Observation Jaime R. Sandoval Rossier School of Education EDU516 October 11, 2013 Dr.

Bernstein

Observation Knowledge is product of human reason Rene Decartes (1596-1650), From Teaching to Change the World 7th Grade Mathematics Students Day One From the beginning of the lecture the instructor had the students arranged in groups of four. The instructor at the time of the observation for the mathematics class at South Gate middle school was Mr. Motoyasu. He was engaging with the students, and was conducting the chores happily during the class time period; his face radiated at any student interaction. The instructor was present throughout the time. There was no clock affixed on the wall, to keep track of time. Only the sound of a programmed, traditional school alarm going off, approximated the time during school hour. That didnt matter to the students. They were all enthusiastically focused on completing the mathematics problems. The instructor at one point notices that the students are not paying attention to him. He raises his hand as a motion for silence. The classroom reacts and responds by following the lead of the instructors hand, that is, each one of the students also made the same hand gesture. After, all the students hands were up in the air; Mr. Motoyasu lowered his hand down and begins to talk about the assigned problem. The instructor then begins to write a problem from the textbook on the whiteboard. It was a linear equation to be more specific, and asked the groups who had the same result as in the whiteboard. The instructions were to solve the variable of the linear equation of degree one. This is the simplest form of a linear equation known as monomial, i,e., (12/24)*a + (anynumber) =

(anynumber). Thus, the instructions are to solve for the constant letter a from the linear equation. The students were answering the question with assertiveness. None, of them made any error responding to Mr. Motoyasus problem selection of the textbook. In gratitude and pride to his students success, he also denounces each and every one of the groups as super-heroes. For example, the group at the far left end of the row was named Green Lantern, and the one opposite of them at the right end of the row was labeled, Batman. The group next to Green Lantern, in the same row, was named Iron Man. At this moment, the instructor provides clear definitions using mathematical language. Utilizing the terminology of integers. For all the numbers that consist from the far left, which are all the negatives and from the far right are all the possible numbers. This includes the point called zero, which is the middle point of the left side of the negative numbers and the right hand side of the positive numbers. The classroom is arranged the following way: the back of the class wall has two whiteboards attached there frames covered with several posters all alongside the whiteboard frame edges. Mr. Motoyasu, provided his assistance to guide the students to the right answer upon, raising the hand to each one of the students questions. This, at the time of the students work groups arrangements to solve problems from textbook. One, student is taking notes whenever the other three students are instructed to write down the steps to obtained the right answer of the linear equation After providing all the assistance necessary guiding the students to the correct answer of the problem at-hand, the instructor started to work several other problems listed from the textbook put on display on the whiteboard. He then reinforced the learning objective going over

several other problems similar to the one stated before. The instructor also had a few other problems he wrote at the side of the textbook, which he constructed. Then, a disrupted noise coming from the ceiling warns the school students the need for a recess. The total time of the recess took approximately six minutes. This confirmed by Mr. Motoyasu. During recess, half of the students proceeded to walked out of the room whereas the other half stood at their place of study. Of the students that were inside the classroom during recess, several of them approached the instructors with their respective books to ask for questions related to the problems assigned. The instructor at the time pulled a piece of paper from under his desk and started to apply the pressure to move his pencil, in a form of guiding the student to follow some steps. Then, another student stood up, followed by another one, until a line of students was formed waiting to be attended with their textbooks by the instructor. On the one other hand, the students that were not asking the instructor for assistance and also remained in the classroom were engaging in the textbook problems. Other students were having a conversation about a subject other than the subject of mathematics. In some others, were working independently. There is this particular Hispanic child with long hair, who was seated at the far right of the row of desks under the same of Batman. She was independently solving assigned problems. Whenever a problem was not understood, she would go around asking her peers who were able to understand the problem, for assistance. On the other, the student that walked out of the classroom, their behavior experiences were unknown. The students, during the solving of the linear equation did not have any calculators. Given the impression that calculators were not permitted. The classroom environment was also not equipped with any technological advances either. One student from group Green Lantern

volunteered to verify an answer when several groups were getting different answers. Utilizing, an old fashion flip phone by Motorola. The recess ended, and the instructor started using the textbook and instructs the students to continue to work in groups and solve three more problems from the book. One student stands out from the rest of the students, his name, George, from the Batman group. He understands the subject matter, but makes several errors when shouting out the answer to the instructor when he is participating in the assessment of the instruction when asking each group for an answer. However, he corrects himself when he identifies that his answer is not in accordance with the instructors result, exclaiming, oh yes, I knew that. The concentration this time is on problem 43 of the textbook. The instructor has required the students to continue to work these type of problems in groups. After completing this section, Mr. Moyotasu, then begins to assign another problem. This time, the problem, is a few word sentences or as students, call this, word problem. Moreover, the topic of the word problem was about ratios and or proportions. The specific number of the problem was number 66. A student from the middle of the left hand side row gets up and follows to the back to sharpen her pencil, after the instructor decides for the students to continue to work in groups for another four minutes. Upon returning, to her respective seat, she participates in a conversation other than mathematics. The noise begins to escalate inside the classroom, thus prompting the instructor to initiate a countdown five, four, three... zero, and the classroom engages in a complete silence. Then, the Mr. Morotasu, collects the information from the students in a form of assessment. He, then, asks volunteers to write these problems on the whiteboard. After several mathematical problems, the students were excited this became eminent and clear to me. Several students were making sure that the books that the students were working on

where place back to their place of origin. From there, the instructor asked the students to arrange the chairs accordingly, leaving them standing at ease by their desks. Then a few minutes of silence evoked before the alarm triggered. Yet before it went off, all students had their backpacks close and ready at hand to go. The sound of the alarm goes off again, this time indicating the end of another school session. Orderly and collectively each one of the students calmly and slowly walked out of the classroom, including myself. Leaving Mr Moyotatsu to solitude.

Reflection The instructors classroom environment was constructed as what David Hawkings in Rodgers article call Diagnotician (2002) a terminology that defines an instructor as, engaged with the students and has a great deal of recreational moment. During the entire period of the class time this instructor expresses his mathematical terms with entertainment or pizzazz. However, the lack of technology can hurt the instructors mode of teaching in the long run. The classroom environment lacks the skills to differentiate from most sophisticated classroom arrangements. The instructor needs to make himself, present in that perspective (p.234). He engaged in what several may call learning by repeating. They were several moments in this classroom activity (p.236), for example, naming the group of students super-heroes names that motivated the students to answer assertively and believe in themselves.

References Rodgers, C. (2002). Seeing Student Learning: Teacher Change and the Role of Reflection.Harvard Educational Review, 72(2), 230-253.

1.-What are the implications of this exercise in description for you as a future or current teacher?

In my perspective, I believe that these types of exercises will reinforce the pathway as a future teacher for me. That is, it will allow me to be acquainted with a class environment. Personally, I am not a teacher but eventually I will become one, once hired as a teacher, these types of interventions will be aiding my involvement. Permitting and allowing me to feel the atmosphere of the classroom setting. I sometimes daydream that I am already teaching at a high school level. Continuing, the pathway to changing childrens perspectives and assuring them that the education system is good for them. From what I have already experienced in these last six weeks, I have come to the conclusion that the need for good instructors and experts in the field can help students succeed in one-way or another. I myself was unaware of the importance of the school system. I was one of those individuals that the word university was none existent in my vocabulary. I came to the realization of the school system through the assistance of my former employer. Who posted an invite for upcoming, accredited and transferable business classes on the break room s bulletin board. I ran with the idea. My intention was to obtain and acquire a promotion as a manager, by taking certain courses that were related to managerial positions. Therefore, I decided to complete the program to obtain a certificate as a Retail Manager. I applied, but the company never gave me the opportunity to promote. However, this is another story. There are some students who do not know the importance of education just like me and if we get to enrich the student(s) with actual facts about the subject matter then the likelihood for that student(s) to earn a decent pay rate will increase substantially in other words meritocracy. There are the rare cases when a decent individual becomes wealthy without having a high school degree, but let us not get in to those details. Let us just say that even if this issue of the monetary reward does not mean anything, then let us talk about raising the bar and trying to achieve an educated level. Above literacy education overall and above all other countries. Yes, it is said that we belong to the 27th place in education amongst the whole world. While others in denial, claim this to be the 10 place. Regardless of the rank or ranking system, this country use to be the first power. Now, we are next to China as the most powerful country in the world. The reason that this country was powerful once was thru the strong educational instilled backgrounds that the citizens where infused in. Great deals of engineers were graduating from left to right, from the universities in record numbers. Talking from a lower-social economical perspective, the need to encourage the students to have faith in education is vital. There is an anecdotal about one of the worlds greatest mathematicians of all times, his name was Archimedes, who was approached by a whining pupil. Complaining about not getting anything from practicing mathematics, the pupil approached Archimedes and said, master, I have study day and night about mathematics and I do not even know what is it good for? Archimedes, call the guard and said Guard! Provide this pupil a bag of
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coins and tell him to go back and continue his mathematical studies. Thu s, it is important for me as a teacher to direct the student to study. Study any particular field in mind, as long as it is of their personal and preferred choice.