I was in classroom number 102 with Mr. Harry Gonzalez who taught Bilingual Kindergarten to nineteen students. The day I went to observe one student was absent. The classroom was pretty much split equally between boys and girls and all of the students were of Hispanic descent. Mr. Gonzalez was also of Hispanic descent. All except two of the students spoke both English and Spanish. The other two students had just recently moved to the United States and were still adapting, though pretty quickly, to English taught lessons. Mr. Gonzalez also told me that all of his students spoke Spanish at home and some spoke Spanish and English. .
I would say that Mr. Gonzalez taught 95% in English and incorporated Spanish from time to time. The two students that weren't as fluent in English would get pulled aside by the Aide that stayed in the classroom for extra help. There were six students who got pulled aside for the ESL Pull Out time, which was scheduled at different times throughout the week. Every student follows the schedule made by Mr. Gonzalez. His students knew that as soon as they got picked up from the auditorium at 8:25am, they were to come into the classroom, put away their belongings in their designated hook in the closet, put their homework folder in the correct bin, get a breakfast tray and eat. The students then cleaned up after themselves, stored away the unopened leftovers and sat down on the rug for their math morning routines. Every day was a different routine according to the schedule and the students seemed to be exceptionally adapted to it.
The first thing I noticed about the classroom was that it was really crowded. There were very colorful posters and pictures on the walls, on the closet and even some of the students' assignments hanging from a clotheslines going across the classroom. Although it was very colorful and you could sit there for a good amount of time being entertained by the abundance of work on the walls, I feel like it would be overwhelming if I were a student in that classroom.
