Name: Lauren Smith

Course: EDUC 1301

Semester/Year: Spring/2020
Field Report #2
The Site: (for each site)
Teacher’s Name
Mrs. Neyland and Mrs. Hernandez
School District
Goose Creek ISD
School’s Name
Lamar Elementary
Grade Observed
1st and 2nd
Subject/Class Observed
Math, ELA, Science, Social Studies
Date of Observation
02/21/2020
Time (beginning and end)
7AM-3PM

Effective Teaching (For each teacher observed)

Description: For each teacher, describe as many of the following elements as apply:
Room arrangement/description: Describe the arrangement of desks; materials on
display; anything on the walls, etc. Pictures can be included.
MRS. NEYLAND:
 MRS. HERNANDEZ:

Beginning of class/lesson: Describe the beginning of class or the beginning of a lesson:

Did the class start on time? What was the first thing the teacher did? Did the teacher
give the students an idea of what would be accomplished during the class time? Did you
get the impression that students knew what to expect at the beginning of class?
MRS. NEYLAND: Mrs. Neyland’s homeroom class began on time and the students
knew exactly what to do as soon as they walked through the door. When the students
arrived, they placed their belongings in a cubby then walked to their desks, breakfast
in hand and began to eat. While students ate, they were expected to have their
“binders and bins” at their desk ready for Mrs. Neyland to come by and check for
completed homework and signed planners. For those who followed instructions well
and completed their assignments as told to, they received “paw cards” from Mrs.
Neyland as a reward.
While the students waited on Mrs. Neyland to check their binders and bins, they
worked on a warmup sheet until the teacher was finished. Once Mrs. Neyland was
finished, she had her class sit on her rug while she explained the instructions of the
game of Battle they would be playing using money cards.
MRS. HERNANDEZ:
 I began observing Mrs. Hernandez’s class right after their lunch time at 11AM.
Although it wasn’t the very beginning of the class, when the class started up again
Mrs. Hernandez was very thorough on giving directions to the class. After their inside
recess, Mrs. Hernandez sent them to the carpet to read them “The Gingerbread Boy”.
After reading she explained that they would be writing their own folklore. Once she
was finished with her instructions, the students went back to their desks where they
waited on their supplies. I did not notice any confusion in the students as far as
instructions go on the lesson. During the time that I observed Mrs. Hernandez, she
was a bit behind schedule but not enough to disrupt her lessons.

Activities observed: What was the purpose of the lesson? Were there varied activities
during the class? For example: Lecture? Discussion? Group work? Independent work?
Reading? Videos? How were transitions handled?
MRS. NEYLAND:
Mrs. Neyland’s class was practicing their money counting through a game of battle
using money cards. The purpose of the group work was to allow the students to
practice their money counting abilities while also practicing their respectful agreeing
and disagreeing math conversations that Mrs. Neyland has taught them. I also
observed the beginning of their science time where they recorded their observations
on a number of plants in their journals. The students played within their “fishbowl”
groups and as the noise level got higher Mrs. Neyland new that they were coming to
an end with their interests in the game. Mrs. Neylands GT homeroom class were
noisier and more fidgety during transitions from one activity to another while her
regular class was quieter and moved around less. However, both groups did
exceptional when changing from one activity or place to another.

MRS. HERNANDEZ:
The purpose of Mrs. Hernandez’s lesson was to teach the students how to write and
speak in complete sentences and also to teach the students how to be descriptive and
observant. Mrs. Hernandez read a book to the class and then asked a series of
questions about the book to her students. After discussing the book, Mrs. Hernandez
had the students write their own folklore. After working on their books, the students
were put in stations where they rotated once Mrs. Hernandez’s timer went off. I was
especially impressed with how well the students behaved while working in stations
with groups and then moving quietly to the next each time. The students did very well
with transitioning from the floor to their desks with little to no interruptions. There
were a few students who kept asking to go to the bathroom every time the class did
an activity change, however most of the students did well.
Time management: How was TIME spent during a majority of the class? What was the
teacher DOING most of the time? What were students DOING most of the time? Did
the students seem to be engaged? For example, if the teacher was lecturing, were most
of the students “tuned in”?
MRS. NEYLAND:
Most of the class time that I observed was spent explaining rules to the battle game
and then playing the game. Mrs. Neyland spent most of her time explaining and
watching her students practice the instructions that she gave them. The GT students
spent most of their game time talking and had a harder time listening to the
instructions than the regular students.

MRS. HERNANDEZ:
The majority of the time spent in Mrs. Hernandez’s class was with reading and writing
a folklore. Most of the class Mrs. Hernandez spent her time interacting with the kids
through questions on the details of the book, giving instructions, and choosing
students to read their books out loud to the classroom. The students were engaged in
the book that was read to them and participating in writing/ illustrating their own
book most of the time. Mr. Hernandez’s students did fairly well with class
participation and even better with listening to their lesson.

Questioning strategies: If the teacher orally questioned students during the class:
Did the teacher ask question on a range of levels? Did the teacher use “group alerting,”
or was a student called on before the question? Wait time?
Did the teacher call on a variety of students, or the same few?
What kind of feedback did the teacher give to students? (Praise? Acceptance?
Remediation?)
Did the teacher’s responses to the students show a level of respect to the
students’ responses?
MRS. NEYLAND: Most of the questions that Mrs. Neyland would ask had to do with
the instructions she had discussed before in order to see if the kids understood what
they were supposed to be doing. However, after their group battle activity, Mrs.
Neyland had the students gather on their carpet squares and she called on random
students to give examples of problems that they had while playing and how they
resolved them amongst one another. Mrs. Neyland waited 5-10 seconds on the
students to answer so that they could gather their thoughts. Her reactions to the
student’s responses was always very respectful and even helpful. If a student didn’t
know how to answer a question, Mrs. Neyland would politely explain or guide them
to the answer.
 MRS. HERNANDEZ:
Using group alerting she asked questions on a range of levels from less detailed to
more detailed to the class as a whole. Mrs. Hernandez used a random name
generator on her computer to call on students for answers/ feedback. The wait time
was around 2-3 seconds mostly due to the fact that she called on random students
and not those who had their and raised. For students who answered correctly or used
complete sentences, Mrs. Hernandez rewarded them with plastic coin money in
which could later be spent on the treasure box or going to the bathroom. However,
no matter how the student answered the question Mrs. Hernandez always
respectfully corrected or directed them to what it should have been.

Classroom management strategies: Did it appear that the classroom had familiar
routines? Did the teacher have a system for handling student misbehavior (a chart,
stickers, etc.)? If so, explain. Were there any discipline problems? If so, what were they,
and how were they handled? Did the teacher seem to be fully aware of all of the
students all of the time (with-it-ness)? If the students were involved in an activity, did
the teacher walk around and monitor?
MRS. NEYLAND:
It was obvious to me that Mrs. Neyland’s students were familiar with the classroom
routine and rules. Each student knew what was expected of them and if someone
were to be off task or misbehaving, Mrs. Neyland would ask them to tell her exactly
what they should be doing and why their current attitude/actions were not part of
her instructions. Mrs. Neyland also had a color chart with clips that would serve as a
conduct mark in a student’s planner if they had to move their clip down a color. Mrs.
Neyland’s students were very well behaved and respectful and therefore showed no
behavior issues while I was present. One student was told to move his clip due to him
not having his planner signed by his parent. Mrs. Neyland was very aware of her
classroom and fully attentive to their needs and keeping their behavior in line. During
the battle activity, Mrs. Neyland walked around the classroom listening to the
student’s conversations to make sure they were “agreeing and disagreeing
respectfully” as she has taught them.

MRS. HERNANDEZ:
Mrs. Hernandez’s classroom didn’t seem to have a routine that the kids followed
daily. It may have seemed this way mostly because I observed her classroom at the
end of the day instead of the beginning. Although the kids seemed very familiar with
the way their stations worked. They did very well with staying on task and changing
stations during that time. There were no discipline problems while I observed, but
Mrs. Hernandez had a chart with animals on them that was for discipline as shown in
the picture I attached above. Mrs. Hernandez was fully aware of her students the
 whole time. While the students write their own folklores, Mrs. Hernandez walked
around the room to see how they were doing.

Special needs students: Did some of the students in the class appear to be special
needs students? Some special needs students would include: students in wheelchairs,
deaf/hearing impaired students, students who were especially hyperactive, students not
proficient in English (in a main-streamed classroom). Did you notice the teacher and/or
an aide making special accommodations for any students?
MRS. NEYLAND:
In Mrs. Neyland’s class there were about 4 students who needed special attention in
certain areas. These students were puled to the back-table by a teacher aide who
comes in every day to work with them. One student needed everything read to her,
another student was dyslexic and had to have modified tests/activities, and the other
student was being considered for special education due to her hard time
understanding mostly any of the content.

MRS. HERNANDEZ:
There were no special needs students in Mrs. Hernandez’s class.

Technology: What technology, if any, was used? What were the activities? How did the
teacher organize the activities? Where were students when they used the equipment?
(Lab, regular classroom, etc.)
MRS. NEYLAND:
Besides the use of the projector at the beginning of class which showed the
instructions for the beginning of class, there was not any technology being used
during my observation time in the morning of Mrs. Neyland’s class.
MRS. HERNANDEZ:
The only technology that I observed being used in Mrs. Hernandez’s class was the
projector. She had a few students come to the front of the class and read their book
that was placed under the overhead and projected onto the screen while the student
read and pointed to each word.

End of class or end of lesson: Did the teacher use some form of closure? Did the
teacher re-state the learning objective of the class? Did the teacher make students
aware of what would be expected of them before the next class day?
 MRS. NEYLAND:
Mrs. Neyland’s homeroom class comes to her first thing in the morning for breakfast
and binder and bins check. After having her GT homeroom class, she switches classes
with her regular students and has them until lunch time. During the time with her GT
homeroom class, Mrs. Neyland explained the objective of the game of battle they
were going to be playing. The students would listen to the instructions and then
would switch to their other class. When the students come back to Mrs. Neyland after
lunch, she typically refreshes their memory on the instructions of the activity and
then the students are expected to know how to continue.

MRS. HERNANDEZ:
Before the class was dismissed Mrs. Hernandez had the class, as a group, answer
about the book they read and what made the book fiction vs non-fiction. She
prompted the students to go home and ask their parents for examples of folklore
stories so that they could guess which one they would read next in class. This
particular day was a Friday so they students knew that when they returned on
Monday that they would be reading and discussing a new Folklore.

Personal Reflection of the Observation:

This is where you will deliberately include 5 key terms defined in your own words with
specific examples related to your observation. The terms that you will include must be
directly linked to specific examples from your observation.
You will also include positive and/or negative experiences from your observations.
Discuss what you liked and would include in your own classroom one day and any
changes you would make.

Both classes that I observed were examples of ability grouping because they were
classrooms organized with students based on their giftedness. In Mrs. Neyland’s class
I was able to observe to different groups of kids, the GT group and the regular group.
This gave me an idea of different classroom climates. The GT group gave the class a
noisier and busier climate because they had more ideas to share while the regular
group was quieter with less class participation. Mrs. Hernandez’s class was very well
behaved but had a lot of information to share.
One thing that was unique about Mrs. Neyland’s class was her incorporation of
comprehensive values education. Not only did she expect the students to use their
manners and show respect to her, she also expected the students to refer to each
other using “Mr., Mrs., yes ma’am and no ma’am”. I really liked the idea of this
because it teaches the students respect not only toward elders, but toward each
other and it gives them practice for real world social situations. I really enjoyed Mrs.
Neyland’s progressivism strategy to teaching. The most obvious difference between
the 2 classrooms would be the amount of respect that was shown toward the
teacher. Although the students were well behaved in both classes, Mrs. Hernandez’s
class did not use their manners as much as Mrs. Neyland’s class. This could be
because Mrs. Neyland was firmer and had a strong voice while Mrs. Hernandez was
lenient and soft spoken. One thing that I really liked about Mrs. Hernadez’s classroom
was her reward system. If a student did something well, she would reward them with
plastic coin money that they could collect and later use toward a toy in the treasure
box or 5 cents to use the restroom. This kept the students practicing their money
counting all year long and also taught them how to manage their money.
I personally thought that both teachers incorporated their own personalities well
within their teaching strategies and both classrooms were managed very well. I
would like to use Mrs. Neyland’s rule of manner usage in my classroom one day. I
don’t think I would change anything about the way the classrooms were ran.
 Teacher Interview
Teacher’s Name
School District
School Name
Grade Level
Describe each of the following in detail:
1. What factors contributed to your decision to
teach this subject and at this grade level?
2. What do you enjoy most about teaching this
curriculum? What do you enjoy least?
3. How do you go about selecting what content
and skills to teach?
4. Do you try to offer different perspectives
(multidisciplinary, multicultural) on these
topics?
5. Are there areas of this curriculum that are
controversial? How do you handle “hot”
topics when they arise?
6. How do you accommodate multiple
intelligences in your classroom?
7. How do you track and record grades? Does
your school or district require a certain
format? Do you use grading software?
8. When do you do your planning? The week
before, the night before, impromptu?
9. How do the school district’s official
curriculum and the textbook shape your
decisions?
Angela Neyland
GCCISD
Lamar Elementary
2nd: Math/Science/SS: GT & Gen
Campus needs based on data and personal request.
My struggles with foundational math when I was
younger is also a contributing factor.
Most-Student discovery and mastery
Least-When data does not reflect efforts of student
and teacher.
District scope and sequence provides an extensively
detailed outline of content and skills per grade level
TEKS. Team planning is held weekly to address
grades and review data from the previous week to
drive instruction for the following week, be it small
group reteach or independent study.
It is per TTESS domains that differentiation,
multidisciplinary and multicultural perspectives are to
be inclusive throughout the content areas
The most controversial topic would be Winter
Celebrations (Christmas). We meet with families and
send home a letter concerning this topic and
accommodate accordingly.
A student learning survey is conducted at the
beginning of the year to jumpstart instructional
engagements.
The district provides software, TEAMS. 70% CW and
30% Major. I also keep a hard copy of a roster that I
use to record grades as a back up.
Weekly planning with the team and PLC’s for long
range planning.
Ultimately, the official curriculum can not be swayed
from with exception of lower performing students
(looking to the grade level below for guidance) and
higher performing students (looking to the grade
level above for enhancement).
10. Can you make your own decisions as to what
topics to teach, or are you confined to the
official school curriculum? How do you make
your class unique?
11. Do parents or students participate in
deciding what is taught?
Teacher choice is flexible in extensions, stations, and
student engagements within the topic of content
curricula.
A parent-student survey is conducted in the
classroom at the beginning of the year to help build
relationships using the data to encourage those
bonds. A parent survey is sent out to seek parent
input on campus taught classes for our clientele.