Noelle Uranga

3/5/2016
ECE 251
Activity: Observation of Caring Classroom Environment
School: Clarence Piggott Elementary
Telephone: (702) 799-4450
Teacher: Ms. Blue
Grade: 2nd
Teacher Characteristics:
1. Ms. Blue is very unconditional with her acceptance of all of her children's
individual differences. I observed in Ms. Blue's class for the first half of the
day, and in that amount of time you could tell that each and every student
had their own personality; their own strengths and weaknesses. Never did
Ms. Blue call on one student more than another because they were more
likely to have the right answer. Never did she put down the students who
didn't catch on right away to what they were learning about. One assignment
they did was writing whether they agreed or disagreed with a topic, and what
their reasons were. Those who knew what they were doing, went right ahead
and worked on their paper, those who she knew needed more help, she called
up one by one to her desk, sat them down, and worked through it with them.
Ms. Blue knows that each child learns at a different level, and has difference,
and she accepts each and every one of them for who they are.

2. Ms. Blue is very accepting of those who present challenging behaviors. As I

stated before she knows that each child is different, and some come with
behaviors that are a bit more challenging to deal with. Her biggest thing that
she prides herself with is staying calm. Not once while I was there did she
raise her voice, get angry, or anything of that matter. They had a parent
reader come into the classroom. The parent reader sat down with her Dr.
Seuss book and introduced the title to the students. One child started yelling
out, " I already read that book! I already read that book!" Ms. Blue walked
over and quietly said "Well some of us haven't been able to read this great
book yet. There is nothing wrong with reading it twice." The child nodded his
head, sat back down, and listened to the parent read the Dr. Seuss book.
Another time was, the same child was sitting at his desk and started to yawn
out loud to where it made some of the students look up at him. Ms. Blue
looked up and said "Now we talked about this yesterday right? Is that an
appropriate thing to do?" The child shook his head, and continued his work.
Ms. Blue does very well at handling and accepting children with challenging
behaviors.
3. Ms. Blue is very consistent with the enforcement of the classroom rules.
During one of the parent readers I was able to have a chat with Ms. Blue and
she says she doesn't let go on her rules. She knows that as second graders,
especially in the beginning of the year, they will test her, to see who is really
in charge, what they can get away with. She starts enforcing her rules day
one, and is the most strict those first couple weeks so the children know they
don't have the choice other than to follow the classroom rules. Her rules stay
the same, they don't change to add confusion. She enforces the same ones
each day, and the children know that. At the start of one of the parent

readers there were a few children that were still talking, although the parent
was about to start the book. Ms. Blue said, "Excuse me. Let's be respectful to
our parent reader please, and quietly listen to the story. Another time was
when, Ms. Blue had just told all the children to go and sit down on the carpet
for it was time to go over some Dr. Seuss facts. Some children were still
talking and moving around and she said, "Let's be ready to learn please". All
the students then stopped what they where doing, and looked at Ms. Blue
while she started to read the book.

Bonding:
1. Ms. Blue's bonding rituals consist of a lot of talking with the children. She is
full of positivity when it comes to her students and anyone that walked in for
even a minute would be able to tell that. During my chat with Ms. Blue, I
brought up bonding with the students and her face just lite up, and she talked
till the story time was almost over just about that. Ms. Blue is always
interested in what they children have to say and share with her, or the class.
She gives the students chances to be able to give their own opinions, instead
of telling them what they are. A couple days before hand the class had read
together 'Horton Hatches The Egg'. Their assignment was to write their
opinion on whether or not he should have hatched the egg. Ms. Blue brought
out the papers and let the class know that a couple of them had made
mistakes. She grabbed a sheet of blue butcher paper, put it up on the white
board and split it in two with the words, Should and Should Not. One by one
she asked the students for their reason, and what side it belonged on. It gave

the chance for the students to voice what they thought, and know their
teacher values their opinion.
2. Ms. Blue could have gone on forever with ways that she uses to bond with her
students, especially in the beginning of the year. She knows that they don't
know her, she doesn't know them, and learning about each other is the most
important of them all. In the beginning of the year she would make cards with
questions on the them, and each morning they would pick out another card,
and all take turns going around the room and answering the question. Ms.
Blue even took her turn at the end of the round to answer the question
herself. She feels that answering the question along with the students gives
them the chance to know her. She will read books based on families a lot. But
her biggest thing that she reminds her students every day, is that she wants
school to be a place we all want to be, not somewhere we have to be.
Another thing she likes to say is that we are a family here. We are all school
brothers and sisters. Brothers and sisters fight, but they work their way
through it together.

Schedule and Routines:

1. The classroom schedule for their classroom always looks like this:
Opening:
Writing: 10:00-10:50
Spelling:
Reading:

Lunch: 11:25- 12:05

Read Aloud:
Math:
Art: 1:40-2:30
Social Studies:
Each day they have different subjects under each of those categories. The schedule
is posted on the left side of the board for all of the children to be able to see and
read throughout the day. In the powerpoint Elements of Daily Schedule, it does talk
about free time being limited in the 2nd grade area, and that is true. During the time
that I was there the children didn't have any free time, other than when they were
done with their writing assignment they could put a blanket on the floor and silently
read a book of their choice. It also says that specials are no longer recommended,
but this school still does have them for the children. They transition to art toward
the end of the day together as a class. While they say it is "disruptive", Ms. Blue
says that she doesn't have problems transitioning her students to the class and
back during her day.
2.During my interview with Ms. Blue I asked her how she taught her children the
routines of the class. Her answer was to do the same thing at the same time
everyday. She said the first month is the most difficult as they take a bit to realize
that this is the routine, but once that first month passes, the students know what
comes next, what things mean, like the back of their hand. Like the students know
when they come in in the morning, they will find a worksheet on their desk, on side
language, the other side math, and they know to put their things away and start

working on it. She is the most strict that first month in what she will let happen and
not happen. She would rather be strict on rules and routine in the beginning so the
kids know. She says it is easier to grab control right away in the beginning, rather
than a month into the school year. Ms. Blue tries out different aspects right away to
see what works with that class and what doesn't. Her most important piece of
advice was don't be afraid to fall on your face. If it doesn't work, try something else.
Don't be afraid to admit something just didn't work.
3.One of the transitions that they made was from playing with goop based off a Dr.
Seuss story to being on the carpet. Ms. Blue told her students to quietly go wash
their hands in the bathroom, come back, and sit on the carpet. The group of
students left the room to go wash their hands, and started to one by one come back
into the room. As they came back a few of them sat down, while others stood
around and talked. Ms. Blue walked to the front of the classroom and said, "I need
everyone on the carpet in 3, 2, 1." By the time she got to one, all the students were
sitting on the carpet. For this transition I feel like it could have been improved by
sending the kids to the bathroom in small groups instead of all at once. That way
they don't stand around in the bathroom, or come back into the room and just start
chatting. Another transition was from reading to their writing notebooks. All the
children were sitting down at the carpet; they had just finished reading a story. Ms.
Blue explained to the children what their assignment was for their notebook. She
asked the class if they had any questions, and they said no. She stood up and said,
"Okay then quietly go get your notebooks and sit down at your desk in 3,2,1, go." I
believe that this was an appropriate transition because it provided the instructions,
expectations, and was successfully done.

Rules:
1.

2.

Classroom rules that are posted: AKA: "Essential Agreements"

Have fun
Be safe
Be kind
Be respectful
Be ready to learn
In the amount of time I was in Ms. Blue's class there were a few rules that
were verbalized that were not posted on their rules by the classroom door.
One of them were to have your hands in your lap while on the carpet.
Whenever the children were told to sit down on the carpet, she would always
make sure that they were quiet and that they had their hands in the lap, and
they were ready to learn. Another was that they should always be where they
are told to be at by the count of 1. I noticed that whenever she gave new
instructions she would say "3,2,1.." And expect the students to be where she

told them to be.

3. While evaluating the use of rules in the classroom, I found the to personally
be quite good. In the handout Rethinking the Rules you Establish they talk a
lot about not being too specific. When you have too many rules, you spend
too much of your time enforcing them. , The energy the staff were
expending on policing the center, redirecting children, and giving time-out
was just so draining". In this classroom it is very broad rules, like Have fun,
Be respectful, and the teacher can put their own take on those rules. But as
they said in the handout, . To start with the view of the child is pivotal. Ms.
Blue knows that and always starts off with thinking that way. She knows that
if she was a child would she listen to 26 rules just for the playground and
another 40 for inside? No. She knows have those few agreements with the
children makes it easier to accept for them. It's not piling high rules they

have to learn, it's learning the basics right away, and learning the rest as you
go from the specifics of the teacher.