Rosa Flores

Mrs. Reiff

EDUC&202

3 November 2016

Class Observation and Interview

I had the opportunity to observe a second grade bilingual class at Blue Ridge Elementary

School. I was introduced to Mrs. Berta Herrera, while in her classroom I observed posters,

books, schedules, and folders well organized. As kids were entering the class they didnt have a

specific seat because there were no names on the tables. Students pulled up a seat in an open

chair, or maybe they knew were to sit. The lesson they were going to start was on literature,

Mrs. Herrera gave the kids a new Spanish word llego she introduced the words with a hand

gesture to pronounce the word and figure out the accent on the letter o. She then handed out a

packet books, to do an activity with the word. Kids wrote the new word and then Mrs. Herrera

had a definition for them to write, later they came up with their own sentence and finally they

drew a picture to give them reference to the word.

The technology available to the class was a projector that had a camera which could

project what the teacher was doing and kids were able to follow along with the directions. Then

after the kids were done with their work assignment the teacher asked for volunteers to share

their sentences and in one instant all the students in the class raised their hand. All the students

wanted their work to be project in the board. Some of the behaviors that I noticed were probing
the students to elaborate on their response to questions, another behavior was clear steps, Mr.

Herrera spoke clearly and loud enough for her students to hear her. The time that I spend in the

classroom the students were engaged in reading and writing. What I noticed was the teacher tried

to include all her students. As they sat in rows of four they all were in a section where the teacher

could see them all at once.

The classroom was it is organized items such as books, posters, activity areas, and tables

were clean. There were schedules in plain sight to keep track of time Mrs. Herrera would call out

when it was time to end an assignment. Some of the posters that got my attention were in

Spanish, they were about being a good reader, words that need extra attention, math strategies,

and new word sentences the students created in construction paper. What caught my attention

and impacted me was a student was being helped apart from the rest of the class he was very

concentrated, focused, and the expression in his face was that he wanted to express himself but

he didnt have the correct words to say. I was encouraged in that instant to continue my

education as a teacher.

Mrs. Herrera Philosophys in education is that every student comes to school to learn. She

says that students should be taught at their level and her job is to teach at the childs level. Mrs.

Herrera has high expectations for her kids and she focuses on having structure that is clear to

follow. The methods Mrs. Herrera tries to focus on are clear instruction, high standards, and

positive feedback. The values she fosters in her teaching is respect. She respects her students and

hopes her students can follow her example. She cares for her students and see encourages

positive feedback. I asked her what keeps her motivated to continue teaching and answered the

impact she has on children keep her encouraged to teach. An advice she would give students that

want to teach is to have a passion for the job. She said its difficult at times to be a positive role
model but she evaluates herself and looks at the areas where she needs to improve, and finds

guidance in her colleagues. The biggest challenge she faces is teaching at various levels because

kids learn different and as a teacher you need to adjust to kids learning. She mentioned a tactic

that helps keep kids engaged is to persuade them to learn getting kids excited to ask questions

and explore. My thoughts after the interview and observation was that teachers need extra

support in classrooms. When doing activities, it is hard to get around the classroom and help all

the kids. Much of the activities that I observed were about fifteen minutes each and the time

wasnt sufficient to look at the entire process of the individual student. The effort teachers put in

to meet every childs need is difficult but rewarding after you see them master a certain concept..

My experience overall was a positive because I got to view the teacher in a different perspective.

I evaluated myself in the process to see the skills that I have to be a teacher and what I lack that I

need to improve, if education is the career I want to pursue. The hardest aspect I viewed was how

to keep kids on task, how to manage time and class management. After this experience I will

continue to observe more classrooms to have insight on the daily work teachers do.