 2014
Stephanie Hauser

The classroom that I was assigned to observe was Mr. Olfinak's first grade class at Hayes
Leonard Elementary School in Valparaiso. When I got there at 9:15, the students were having a reading
test and were sitting quietly at their desks. I was seated at the back of the room so I could observe.
Sitting there, I looked around the room and noticed that there were many vowels, words, numbers, and
the alphabet displayed on the walls, doors, and windows. I also noticed that the rules for the classroom
were in a noticeable spot and that they kids helped pick out the rules for their classroom. They even
wrote their names on it. The kids were very quiet and very orderly The teacher and the classroom
looked very organized. Mr. Olfinak, or Mr. O as the students call him, mentioned to me that he had
taught fifth grade, fourth grade, second grade and now first grade.
Once the students finished and turned in their tests they sat on the carpet while Mr. O began his
lesson. I was very surprised how quiet and well behaved these children were. Instead of yelling out
answers, Mr. O had the students put a thumbs up for yes or a thumbs down for no when asked a
question. The students were also very good about raising their hands and waiting to get called on to
answer something, instead of yelling out the answer. They exhibited this behavior throughout my time
there. The teacher used examples of levels ( i.e. level 0 voices, level 1 voices) when he asked the
children to speak to each other about the subject he was talking about.
I noticed very many bright colors around the room and the teacher said that the kids like
anything super bright in color. They even had a big plastic jar filled with neon cotton balls, which they
called warm fuzzies. The teacher used this as a reward system when the students are being good. If they
fill the jar up they get a reward. The jar was mostly full.

I noticed that everything in his classroom was time based. It was organized for the children to
do things in 15 minute intervals and sometimes 30 minute intervals. The teacher needed to be very
aware of his time and alert to keeping on track and not getting distracted. A timed activity was when the
children broke up into groups based on their reading level. There was an area where kids read to
themselves or a partner, where they played on Ipads, where they cut and pasted letters in a packet or
worksheets, they worked with the teacher on reading and they also worked on sounding and saying
words with another teacher/helper. There was a timer that was used and had a small ding that signaled
to the children that they needed to start getting ready to move onto the next cluster.
The children in the classroom were so well behaved and rarely did a child act out the whole
time I was there. A few had slip-ups, but the teacher did such a great job of not singling that child out or
making a big deal out of what they were doing. Mr. O was also very diligent on pointing out good and
positive behavior that the students were exhibiting. A few of the children were very friendly and smiled
and waved and even introduced themselves. I was not introduced to the classroom and one child asked
what my name was. He was very friendly and waved at me a lot during the day. All of the children
were very perceptive to the rules and organization of the classroom. There were very few stragglers
when it was time to switch groups. I did notice that all levels of learning were engaged when doing
these reading groups . Such as reading to the kids, having them read to themselves or quiet time,
talking quietly amongst themselves, and computer time. They were not just sitting at their desks the
whole time and listening to the teacher talk. The activities were able to reach many different levels of
learning. The reading groups were done for one hour and then they moved onto Mr. O teaching them
about pronouns using the dry erase board, the projector and and very neat mouse that was also a pen!
Some other things I noticed while observing this class, was that all of the students were white.
There were no other races in the classroom. I actually found that to be very surprising. Mr. O had a
helper for the week that did different things around the classroom when needed. It seemed to ease any
tension that would come with rushing to help the teacher. There was also some visualization used. Mr.

O was reading a story and had the children close their eyes and think about the words that he was
saying.
Reflecting on my first grade classroom observation, I was very impressed! I have never seen a
classroom that was so well behaved, quiet, organized and had students that actually followed the rules!
Mr. Olfinak never yelled or raised his voice once when I was there, not that he needed to. But I was
blown away by that. I could tell that the children were used to the routine of that day of the week and
how the rules were regulated in the classroom. They all seemed to enjoy themselves and very rarely
gave the teacher any reason to correct their behavior. I will say though, that I felt exhausted after
leaving there! And I could only imagine how tiring it would be on a daily basis after teaching first
grade. It gave me much perspective and respect not only to the teachers, but the students who were able
to go through there day doing so much stuff and still having a smile on their face.