Sydney Teal Contextual Factors Duncan 5K

1) Classroom Factors a) Physical Features i. The classroom layout is spacious and well organized. There is plenty of room for children, teachers, and visitors to move around comfortably. There are four kidney shaped desks in the middle of the room all facing the front. There is one kidney desk at the back for small groups. Up front there is a smart board, a white board, and a bulletin board. Across the front of the classroom is the alphabet, along with sight words that they have gone over. Hanging up front is a behavior chart that allows them to move their clip up or down depending on their behavior. On the left wall there are numbers created in base 10 forms, and something that represents that number. These are all hand drawn by the students. Under the number wall is a set of cubbies for the students. All across the room are their workstations. They may be spread out, but they are fairly close, so that everyone can be seen. The centers are housekeeping, art, ABC station, classroom library, puzzles and games, blocks, big book station, fine motor station, writing, pocket chart, listening/computer stations, and play dough stations. Near the door is organizers where the students go to check and see where they are suppose to go that day. Also near the back of the room is a small cabinet area where a refrigerator is, two sinks, one bathroom, and shelves are located. On the wall is the "Paw"sitive Paws" chart. This chart is used all over the school. It symbolizes: Think, Dream, Believe, Achieve by being Ready, Respectful and Responsible. b) Availability of Technology, Equipment, and Resources ii. The mainstream of technology in my classroom is the smart board. It covers all of the morning work time. Hooked to the smart board is the teachers laptop. She controls the smart board through her computer. In the front left side of the room is the listening station. Students go there to listen to books. To the right side of the classroom is the computer station. The students get on odyssey, which is a computer-reading program. The equipment of the classroom is very broad. She has individual white boards for each child to write on during group activities. There is a big white board at the front that keeps important dates, words, and activities for them to see. There is

not a classroom map on display, but there is one located on the smart board in the mornings. There are gracious amounts of manipulatives for the students to work with. The students have access to many books big and small. c) Parental Involvement iii. According to my teacher, in the past she has not been successful at having parent involvement. This year it has seemed to make a completely different change. Normally in the past it has been hard to get parents to come to parent night, participate in PTO, or even attend field trips. This year they are going on a field trip to the pumpkin patch. She has an abundant amount of parents wanting to attend this year. She is overwhelmed with joy at the involvement of the parents she has already experienced so far. She hopes that this involvement will carry on throughout the year. d) Classroom Rules and Routines iv. My classroom does not a set of visual rules for their classroom. They all follow the Matthew's "Paw"sitive Paws standards. As a school, they acknowledge positive behavior by being ready, respectful, and responsible. These are implemented in our classroom by passing out paws rewards. Children can get these paw rewards to put in their slip from any teacher and the principle anywhere at the school, as long as they are being a "Paw"sitive Bulldog. I really like this concept being school wide. This allows the child to learn the rules in their first year, and carry over until they graduate. Their routine is very consistent. Everyday they do calendar time, shared reading, they work on their phonics, they have guided reading/workstations, an interactive reading, they go to lunch, restroom time, recess, interactive writing/ interactive read aloud, their activity (music, media, PE, computer, or art) then a math lesson/guided reading, and finishes up the day with writing. (INSERT PAWSITIVE PAW SHEET) e) Grouping Patterns v. During lessons, morning meeting, and reading it is done as a whole group. All of the children sit on the color-blocked rug in his or her assigned block. After the lesson, or morning meeting, or any type of reading, they are dismissed to go to their tables and work individually on their assignment. For assessing, they are placed into small groups most of the time. She does conduct whole group assessing depending on what the lesson objective is for that lesson. f) Schedule

Their class schedule is very constant, but very flexible as well. If something does not go as planned, it is looked over and tit is time for the next activity on the agenda, or it is revised very quickly and proceeds on. Like I mentioned above, everyday the schedule consists of the following: calendar time, shared reading, they work on their phonics, they have guided reading/workstations, an interactive reading, they go to lunch, restroom time, recess, interactive writing/ interactive read aloud, their activity (music, media, PE, computer, or art) then a math lesson/guided reading, and finishes up the day with writing. (INSERT SCHEDULE) g) Classroom Arrangement (INSERT PICTURES) vii. The classroom has a successful arrangement. When I say successful, I mean in a way of observing all children at all times. There are four tables in the middle of the room where the students sit. They are all clearly visible to my cooperating teacher, her assistant, a childs shadow, and myself. On the surrounding walls of the room are learning stations for the students. I like this layout in the way of it is less cluttered in the middle of the classroom. Everything has a nice flow to it while walking and observing children during center time. Everything that a student may need is in reach. They know where it is located, and the rules that they must follow when getting out materials that are put away. 2) Student Characteristics a) Student Characteristics DESCRIPTION NUMBER OF CHILDREN FIVE HISPANIC AFRICAN AMERICAN Caucasian

vi.

FEMALE 14 14 1 6 7 5

MALE 9 9 1 6 2 2

TOTAL 23 23 2 12 9 7

Age RACE/ ETHNICITY

SPECIAL NEEDS/ IEP b) Special Needs i. In the classroom there are 7 children with IEP's. One is OT and PT. Her assistant helps her with her mobility inside and outside of the classroom. She has assistants, but is extremely

independent. The rest of the children are OT. They all attend speech therapy a few times a week. c) Achievement/Developmental Levels ii. The students are on various developmental levels. Some students can already write their name, where some do not even recognize their name. There are some who can identify many letters of the alphabet. Almost half of the class does not know more than just half. There are some who do not know any. There is not a noticeable gap in mathematics. Most students can identify numbers 0-10.

1. Cason Anderson 2. Tyree Bell 3. Sanai Burris 4.I'Brie Deal 5.Leonardo Fajardo 6. Jalen Gary 7.Ta'Miyah Gilchrist 8. Van Shai Hackett 9.Jaden Hawkins 10. Kylee Hunt 11. Mariya Jackson 12.Jeffery Jones 13. Colton Knight 14. Amy Moreno 15. Janiya Perrin 16. Savannah Perrin 17. Hailey Sieburg 18.Karleigh Smith 19. Kelan Smith

# Of uppercase letters 0 24 25 21 24 22 11 25 16 26 18 21 22 0 26 23 22 19 23

# Of lowercase letters 0 24 20 24 23 16 7 24 14 24 12 15 20 0 19 20 14 16 19

# Of sounds 0 10 2 2 0 0 0 15 9 7 0 0 8 0 0 6 0 0 6

# Of numbers 0-10 0 All All 9 All All 7 All 7 All 7 7 All 0 All All 7 All 6

Counts to 5 30 100 39 29 29 29 59 29 59 39 29 29 9 7 29 29 39 18

20. Ava Stewart 21.Kamryn Tiller 22.Jocee Wideman 23. Brentavious Williams

25 22 24 0

23 19 23 0

22 1 17 0

All 8 All 0

29 14 59 7

d) Culture iii. The culture of my classroom is diverse. There is a mixture of Hispanic, African American, and Caucasian children. All cultures are incorporated into the classroom through song, activities, book read aloud, etc. e) Language iv. Some students can express themselves fairly well with their words. Some on the other hand have trouble saying onesyllable words and being understood. Once child speaks in phrases. There are four that have been assessed for speech. f) Interests v. My kindergarten's interests seem to be strong with mathematics and writing/describing sentences. They are engaged in everything they do, because I have such a wonderful cooperative teacher. Her teaching along is simply engaging to me. They seem to really light up and enjoy these times during the day. The boys are typically interested in super heroes, sports, and they tricycles at recess. The girls love their pink and purple color coordination. One little girl loves her big bows that her mommy puts in her hair each morning. As a class, they all seem to be interested in what I bring to lunch everyday. g) Learning Styles/Modalities vi. The learning styles of my kindergarten class are visual and kinesthetic preferences. Most important things are done in colors, and visuals are used as much as possible without being too distracting. There is a abundant amount of manipulative available for the students to use with every math concept, since hands on in math is very important. 3) Instructional Implications (This will be altered as the semester goes on...it is hard to do so when I have not done any assessments yet) i. As a teacher, it will be my mission to make sure that all children understand the communication that is being said between them and myself. This will focus on the children who have speech impediments and children who's second language is English