Danielle Pertile

ECE 251/Spring 2016

03/05/2016
Observation of a Caring Classroom
School: Vanderburg Elementary School

Telephone: 702-799-0504

Teacher: Linda Floth

Age/Grade: Kindergarten

Teacher Characteristics:
1. In general, how unconditional is the teacher in her acceptance of the childrens individual
differences?
I did not see evidence of anything but unconditional acceptance during my hours in Mrs. Floths
class. I observed her praising each child by name and by task, for example: Ilya I see youre writing your
letters very carefully in your journal! or Bennet may please go to purple (on the behavior chart) for
staying on-task!
I also observed her devoting about 4 minutes (which in a class of 23 5-year-olds is a lifetime) to a
boy who was having trouble spelling the word rainbow in his journal. Mrs. Floth was patient and kind
with him, and walked him through the word, explaining each sound that gets put together to make the
word rainbow.
2. How accepting is the teacher of children who present challenging behaviors? How does she
communicate her acceptance or lack of acceptance to the child?
Mrs. Floths class was extremely well-behaved during my visit, which means I really did not get to
witness any truly challenging behaviors. The only negative or challenging behavior was the fidgeting or

restlessness that would present itself during the large group times. During those times, it appeared that
Mrs. Floth wasnt being unaccepting of the child, but rather of the fidgeting itself.
During the transition time between journal time and centers, Mrs. Floth had children sitting on the rug
while she explained each activity that would be available during centers. Two little girls we fidgeting and
one bumped the other. That girl raised her hand and began to interrupt Mrs. Floth to say Tabitha bumped
me! Mrs. Floth cut her off and said Ok wait till I ask a question. The little girl started to speak again
but Mrs. Floth said, more forcefully, Wait till I ask a question. The little girl quieted down.
It is possible that the child in this example would feel disrespected by Mrs. Floth for not listening to
her problem, even if it did happen in the middle of Mrs. Floths explanation of centers. I do not believe
though that this represents unacceptance, and I witnessed Mrs. Floth later praising this same child for
quietly working on her center project: Hannah will please go to purple for working quietly. The child
was beaming as she walked across the room to move her clothespin to the purple section of the behavior
chart.
3. How consistent is the teacher re: the enforcement of classroom rules?
I witnessed pretty consistent enforcement of the rules. Mrs. Floth would pretty constantly remind
children of rules before an activity, and being more than halfway through the school year the children
seemed very familiar with the rules and would repeat them along with her. For example, before children
dispersed to journals and centers she and the children would say Feet on the floor, bottoms in the chair.
Occasionally a lesser-important rule seemed only vaguely enforced. For example, during both large group
times that I saw, children who were called on to answer a question would sometimes stand up and other
times would not.
Bonding:
1. What kind of bonding rituals does the teacher use?

I was unable to observe any individual bonding rituals used by Mrs. Floth such as special high-fives
or other physical contact, so I asked her if she used them. She explained that she creates individual
bonding through greeting each child in the morning, high-fiving each child at the end of the day, and
spending time one-on-one in a conference during journal time, going over each childs writing and
stories in a supportive way.
I was able to observe her doing one-on-one time during the journal writing period. She would walk to
each child and spend 30 seconds to a minute going over their stories. She would praise each one with
phrases like thats a really interesting story, or I see your letters are very neat! and would only correct
when necessary: is it how boo you do, or how do you do? (Referring to a childs backwards d).
2. What other ways of bonding does the teacher utilize?
I did observe some very fun group-bonding rituals. Mrs. Floth uses many different kinds of
cheers to praise children and encourage them. After journals, Mrs. Floth chose three authors to come
sit on the stool and read their stories into the microphone. After each author read their story, the class
would pick a different cheer to give them. My favorite was the WOW face three fingers are held up on
each hand, and placed on either side of the childs open mouth, making a W-O-W. There were others such
as the Saturday Night Fever Cheer, which consists of the class doing disco hands, and saying thats
the way, uh-huh uh-huh, I like it!
On a subtler note, I noticed that Mrs. Floth made an effort to get on the childs level when
speaking to them individually or as a group. Shes not a tall lady to begin with, but she would bend down
or sit low to be on the childs eye-level when speaking to them.

Schedule & Routines

1. Provide a copy of the classroom schedule. Write an evaluation of the schedule utilizing the
information from the reading and handouts.

8:50 9:00 Unpack, pledge, song

9:00 9:50 Library (the day I visited there was a special choir performance at 9:30)

10:30 Calendar, sight word game

11:20 11:55 Lunch/recess

12:00 Journals/read

12:30 Centers

2:00 Recess

2:15 Math: measurement

There are a few problems with this schedule, according to the handouts Routines in 1st Grade and
Elements of a Daily Schedule. There should be more opportunities for children to eat during the day, but
this schedule allows only for lunchtime, and no snacks. There is also very little outside play scheduled,
and because of that there are large chunks of the schedule where children are expected to sit quietly. From
12:00 2:00 is journals and centers, which is two solid hours of children having to sit without moving or
wiggling. It would be better for the children if their quiet activities were more evenly mixed with outside
play or other large-motor play.
2. How did the teacher teach the children the various aspects of the routine such as teacher signals,
student signals, responding to fire drills, etc.?

When I spoke with Mrs. Floth, she explained that she taught he children aspects of the routine in a few
steps: first she modeled the action herself, then the next day she would have a child model it for the class.
She would then have the whole class practice it together. She said that she would break the routines into
steps so as to be more manageable for her students (such as close your journals, then put your pencils
away, then go put your journals in your cubbies, then come sit on the rug.) instead of giving a chunk
of a command (like finish your journals and meet on the rug) and expecting children to be able to
follow.
Mrs. Floth told me that she worked really hard with them at the beginning of the school year, and also
went deliberately slowly to give each child a chance to understand. I certainly witnessed how each child
was pretty well-aware of the routines, and at this point in the school year most of them did not need to be
reminded to be able to follow.
I also noticed that Mrs. Floth used a lot of visual representations to reinforce the routines, such as
having numbers hanging over each table so she can call groups by their table numbers, or a picture chart
of the groups center rotations.
3. Record two observations of transitions that occurred. How appropriate were they? In what ways
could they have been improved?

One transition I observed was the children coming in from their outside play after lunch. The
bell rang and the class (which was outside with the other kindergarten classes) ran to the wall
outside their door and lined up along the wall. A teacher from the one of the other classes
came over and told them they could actually play for a few more minutes (Mrs. Floth was
still at her lunch and had not yet returned). Each child resumed whatever activity they were
involved in before the bell. When Mrs. Floth returned, she blew her whistle and her class ran
back to their spots on the wall. Mrs. Floth said loudly walk please! a moment before two

boys crashed into each other. She said thats why were walking! This line-up process took
only a matter of seconds. Mrs. Floth said to the class Remember to wipe your hands before
sitting down! and held out a canister of hand wipes to each child as they walked into the
class. When the last few children entered the class she asked All set? and the class
responded loudly together with You bet!
This was mostly an appropriate transition time. The children only had to wait a few seconds
before moving on, and seemed familiar enough with the routine of this particular transition that they
seemed to anticipate being able to yell you bet! at the end as a sort of reward to their waiting. I would
suggest the teacher revisits the walking feet rule (during line-up times) often in order to keep children
from running into each other. Because the transition was so quick, I do not think a picture schedule,
shadow hands or footprints on the ground would be necessary.

The next transition I observed was the period of time in between journaling and centers. Each
child had put away their journals and supplies and had found their spot on the rug (Which had
large patches with numbers on each patch). A few of the stragglers were called on by Mrs.
Floth to come sit down. Once all the children were in their places, Mrs. Floth began to
explain the activities they would be working on in centers. There were two worksheets for
writing and a paper kit craft. There is also the teacher table and outside centers like the
computer or manipulatives. Mrs. Floth spent about 5-6 minutes explaining the activities. One
child raised his hand and said I dont understand that and pointed to the worksheet on
which children had to write words in the ig family. Mrs. Floth explained it again, asking
him along the way if each part made sense. He said it did and she continued talking to the
class. Some of the children were becoming fidgety on the rug. I saw a few children
whispering to each other, one rocking back and forth, and one with her head all the way back
and eyes closed. Mrs. Floth called out a few names of children she saw sitting still (to praise

them) but that did not seem to change the behavior of the children who were not paying
attention. One girl raised her hand and tried to tell Mrs. Floth that another girl had bumped
her, but Mrs. Floth told her to wait until she asked questions to speak. The girl tried again to
tell Mrs. Floth about the girl who bumped her, but Mrs. Floth again told her to wait. A few
children grabbed for various things within their reach, but were not addressed by their
teacher. After she was finished explaining the centers, she asked who remembers how to
work at centers? Most of the children answered together feet on the floor, bottoms in the
chair. A couple children added be quiet and be patient for help. Mrs. Floth then
dismissed the children to their designated centers. The total amount of time for this transition
was about 7-9 minutes.
This transition was not very appropriate. It went on for a very long time and by the time it was
over about half the class had lost focus. I would suggest a drastic shortening of instructions, though
sometimes it may just not be possible. In regards to the centers themselves, it would be more
developmentally appropriate to have activities that the children could create themselves (instead of
worksheets or pre-fabricated crafts) which would lead to shorter transitions before them. When I later
spoke with Mrs. Floth she said that she took a little more time explaining the routines than she normally
would have because of my presence in the room, so its possible this transition does not usually take as
long as it did during my visit.
Rules
1. Record the classroom rules that are posted.

Listen carefully.

Follow directions.

Work quietly. Do not disturb others who are working.

Respect others. Be kind with your words and actions.

Respect school and personal property.

Work and play safely.

2. Describe all the rules you heard verbalized or implied in the classroom which were not posted.
There were a LOT of rules verbalized and/or implied during my visit! These were the ones I was able to
catch and write down:

Keep your feet on the ground (when a child was climbing the side of the play structure not
necessarily meant for climbing)

Wipe hands before sitting

Raise hands before speaking, use knock knock motion to signal a needed bathroom break

Sit back down on the rug after using the bathroom

Ask a question if you need help do not look at your friends work for answers

Stay seated during large group and journals

Feet on the floor and bottoms in the chair (often repeated)

Be quiet when other children are speaking (not just teachers)

Wait till I ask a question to raise your hand

Stay on task

Be patient for help

Put the caps back on the glue sticks

Clean up your space

Shhh Shhh, quiet during centers

You should be looking at me (during centers when a child was distracted from reading with
Mrs. Floth)

Dont take things from your friends if theyre not done using them

3. Evaluate the use of rules in this classroom. Include ways the use of rules could be improved.
The posted rules are appropriate for this age group. They all concern respect or safety, which are
necessary in a Kindergarten classroom. The implied or extra rules tended to be more on the policing (as
it would be called in Rethinking the Rules) side rather than allowing children the freedom to govern
themselves. These rules could be improved by condensing them into something simpler and allowing
children to apply it to more situations than just that specific instance. For example, quiet during this
activity, clean up your space, look at me, and dont look at your friends work could be condensed
to be respectful of space, friends and teacher. To condense and make broad a rule allows children to
interpret it on their own and gives them a greater measure of control. Rethinking the Rules pointed out
that as [the teachers] let go and gave more control to the children, the children learned that the adults
thought of them as capable (p. 39).