1) Background Information Interview
The school that I observed was the Child Development Center at Mt. San Antonio College
with the Preschool servicing children 3 months to 5 years. According to the school websites, the school’s priorities are to provide an educational, culturally relevant, developmentally appropriate program for children and promote lifelong learning. In addition, the school’s goals are striving to create a positive social environment where peaceful problem solving is encouraged, modeled, and supported. The school as a General Education program does not offer direct special education. However, they work collaboratively with parents as much as possible and reasonable, school districts, regional centers, and agencies to provide the appropriate care and education for children. I observed a classroom with age group of 4 and 5 years old, consisting of one head teacher, 30 students, two morning instructional assistants, and two afternoon instructional assistants. According to the head teacher, the students’ behavioral expectations is to follow class routines, safety rules, follow directions, use verbal communication, inside voices, and “keep hands to themselves”. The primary concern of head teacher is an undiagnosed student in the classroom with possibility of autism because he runs around in class and raises his voice level. She is mostly concerned about the possibilities of “others will pick up his energy level and affect other student’s energy level”. The rules for the classroom are “always safety first”, inside voices, clean up after themselves, be kind to others, and “keep your hands to yourself”. None of the above goals, expected behaviors, or rules was posted in the classroom or in the school. However, the school has an open-door policy, so when the parents have notion to observe a student’s classroom, the parents are welcomed to do so. Families and teachers work positively together to student’s readiness for current and future school success is enhanced.
2) Classroom Environment
The overall environment was conductive to learning by having a signage clearly welcomes families and visitors and directs them to the entrance. When first stepping in to the classroom, the cubbies are placed for easy use by parents, staff, and student. There is good ventilation and uses natural lighting through multiple windows. The physical settings of the classroom include tables and chairs that are child-sized (the student’s feet touch the floor when sitting), space is reasonably clean and well-maintained. The spaces are suitable for large- and small-group meeting areas and good traffic flow throughout the classroom. The learning environment is designed to allow student to move and play freely in main centers (e.g., dramatic play and block play) so quiet centers and active centers are not next to each other. There is a classroom library area with comfortable sofa at a corner that includes at least 5 books of various genres (e.g., narratives, informational books, ABC books, counting books, etc.) that are displayed so they are easily accessible to student. Many art materials such as scissors, papers, glue, markers, and crayons are accessible on open shelves to student. Most displays relate directly to student in room (e.g., names of students with colorings, ABC’s written by student, art samples, etc.) Classroom organization focuses on the physical environment with the use of space, furnishings, and materials that influence the learning process of students. An effective teacher organizes a safe classroom environment by strategically place furniture, learning centers, and materials in order to enhance student learning and reduce distractions. The strategically placed furniture also helps students to stay engaged and on task with minimal distractions because it clearly distinguishes the areas for dramatic plays, quiet reading area, and work areas.
The efficiency of transition can be seen during indoor and outdoor activities. The lead teacher and assistant teachers always uses verbal cues before transitions. They promptly use verbal cues before transitions (e.g., “5 minutes ’til snack,” “It’s almost time for cleanup,” “5 minutes’ till we go back inside”). By announcing to the students before making a transition, this allows students time to get ready. This avoids students of being in the middle of other tasks when you ask them to transition, which saves confusion and frustration for the students and teachers.
There were no classroom rules, routines, and procedures visible anywhere in the classroom. The lead teacher observed did review certain expectations of students including, use of verbal communication, inside voices, and keep hands to themselves. However, there is a “Steps in Resolving Conflicts” paper posted right in the center of the classroom for teachers and assistant teachers to follow when an inappropriate behavior happens. The rules consisted of:
1) Approach calmly: place yourself between the children, on their level, use a calm voice, remain neutral rather than take sides.
2) Acknowledge children’s feelings: “you look really upset”, let children know you need to hold any object in question.
3) Gather information: “what’s the problem?”
4) Restate the problem: “so the problem is…”
5) Ask for ideas of Solutions and choose one together: “what can we do to solve this problem?”, encourage children to think of a solution.
6) Be prepared to give follow-up support: “you solved the problem!”, stay near the children.
The teachers appear to have high expectations when engaging students regarding
inappropriate behaviors and are expected to follow the protocol listed. Rules were repeatedly mentioned when an inappropriate behavior occurs but are not always discussed or visible in the classroom. The system would be more effective if the behavioral expectations, rules, and routines are clearly posted in a visible area with illustrations. Rules and procedures provide structure and clarity in the classroom, and a visual to illustrate each rule posted is an important step to effective classroom management. Especially for student at an early age, who typically are not yet reading, need to be able to quickly reference the rules, without being expected to memorize them.
3) Classroom Curriculum & Instruction
The activities presented in the observed classroom is meaningful, relevant, age-appropriate,
and at a doable level for all student. It was meaningful because the activities student engages in like math and problem solving in a pretend grocery store using fake money and coins develops their cognitive skills. The outdoor activities like riding the tricycles, running, dancing, rolling is relevant for the student because it fosters the student’s physical abilities of muscle development and help fine-tune motor skills. For students ages 4-5, learning through play is often a full body activity that helps them develop skills they will need later in life activities. In addition, through activities such as building blocks, puzzles and shape sorting helps with recognizing different shapes and sizes, putting things in order and developing logic. These activities are all relevant to build self-worth by giving a student a sense of his or her own abilities and to feel good about themselves.
There is not a visible modification made for certain students, but there could have been a modification provided in the activities. The observed should provide multiple media options to suit each student’s specific learning style. For visual learner students, a mixture of technologies such as videos and overhead monitor devices for pictures strengthen the absorbing of learning activities. It is valuable for the students to try different types of media technologies from time to time to expand their learning opportunities.
It is significant that learning is fun at this age and because the activities inside and outside activities are fun, students often become very absorbed in what they are doing, and students actively participate frequently and in a variety of ways. Since the observed classroom activities are free choices indoor and outdoor, there’s no specific directions for the activities. However, the teacher would constantly check for students’ understanding by directly asking each student if they need help with what they are doing or how they are doing. During the indoor activities, there is at least 5 tables with each table of different fine motor activities presented to them before activities for the students to free play with. Activities such as, drawing, building blocks, dramatic, and crafts. The students are not required to finish all the activities and understands when finish with an activity, they are to ask the teacher or assistant teacher if they can go to any other table. The teacher gives the students enough time and choices to explore what they’re interested in. Some center activities are to be done with the teacher, while others are completed with peers or individually. In addition, students are given adult and peer attention when they are engaged in free play activities and when they ask teachers questions. The students are also given attention when the teacher sees a student engaged in an inappropriate behavior with another peer. The teacher will constantly remind the student to “make good choices”.
Through the classroom observation, students are presented with choices before and after activities to explore their play experiences, while learning the social and emotional skills necessary for healthy development and positive interaction. The “play” in the classroom is purposeful and the classroom environments are intentionally designed to facilitate independent purposeful play. The classroom curriculum is based on an understanding of students development and implemented in ways that are consistent with the school’s core goals and values.
4) Classroom Behaviors and Support/Management System
During the classroom observation, there was few evident behavior problems that happened during indoor and outdoor. Problems such as, a student cries when another student is using the tricycle, a student running across the classroom after the assistant teacher asked the student to use her “walking feet” multiple times, and not placing the toys where it belongs after use.
The antecedents that happened with a student fighting with another student for the tricycle is because the student was supposed to be off the tricycle after three rounds instead of giving turns, the student continues to ride the tricycle. The student who is waiting to be next was not able to express his feeling with words and cries out loud. The teacher is alerted by the cry and approaches to both students. The teacher first calms the student who is crying by saying, “it’s okay, use your words when you are ready”. When the student stops crying, the teacher asks what happened and both students takes turn answering. The crying student explains he was waiting to be next and the other student explains he forgot someone was next. The teacher first tells both students that they need to communicate using their words. She tells the crying student that he needs to use his words to let others know he is waiting to be next but not crying. Then, she tells the other student that he needs to pay attention to his surroundings for safety reasons. There were no consequences for the behaviors but encouragement for students to use their words as a way for solutions and to avoid further complications. The function of this behavior seemed to be gaining attention using cry instead of verbally telling the teacher what is happening.
A student running across the classroom after the assistant teacher asked the student to use her “walking feet” multiple times. The incident occurred when the assistant teacher asks the student to clean up the toys and the student ignores the teacher by running back and forth in the classroom. The assistant teacher solved the behavior problem by asking the student if she wants to clean up the toys together and they can go outside together after cleaning up. The student stood there for few seconds and responded to the teacher by cleaning up the toys with the teacher. The functions of this behaviors seemed to act because of having a bad day or anxious to get out of class. There were no consequences of the problem behavior but giving student another option to solve the problem by cleaning up together.
The appropriate behaviors I saw during the observation were students acknowledging the teacher when it is time to go back in class from outdoor activities, students ask the teacher directly if they can go to any other table for activities, use good manners (e.g., please, thank you, can I?), keeping their hands to themselves. These behaviors were not reinforced but were verbally recognize and made a big deal about it when they display good manners. For instance, the teacher would express approval and praise for appropriate behavior by commenting (“Good job,” “I can tell you are working really hard,” “well done!”). The behavior support system being used in classroom was consistently reinforce students who follow those expectations, sometimes a high five would be given, and an extra snack will be given during snack time. The behavior system is effective and positive for students. It increases appropriate behaviors, increase on-task behavior, and allowing students to participate more in activities.
5) Conclusions
According to positive behavioral system, the overall strengths of the classroom is using verbal praise as acknowledgment of appropriate behaviors, effectively creating a structured physical environment includes organizing desks and tables according to the activity students will be participating in. In addition, teachers respond to problem behaviors and engages students during academic instructions. However, one of the main weaknesses of the classroom are invisible postings with illustrations of the behavioral expectations, rules, and routines. It will be tough for teacher to reinforce expectations and daily routines throughout the day without any visible postings of the rules. The practices of consistently reinforce students who follow expectations, a high five for good work, and an extra snack during snack time prevented problem behavior. Also giving students frequent and positive feedback on skill achievement has maintained a positive behavior throughout the classroom. The teacher and the students were frequently interacting with each other through helping them when they asked questions, classroom activities involvement, and planning activities specifically designed to meet students’ needs. In addition, teachers get on the child’s level for face-to-face interactions and behavior problem solving. The student-student interactions are frequently seen throughout play time inside and outside of classrooms. The students frequently engage with each other such as getting a friend’s attention, sharing objects, asking peers to share objects, providing a play idea to a peer, and saying something nice to a peer.