Classroom Observation

School: Rockaway Valley School

Location: Boonton, NJ
Teacher: Mrs. Freeman
Grade level: 4th, 5th and 6th grades
Class size: From 11 to 22 students per class
Dates of observations: March 7th, 9th, 14th and 16th.
The lesson:
The lessons that Mrs. Freeman was conducting were in Spanish. She teaches fourth, fifth and
sixth graders. She teaches at least three classrooms per grade per day. The lessons were well
organized. Mrs. Freeman chose group work in the majority of her lessons and the lessons were
set up into games. She would explain the rules and asked questions. Students would have a
chance to answer the question and earn points. The winners will get a gift card from the local ice
cream shop. Students seemed very excited and focus. The environment felt comfortable, and
Mrs. Freeman seemed content and welcoming with the results.
I was able to observe the end of a fourth grade lesson where they were learning the ABC in
Spanish. She had a song display with the projector and the whole classroom will sing to the
tunes. As the students sing, the song comes faster and faster encouraging kids to sing without
making mistakes. The other exercise I observed at the end of another fourth grade lesson was
about a car plate. The teacher gave students Minnesota car plates patterns in a paper for the

students to make their own numbers and letters and decorate them with crayons. When finished,
students should spell letters and tell numbers in Spanish.
The fifth grade lessons were repetitive; since I observed three different fifth classes a day.
Students were conjugating verbs. The teacher would say, Lets conjugate verb arrive. She
would put in the projector Yo and the students would raise their hand to conjugate. When the
student would say it right Yo llego, the teacher would reveal it on the screen. Then she would
continue with Tu and ask students, Who can conjugate TU? and so on.
The sixth grade lesson, Mrs. Freeman had numbers written on the whiteboard from 1 to 25. She
would have a student help erase the number a team has picked so they dont duplicate question.
Then, she would read the question in English and the team that pick the number had two minutes
to translate the sentence in Spanish correctly. They use paper and pencil to write and re-write
sentence before they had to spell it out. If the team spell it wrong, the next team would take a
chance and so on.
Physical Environment:
The room had natural light since one whole side of the room had windows. It had nice posters
that read, Estupendo, another, Fabuloso, another, Increible,others read, Fantastico,
Honestidad, Responsabilidad, Cooperacion, Compasion, Aceptacion, Cree en ti, Teniamos
tareas? another one read, Piensa antes de hablar,etc. It also had the alphabet in Spanish and
the months of the year. The students desk were individual with green school tennis balls on
each of the legs to keep them from making noise. Mrs. Freeman had them organize in line facing
the front with the exception of the outside line facing in.
Events:

I was able to witness two events that happened while doing my observations. One of them was
role reversal. While taking a test, the 6th graders had to answer a bonus question that was, What
country that speaks Spanish is the president visiting at the end of the month? Most of kids were
guessing the answer, so when they gave their tests back, they asked Mrs. Freeman for the answer
to what she asked, Can you keep a secret? Because I have another 6th graders coming for the
same test and when the students say yes she said, Me too. One of the students screamed,
MRS. FREEEMAN as if she was the teacher and the teacher was the student. Mrs. Freeman
then said, What going on with your tone of voice?
The second event I witnessed was when a student came forward to Mrs. Freeman desk and
showed her a post it she found at her desk. It read, You are going to die. The student who
found it was asking Mrs. Freeman if she knew who was sitting down in her area so she could
track the student. She also suggested comparing hand writing from previous papers. I saw Mrs.
Freeman staring at the paper trying to remember who was sitting there and so was I. She told
student she will take care of it and continue her lesson.
Questions to the teacher after observations:
1. Where did you go to College?
I went to Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania.
2. Why do you teach?
I love working with students and I like to help them.
3. What is your favorite subject to teach?
Spanish.
4. How do you make a subject interesting?
Keeping the group moving. Using visual, interacting with students and group activities.
5. Do you need to establish routines in the classroom?
Yes.
6. Where do you get your resources?
Colleagues and internet.
7. How many hours do you devote outside of the classroom?
1 or 2 hours a day and all Sunday.
8. What is the average of money you spend out of pocket?

$300 to $500 a year

9. How much homework do you give to students?
Half an hour a night.
10. What are your biggest challenges?
Discipline. Especially when they are mean to each other.
11. How do you handle a situation when a student misbehave?
I will talk to him/her to stop the behavior. If he/she continues the behavior, Ill put
his/her name on the board and then is suspension.
12. Who do you call if there is a fight between two students?
Vice principal.
13. How do you communicate with parents?
Via email.
14. Is there any dress code for the teachers?
Yes.
15. What is the dress code?
You are allowed to dress with pants, skirt and pretty much anything except jeans.
16. Do you get benefits?
Do you mean health benefits? Yes. We get medical, dental and vision.
17. Do you work all summer?
No. Majority doesnt.
18. What kind of work do you do in summer?
--------19. Do you plan to further your education?
No at this point.
20. What are your plans for the next two years?
Im planning to retire, maybe you can take my job as a Spanish teacher. You have the
accent and everything.
Mrs. Freemans style is definitely student center where she acts as a facilitator. I love the idea of
having the kids playing games and compete with each other. They didnt even realize they were
learning another language because the class was fun and entertaining. Kids felt safe and
comfortable around Mrs. Freeman. They approach her desk to ask questions and they spoke in
Spanish most of the time. One of Mrs. Freeman classes practice inclusion since one of her
students had a paraprofessional next to him during class explaining to him what to do.