I am observing a student, Jackson, in Ms. Swan's class this semester at The Learning Academy. Our first day was Wednesday, September 2nd, 2015 at 8:00 AM. We were in the classroom until 10:30, so a total of 2 and 1/2 hours. The beginning of the morning started off with morning work. Then the class did Orton Gillingham work, then had snack and then finished off with math while we were in the classroom.
The students started off the morning by putting their back packs away in their designated crates underneath the computer station. Then they sat down at their desk and made sure that their cubby with all of their textbooks and notebooks were organized. Ms. Swan kept reviewing with the students the daily procedures for the class and when they arrive in the morning because it was only the second week of school. The students came in and wrote down their homework right away.
Ms. Swan told Tia, my classmate that is observing the same class as me, and I about a very interesting and helpful website that she uses. It's called classdojo.com and you are able to give the students points for doing something helpful around the classroom or take away points for misbehaving. The best part about the website is that there is an app that parents can download on their phones so they can get notified throughout the day when their child gets or loses points during the day. You can also send the parents messages through the website and it can pick students randomly. I thought it was a really cool and helpful website and definitely want to give it a try when I'm in my own classroom.
The setup of the classroom was done very well. The desks were in a U formation in the middle of the classroom and the Smartboard and white boards were in the front of the classroom and centered in the U. Ms. Swan's desk was off to the right side of the white boards and the computers were on the left side of the white boards. The classroom is a rectangle and there is a bathroom right in the room. There is a table in the back of the room for small groups and the door to the hallway is on the right of the table.
As I was observing the class I noticed that Jackson continuously placed his head in his hand and would rest it on the desk often. He didn't raise his hand much in group discussions. Jackson continued to yawn throughout the morning work and the Orton Gillingham work. Jackson did sit close to his desk and when he wasn't resting his head on the table he had good posture. Ms. Swan would walk around the classroom while checking the students' papers and would tell the students to whisper to their hands and tell their hand what to write so they would focus and write the correct words and letters. Jackson is known to have problems with reading so I thought that this was really helpful for him and the other students to get them to double check their work. Ms. Swan would also show the students how the mouth makes different movements and formations when making different sounds. She also allowed the students to choose the next letter for the practice they were doing which I thought was good because this kept them engaged and gave them the chance to be "in control" of the class.
Jackson was constantly moving and fidgeting during the lessons. He would also bounce against the back of his chair. He did participate in the tracing of the letters on their desk though. Jackson rested his head often when he was writing something down. He covered his face in his sweatshirt at one point and yawned while stretching in his chair twice. At one point, the entire class was sharing a sentence that they wrote that included their spelling words. Jackson was the last to share and the only reason he shared was because Ms. Swan asked him too. When Jackson shared his sentence he spoke very quietly and needed Ms. Swan to read it again to the class for everyone to hear.
All of these observations led me to believe that Jackson was tired that day. So I asked Jackson while I was interviewing him I asked him if he was tired and he said yes because he stayed up late. Then after the interview and survey, Mrs. Swan told me that she chose Jackson for me to observe and work with throughout the semester because he was one of the shyest students in the classroom but he was willing to answer all of my questions and was excited to be interviewed.
Lastly, something that was really cool while we were there for our first day was that Amazon was at The Learning Academy for the day. They were going around and filming the students and teachers to create a video about the school because they were donating 40 Kindles for the school and students to use as they see fit. The students and Ms. Swawn was really excited because this was a unique opportunity for them and the school.