InTASC Standard 2 Reflection:

For INTASC standard 2, which states, the teacher uses understanding of individual

differences and diverse cultures and communities to ensure inclusive learning environments that

enable each learner to meet high standards, I chose to reflect on my Field Placement

Observations for EDUC 101. I chose to do this reflection on this particular assignment because I

was able to observe and work with the gifted students in the class as well as read tests aloud to

those children who needed help with their assignments and tests, who also have IEPs and ELLs. I

also observed different times of the day and that made a real impact on how the students behaved

in the classroom at that time. Since Rockville is not very diverse, I did get to work with the only

students who were not white. I also got to witness the teacher that I observed, Mrs. Mrdja’s

personal teaching styles. Each teacher has their own teaching style, so for Mrs, Mrdja to use

different styles such as oral, visual, and hands on, it shows each student multiple ways to do a

problem so they each understand it in their own individual ways.

 Artifact: EDUC 101 Observation Daily Log/Journals

EDUC 101-Introduction to Teaching

Observing Student’s Name: Morgan Cardin

School of Observation: Rockville Elementary School, Grade 6, Mrs. Erika Mrdja

Date of Observation: October 19, 2016, Wednesday

Time of Observation: Morning Routine, 8:00am until 11:00am

As I observed the classroom in the morning of Wednesday, October 21, 2016, I realized

that classes are very different from each other in the way the students behave, act, and treat other

students/teachers. Last year, my class was very controlled, but rowdy at times. They still

behaved. This year’s class is much different because they are very loud and they do not listen at

all. The teaching style is also very different from last year, even though it is the same teacher in

the same grade. Much more is online now, and students cannot rely on others for help. They have

to do the work themselves, and teach themselves how to do more. It gives them the sense of

responsibility. Being in the classroom in the morning means that students, especially in sixth

grade, are grumpy and tired still. We had to have extra energy to show the children that it was

time to wake up and learn. The students went to specials, and I was able to work one on one with

Mrs. Mrdja and learn about the new math 6 systems that are online, and how she set up Google

Classroom to let kids work more on their own. Throughout the three hours that I was observing

today, I noticed that this class was very loud, and did not pay attention during Social Studies

notes. Instead of “clipping down”, which was last year’s punishment, this year, the teachers have

decided to start calling parents and let the students decide their own punishments. To me, it
shows a responsibility to the students, and also it scares them that they would have to call mom

or dad at home to explain why they weren’t doing what they are supposed to. I am really

enjoying my time here so far, even with it being so different from last year.

“Personal Learning Style”- I am both a tactile and a visual learner. I like to see things

being worked out on paper to better understand things. Also, I like to be able to mold or model

something in my hands. Mrs. Mrdja’s learning style, I would say is more visual but also

auditorial because she enjoys making charts and showing exactly what she means. She is an

audio learning style because she makes videos of herself talking for the students to watch to get a

better understanding. I think that the visual style works the best because then you can see what

one is talking about by a chart or graph, when you don’t quite understand something. She does

both styles quite often, rotating between videos, and writing on the boards.
 EDUC 101-Introduction to Teaching

Observing Student’s Name: Morgan Cardin

School of Observation: Rockville Elementary School, Grade 6, Mrs. Erika Mrdja

Date of Observation: October 21, 2016, Friday

Time of Observation: Afternoon, Directly after lunch and recess, 12:50 pm until 2:50pm

Today with my observations, I came during the afternoon and saw that the environment

was totally different than the morning. The students had just come back from lunch and recess.

When they came back into the classroom, they worked on writing and had to think of an

accomplishment that they had done in their life to write about. Once they thought of an

accomplishment, it then had to be put into chronological order to make a paragraph and a story.

When students come back from recess, they are rowdy from being all worked up outside, yet

there are calmed down since they just all their energy running and playing on the playground.

There was not much time for this observation because the students did a lot of talking and

needed to be reprimanded quite a bit.

“Assessment Strategies”-The types of assessment strategies that were used in the

classroom that I observed was mostly oral and paper/pencil. There were no state testing today.

They did take a Math test which was online, where it was orally read to them, and they all had

headphones on but still had to write things down on paper to work out the problems.
 EDUC 101-Introduction to Teaching

Observing Student’s Name: Morgan Cardin

School of Observation: Rockville Elementary School, Grade 6, Mrs. Erika Mrdja

Date of Observation: October 24, 2016, Monday

Time of Observation: Morning Routine, Afternoon Routine, All Day, 8:00am until 3:00pm

This morning’s observations have been somewhat difficult because today has been a bad

day for these students. Time after time students have been yelled at (as a class and as individuals)

because they cannot keep quiet and/or are disrespectful. It is now afternoon, as I am typing my

observation, and the children have still not changed their attitudes or their minds. Just by being

here and paying attention to the lessons so far, I have learned so much more than some of the

students in the room. This morning’s subjects were Social Studies, where we learned about other

people’s cultures in other parts of the world and asked questions to further understand that

everywhere in the world is different. We also did Language Arts this morning and the students

fought over a word game, so I took a group of students to play this game and learned a lot about

the children in this class. Currently, we are talking about compound, simple, and complex

sentences and the differences between them. As sit here (and walk around because I am a busy

body), I notice the little things that the students do at their desks when they don’t pay attention. I

notice that the classroom is different from when I was the “teacher number two”, and from my

observations because instead of going around and being on top, I am quietly sitting in the back

just watching and noticing the little things. I honestly cannot believe how many times that these

children ask to use the restroom. The same children have asked to use the restroom three or four
times, plus the times that they have had the chance to go throughout the day (before the morning

bell, before lunch, after specials, after recess, and after the fire drill).

Also today we had a fire drill. For the fire drill, we have to let the children know that they

must get up silently while we exit the room with the emergency bag and head outside farthest

away from the building onto the playground. Once we are all onto the playground, the students

line up into numerical order that was given to them on the first day of class. They are then

required to stand with their hands behind their backs, standing silently while we wait for further

instruction. When the fire drill was over, it was pretty much the end of the day so I was at the

back table during their “study hall” helping students finish math tests and other things that they

need help with.

“Lesson Plans”- After interviewing and discussing with my observing teacher about her

individual lesson planning, I learned quite a bit about how she plans each and every day. My

teacher does create her own lesson plans for everyday on her own, but her lesson plans derive

from the Indiana State book of Standards. Mrs. Mrdja’s lesson planning has changed with each

year because standards change as well as the books that we use. She does not need to turn in her

lesson plans to the principle weekly or monthly, but, if the principle were to walk in at any

moment, those lesson plans would need to be readily available to be shown.

 EDUC 101-Introduction to Teaching

Observing Student’s Name: Morgan Cardin

School of Observation: Rockville Elementary School, Grade 6, Mrs. Erika Mrdja

Date of Observation: October 26, 2016, Wednesday

Time of Observation: 1:30pm to 3:00pm, Afternoon Class, After Lunch and Recess

Today for my observations, I walked in just before 1:30 in the afternoon, so the students

have been back in the classroom for maybe 30 minutes from lunch and recess. When I came into

the classroom, the children were being lectured in a sad tone. Since I walked in the middle of this

conversation, I do not really know what had happened but I do know that these children are

being lectured every day. This generation of children are the ones who need the most help now.

The students are now journaling on several questions that are written on the board.

Examples are: Are you more concerned about things (objects) more than people?, Would you tell

a fib to stay out of trouble?, Do you think about your feelings and do not consider others

feelings?, Would your actions or heart change the way you look?, and Have you ever laughed or

thought it was funny to make fun of someone? Now that I know the concepts about their

journaling, I now know the reason for the lecture. They were not necessarily being lectured, but

being informed about the things in life and stories that have happened to give their brains ideas

about what to journal today.

Today during lunch, some kids in my class were making fun of a teacher and now the

students are having a chance to stand up and announce to the class that they were wrong and that
it is time to grow up. It is really shocking to me to see how much that these kids are hateful

towards one another and to other teachers behind their backs.

“Diversity”- The forms of diversity in Rockville is not very high. Sure there are boys and

girls but not many ethics. There were a couple African American children that were super

wonderful, just like all the others in the class. The kids were not separated into minority or high

ability at all. The high ability kids knew who they were and did the extra activities and stayed on

task. The diversity did not really affect the classroom as a whole at all because there was not

much diversity. It only changed the way of teaching because the “high ability” kids were the

ones who answered all the questions in class.

 EDUC 101-Introduction to Teaching

Observing Student’s Name: Morgan Cardin

School of Observation: Rockville Elementary School, Grade 6, Mrs. Erika Mrdja

Date of Observation: November 01, 2016, Tuesday

Time of Observation: 8:00am to 11:00am, Morning routine until an hour before lunch, **Day

after Halloween Goody observations**

WOO-HOO! Today is a wonderful observation because the children are all either on a

sugar high from the trick or treating last night and all weekend, or sick from eating too much

candy, or tired and coming of the sugar rush. So today is like the make it or break it day, because

everyone is tired and cranky and not putting up with any nonsense! We started the day off really

rowdy and some of the students I saw last night trick or treating (since I did stand outside for

three hours and pass out candy dressed as an ice cream cone at my place of work), came up to

me and talked to me about costumes and the contest that went on in the Rockville square. The

students then went to art class, and I stayed behind to help Mrs. Mrdja make copies for the day

and finish up some journaling and interviewing.

When the students came back from art class, it was time to immediately switch for

science and social studies so I moved along with the class and followed them to science across

the hall to Mrs. Porter’s room where we are now learning about NASA, astronauts, and the solar

system. Currently, I am here sitting in the back corner of the room quietly watching the video

and watching how the students react with Mrs. Porter compared to Mrs. Mrdja since this is the

first time I have traveled to another room with the students. They are certainly more quiet now
than before. I am not sure if it is because of the candy calming down or if the video is really

grabbing their attention.

The next thing on our schedule today is… *drumroll*... MATH. Today we are learning

about multi digit division. (Whatever the heck that means). Although I can’t give an accurate

definition of that word without googling it, I do know that with some sixth grade math book

research and refresh my brain on the subject. After this subject became the main focus in the

classroom, I then had to leave so I am not sure what happened with this.
 EDUC 101-Introduction to Teaching

Observing Student’s Name: Morgan Cardin

School of Observation: Rockville Elementary School, Grade 6, Mrs. Erika Mrdja

Date of Observation: November 02, 2016, Wednesday

Time of Observation: 8:00am to 9:45am, Morning Routine, Social Studies, I had to leave for a

dentist appointment then I returned, 11:00am to 1:00pm, Before Lunch Routine and Language

Arts

Today is my last day of observations and by far the best day I have had with these

students. We started the day off like each and everyday by putting away our things then saying

the Pledge of Allegiance and the RES Pledge. We then took the students to their special of the

day which was Computer Lab. During this time I was able to help Mrs. Mrdja make copies and

laminate some new posters that she got. Once the students returned, I was only in the classroom

for a brief time but we were doing Social Studies in that time. The students had to create a quiz

for their neighboring students about the current chapter and section. I went around the room and

helped them create their quizzes and made sure that their papers were on the correct side. I then

had to leave to go to my dentist appointment and returned afterwards.

Once I returned, it was time for language arts and we learned about theme. The students

each had their own Chromebook and had to follow along on a website (that I now forget the

name of) that was able to have the whole class take a small quiz at the same time while the

projector showed the answers on the board without the students names.
 EDUC 101-Introduction to Teaching

Observing Student’s Name: Morgan Cardin

School of Observation: Rockville Elementary School, Grade 6, Mrs. Erika Mrdja

Date of Observation: CULMINATING EFFECT

Time of Observation: CULMINATING EFFECT

This twenty hour observation time has really impacted me both as a college student and

as a future teacher. It made me realize that there is more to being a teacher than just lecturing and

grading papers. There is an emotional attachment to the children as well. I learned that from last

year as I fell in love with my class from last year since I spent one whole year with them. The

biggest thing that I have taken away from this experience is that I have definitely made the right

decision to become a teacher. I know that that is what I am meant to become and meant to be. I

was not able to view various grade levels within this experience but I was able to last year, and I

know that sixth grade or even fifth grade is where I am meant to be because of the age level. Of

course, without a doubt, I still want to be a teacher. I have not changed my mind about anything

or where I want to be placed, however, where openings are is what job I will take when it comes

time to work in a public school.