SSFER Description and Reflective Narrative.
In this assignment I decided to participate in these categories: Extended classroom observation and a teacher interview at Horace Mann Foreign language Magnet. Thirdly, I also attended A Martin Luther King Day pageant.
I decided to observe at Horace Mann Foreign Language Magnet based on my admiration for one of the fifth grade teachers there. I also work there as a Co-op student in the afternoon. The classroom I am observed was a fifth grade classroom with mostly Hispanic students.
After observing the classroom I felt compelled to interview the teacher. I found her teaching style so impressive that I wanted to find out more about her highly effective teaching strategies. I also was encouraged by her great reputation that preceded her, to study her style intently.
My final experience involved going to a Pre kindergarten -5th grade Martin Luther King Day production. I found the production refreshing because Chisholm Trail Elementary was the only school I was aware of that was putting on a school wide production to emphasize diversity.
Reflective Narrative.
Observation of 5th grade classroom.
My initial impression of the student's reactions to the teacher and the questions she is asked made me believe that I had stepped into a gifted classroom! The students seem so eager to learn and please not only the teacher but themselves. The students seem to have a rapport with the teacher that extended beyond the classroom and she seems to accept this role with ease. I couldn't help but admire her feedback style. When she"d finished teaching a lesson she"d ask the students to give her a finger rating by outing up 1,2,3,4, or 5 fingers showing how much of the lesson they understood. She then took this information and used it to try to clarify the places where she had lost most of the students. She also has a designated time in her class schedule devoted to strengthening whatever weaknesses the student may have shown.