Noelle Uranga

ECE 250

Classroom Observation
School: Clarence Piggott Elementary
Telephone: (702) 799-4450
Teacher: Mrs. Scrivo
Grade/Age: 1st grade, 6-7 years old
Number of Children: 13
1.The general atmosphere of my classroom is great! The second you walk into
the classroom through the door you feel welcomed so easily. There is so much to
learn just by looking around the room. We have posters with fun sayings on them,
different poems, drawings, pictures of me and the other kids in the class, there is
just so much to look at. You can see that we have so much fun in the classroom
while we are at school. We have so many learning tools scattered all throughout the
classroom. Near the door we have a whole drawer set filled with extra supplies, like
crayons, pencils, glue sticks, etc. We have a stacks of clipboards, the smartboard in
the front of the room, a library in the back set up with four bins of books, a small
mat, and 4 pillows. Also on each of our tables we have a little container that has
paper, pencils, colored pencils, crayons, scissors and glue sticks for easy access for
all of our projects. Mrs. Scrivo definitely has supplied us with everything that we
need for a great learning environment around us!

2.If you were to ask me how I feel about the teacher, I would say she is amazing!
Mrs. Scrivo is the smiling face of our classroom. From the moment you walk in the
door she greets you with a smile and asks how you are doing today. She welcomes
you into her room with no hesitation at all, everything that is hers is also yours. It's
only been eight weeks into the school year and we have all developed a special
relationship with Mrs. Scrivo. She cares about all of us so much. No matter how
much you are struggling, she will sit there with us with what seems like all the
patience in the world and help us through it. She doesn't expect us to know
everything perfectly right away. She will test us on everything, and then when she
finds out what we need help with, she'll help us. Mrs. Scrivo never yells, or raises
her voice at us, she is able to stay calm and work with us on the problem or
situation happening. She wants us to do our best, and anyone who walks in the
room could easily tell.
3.How I feel about the other children in the classroom is exactly the same way!
We all work really well with one another. We get to socially interact with each other
all the time. We have three big tables set up around the room and at each table four
to six of us can sit together. With that being the case we always have one another
to talk with. From what I can tell about all the friends and classmates I've met so far
is that we are all really friendly. Being in only the first grade, the whole class is
friends with each other. Of course I've seen the quick argument over not saying
please, or standing in someone's way, but we all resolve our problems together
easily.
4.I can follow the routine of the class fairly easily. Although there isn't a posted
schedule anywhere in the classroom, Mrs. Scrivo always tells us what we are going
to do next. Days like today, which is Friday, are our catch up days. We get our

learning toolbox out and inside is all of the work from the week that we didn't finish
quite yet. So on Friday's after we finish our morning math, which is the first thing we
do, we move directly to our learning toolbox and spend about 2 hours or so on that.
So each child is walking around the room working on different things like surveys,
graphs, shapes, etc, just whatever they need to catch up on. After working on those,
Mrs. Scrivo normally lines us up to go outside for recess, but since it rained we
didn't go out today. On rainy days especially we always dance and sing! Mrs. Scrivo
puts on different videos that we can sing and dance along to that the whole class
participates in, even Mrs. Scrivo herself! After we do that, it is lunch! The routine
feels very set it stone and easy for each kid to follow. We have our set schedule
that we stick to everyday, and on rainy days like today, we also know our fall backs.
After eight weeks of being in school and having the same schedule every day, we
know it is always going to be the consistent part of our day. Everything transitions
into the next very easily, we are never all over the place, not knowing what is
happening now or next.
5.I can easily say that I feel emotionally safe while in my own classroom. Never
once have I seen or heard Mrs. Scrivo put down another child in anyway. No matter
how we might be acting up, whether we are talking and playing around or not
listening she always remains calm with us. She always uses her please and thank
you, and always greets us with smiles. Being around someone like her gives me that
emotional stability inside the classroom. She teaches us to act polite like she does
to everyone around us. She doesn't just tell us to, but she shows us how. We use
please and thank you with each other, and don't call each other names. I know that
I can be myself around my teacher and my classmates, because we are taught to
accept each other for who we are.

6.Anyone who comes into my classroom knows and understands the rules. In
the beginning of the year Mrs. Scrivo wrote out and hung up her classroom rules. It
is on a large piece of paper that hangs right by the door in the classroom. In our
classroom though we don't call them rules, we call them "Our Essential
Agreements", and we all signed our names at the bottom promising that we would
follow them. Our rules are: 1- Respect others and their belongings, 2-It's okay to
make mistakes, 3- We are a family. Treat others the way that you want to be treated,
4-Always do the right thing, and 5- Leave everything better than how you found it.
We even have a song about our agreements, and what they mean. As a class we
like to randomly start singing it, like we did today! If you were to ask how fair is
the teacher, I would say very. She always enforces the rules that we have. You can
especially see that during our morning math time. Mrs. Scrivo respects that we are
trying our best to work through the problems with her, and she doesn't get
frustrated and yell because that's not how she would want to be treated. The
biggest rule that she follows is It's okay to make mistakes. We are first graders, so
we are full of them, and she understands that and always helps us in whatever way
she can, like helping with math, reading, and explaining.
7.I like to think that everyone in my class believes that it is okay to be different.
As one of our agreements say "We are family. Treat others they way that you want
to be treated." When we say different, one specific other child comes to my mind,
but as I see it, we treat him the same as we treat all of our other friends. He can
have a hard time focusing, and understanding things but as classmates we try to
help. Like today during morning math, he couldn't remember what a rhombus was,
and since the teacher was with another child, we helped him count out the amount
of sides a rhombus had and matched it with the shapes. Mrs. Scrivo helps a lot with

him too. Since he has a hard time focusing, he is always up and around the room,
talking to other people. Instead of getting angry at him, she understands that it is
hard for him, asks him nicely to sit with her, and they work on the assignment
together.
8.Who does Mrs. Scrivo like better, boys or girls? I believe being in her class that
she doesn't truly side with one or the other. If I had to pick one though, I feel like
she might like the girls in the class just a bit better. Sometimes she will be more
lenient with us as it pertains to being talked to about doing our work. She might let
it slide the first time she notices it, and then talk to us the second time, while with
some of the boys they are talked to right away. Normally the ones that she talks to
right away though are the ones that she is having to talk to all the time throughout
the day to make sure they stay on track with their work.
9.There are many different ways to learn in my class. Mrs. Scrivo makes it very
easy to always be learning in the classroom. There are posters and papers all
around the room of things we have learned, or are going to learn. We are given the
right amount of work that will push us to work hard, but not enough to be overly
stressed out all the time. Plenty of the work we do, especially the work from this
past week, is very socially interactive with the rest of the class. So we always have
the other classmates, plus the teacher to always be helping us if we need it, and
correcting our mistakes, which makes it easy to learn. Like our agreement says "We
are Family" so we all are always helping each other which makes for a good learning
environment.
10.There aren't very many changes that I would make in my classroom with Mrs.
Scrivo. In the short amount of time that I've been in here, I've really enjoyed it. If I

was to make one change it would be in the transitions. She doesn't give us any
warning of when we are going to have to clean up to get ready for the next activity.
She just tells us when, and we have to do it. We don't get a 10 or 5 minute warning
that we will have to be packing things up soon. Other than that the classroom is a
great one to be in, and I'm excited to see what the rest of the year brings!