Claudia P.

Govea

ECE 251/ SEC. 3001

November 13,2017

Group Time/ Interaction Observation

Group Time Evaluation

1. School: ECE Lab School (North Las Vegas) Telephone Number: 702-651-4004

Teacher: Susan Smythe Age/Grade Level: Preschool

2. Start & End of Group Time: 9:31am - 9:44am

3. Number of Adults: 3 Number of Children:8

4. Group time began when children enter from outside time. Group time began by children

finding their spot on the floor. The teacher refer the group time as the morning meeting.

Children gather up in a circle and began by singing a song together. After the song

finishes they greet each other. Goes over the school and family motive. The school and

family motive is: Our School family Works Together to be Respectful, Helpful, Kind.The

teacher then asks the children to look around to see what children are missing for the day.

The children mention the names of the children that are not here for the day, The teacher

and the children go over the today’s schedule like snack and centers. The teacher shares

news information that could be important to the children. The children then share any

news that they want to share. The children and teacher go over events for the week or

month. The teacher explained the term Thanksgiving to the children. Talks about the

drive for thanksgiving where children can bring can goods. By concluding the meeting

the teacher mentions the open centers that are available for them. Also goes over about

their jobs in the classroom each child has. The group time ends by taking attendance as
 each child is called up and put a safety pin with their names. After the teacher lets the

children go off to the centers of their choice.

5. The activities during group time are appropriate for the age level. For example when the

children are asked about any news in their life are appropriate. Children need to feel

acknowledge about their day. The news that they want to share. Children in preschool

need to engage in conversations. The beginning of group time is appropriate by starting

with a song it gets children to focus their attention to the teacher. Singing songs and

rhymes gets the child to understand repetition. Informing the child know about the

centers and the schedule for the day gets the child to learn about routine.

6. Group time was approximately about 13 minutes. The time for the group time sounds

appropriate for children in preschool. Children in preschool can not stay still for so long.

Many of the children get bored of being sitting down. Children at the ages of 3-4 get

impatient sitting down and need to be active. Children need to be up and moving their

bodies. Group time was the appropriate it was not to long for children to be sitting.

7. The space for group time was appropriate it was in an area where each child had their

personal space. The children were sitting by each other but were not close together.

8. The children came together for group time by the adults directing them to have a seat.

The way they directed them was as soon as the children came from outside they were

directed to have a seat to begin circle time.

9. The about 75 percent of the time children were actively engage into circle time. The other

25 percent of the time the children were not paying attention. Children were engaged at

the beginning of the group time but towards the end of the time they became impatient. It
 was appropriate because it is reasonable children becoming impatient because they

wanted to start center time.

10. Most of the group time children were paying attention to the teacher. They were engaged

in their group time. Children were paying attention to the start of the meeting towards the

end of the meeting children began to become unsettle. The children wanted to get up and

move to center by the end of the meeting. During the meeting the children were engaged

and talking and conversing with the teacher.

11. While conducting the observation the classroom had a child with special needs. The child

began to disrupt the classroom because he began getting up and talking. The teacher was

flexible because she acknowledge the child and continue the class meeting. The teacher

did not stop the class meeting but kept an eye on the child just for the child’s safety.

When the child screamed the teacher will just tell the child inside voices and continued to

keep the meeting going.

12. No there was no individual accommodations to the child with special needs. The child

was acknowledge and was being take care by the teacher and another adult in the

classroom.

13. The boys tended to have more inappropriate behaviors. They will stand up of jump. They

will scream out noises. There was a boy that did not want to stay still he was more

interested in his surroundings. He would get up and scream. Before the meeting began the

child was called over many times to come sit down and he didn’t. The meeting began and

the child sat for a couple minutes but kept looking around uninterested in the meeting.

14. When the child that kept being uninterested in the group conversation the teacher became

to ask the child question. The child became a little more focused on the meeting because
 the conversation was about him. Another teacher sat by the child to keep him from

getting up and running around.

15. The teacher ended the group time by explaining what centers were open and what activity

each center had as an activity.

16. The activity that followed group time was centers. It is appropriate for the child because

it gets the children a break from them sitting down. Centers gives the children a free

opportunity to move around and also to give them the choice to do their own activity.

Powerful Interaction Observation

● Date: November 09, 2017 School: ECE Lab School North Las Vegas Campus

Teacher: Susan Smythe Age of Child: 3 years old

● Time: 9:31am - 9:44am

● Setting: The setting of the classroom was inside of the classroom. The age group of the

children were 3 years old.There was 8 children and 3 adults present in the classroom. The

observation began when the children entered the classroom from outside time. Children

came in and were directed to sit and get ready for their morning meeting. The children sat

and the morning meeting began. The teacher about 10 minutes later ended the morning

meeting and the children were let free for centers in the classroom. The children all went

to the center of their choice.

● Interaction: The interaction began when there was a girl that was undecided what to do

for center. The teacher showed her all the centers that were open to be in. The girl

chooses the art center for her choice.

○ She began by asking the teacher “how do we paint with this”.

○ The teacher: “Well you see the string attach to the close pin we are going to be

using this as a paint brush”

○ Child: “that's not going to work. The paint isn’t going to stay on there”

○ Teacher: “ well why don’t we test it to see if it works”

○ Teacher shows child how to use the materials

○ Child “yay! It worked!” (child has an amazed face)

○ Teacher “now the trick is we have to put the clothes pin back into the jar without

touching the paint or getting it in ourselves. Now you try”

○ Child grabs close pin and paints onto her paper.

○ Child splashes the paint all over the paper and string runs out of paint.

○ Child tries to put in the clothes pin back into jar and has difficulty.
 ○ Teacher “ we have to get the clothes pin without getting paint on our hands

remember”

○ Child “I can't do it. This is hard to get the string back into the jar”

○ Teacher “ you can do it! You almost got it.”

○ Child ends to reaching for the next color of clothes pin.

○ Teacher sits next to the child while she paints and assist the child when she needs

help but does not do the activity for her.

○ The child then has a conversation with the teacher about how she is doing a

christmas tree on her painting.

● PI Characteristics: When conducting the observation here are some of the powerful

interaction I saw the teacher do with the child. The teacher was present during the

interaction as the book Powerful Interaction states “To be present means pausing for just

a moment to quiet your static and prepare to join the child in the interaction.” (pg. 13).

The teacher prepared to join the conversation when the child was confused about the art

center she was joining. The next thing I saw during the observation was the teacher was

connected with the child. In Powerful Interaction it states “ Connecting means what is

interesting and significant about what the child is doing, saying, and thinking.” (pg 27).

The teacher was interested in what the child had to say about the art project when she

taught the art project was hard to do. She was paying close attention to what the child had

to say to her. The child was smiling and looking at the teacher as she conducted her

activity. In the book we see that Powerful Interaction mentions, “ to signal a connection

and willingness to join you in learning, a child may: look at you and smile, reach out to

be picked up, continue playing, but with a little extra focus and enthusiasm, involved you
 in her play, show or tell you something, ask you a question.” (pg. 31) the child was

showing signs that she was also having the connection with her teacher during the

interaction. The teacher showed one step on extended learning during the interaction

having a conversation. Powerful Interaction states whether a conversation is verbal or not

extends the learning with language awareness, understanding and thinking, and

conversation can be enjoyable to interact with each other (pg. 76).

● Improvement: Some improvements that I saw that could be fixed are the part where the

teacher was present. She was present for a couple of minutes but was getting distracted

having a conversation with another adult in the room. In powerful interaction it shows us

techniques that the teacher to take in order to be present and engage with the child. One

of those techniques will be quieting your static (page 14). Being said that you allow

yourself to fully focused in the moment with the child. Allow yourself to forget about

what you were doing a couple of minutes ago or what you will be doing after. Allow to

give your full attention on the child (pg 14). The teacher should have allowed time to stay

in full conversation with the child. The interaction with the other teacher was keeping her

from being unfocused or giving the child her full attention. Giving the full attention lets

the child know you are interested in what they are saying to them. That was the only

improvement I saw in the interaction the teacher not giving her full focused on the

conversation with the child.