Uturo 1

Julia Uturo

EN 201 - Slomski

19 April 2017

Field Placement Reflection: San Juan Diego Academy

My first day helping at San Juan Diego was a pretty good one. My cooperating teacher,

Ms. Pelak, recommended that I take my first visit to observe to get a feel for how the students act

and the classes run and how the teachers choose to present their lessons. So, I did; I sat in the

back of the classroom and observed. Ms. Pelak teaches middle school math, but her homeroom

class is seventh grade. The students filter in and start the day off with silent reading; it appears

that this is mostly to kill time before they go to their technology class, but it is a good way to

start the day anyway. While they read, I observed the classroom and its layout and its

decorations. I liked the seating arrangement; the tables were arranged in three pods with three

tables making a T shape as two of them and two tables moved together making the third. This

seating arrangement allowed for the ability of group or collaborative work, and they were set up

in such a way that the front of the room (the board and the teacher) would easily be their focus.

The decoration of the room is very comfortable: there is a board of positive thoughts that has

cut-out stars on it; Christmas lights are hanging throughout the room; and the back corner of the

room has lots of colorful pillows, bookshelves, and a banner that reads reading corner. Around

the room there is a combination of typical classroom decorations and student work. There are

posters about math and a math vocab bulletin board that features vocabulary from each grade.

There are student-made posters about ownership at the front of the classroom and book report

presentations at the side. The Catholic side of the school is also represented in the classroom with
 Uturo 2

a prayer intention section of the front blackboard and a prayer station at the back of the room that

housed a figure of Mary and a collection of rosaries.

On this first day, I went to technology class with the students because I was observing.

The students were working on PSAs about internet safety in assigned groups. They spent the

beginning of class working on storyboards for this assignment. From the little interaction that I

witnessed to compare it to, the students seemed to respect Ms. Pelak quite a bit more than they

respected the technology teacher. This was probably just because they didnt see her as their

real teacher. Towards the end of the class time, the students were given the opportunity to print

out the graphs and information for their projects for the science fair that would be coming up in

the next week. They seemed to be a little bit more excited about this activity.

When technology class was over the students and I headed back over to Ms. Pelaks room

to start math. She starts the class with a desk check in which she has the students get out last

nights homework and she quickly checks for its completion. After that, they check the

homework together as a class. Even though the students are checking it together, she uses this

time to see what each student individually knows as well. She does this by calling on a student to

call out their answer for a problem, and if they have the wrong answer, they will discuss, as a

class, why it is wrong. She also seems to know which of her students are good at math because if

no one seems to be getting the right answer, she will ask them. She also tells the students to be

proud of their right answers, but for their wrong answers they should be asking questions. On

this day, the lesson was on word problems containing fractions and probability. As she started the

lesson, showing examples on the board, she reminded them that they should be writing these

examples in their notebooks so that they could go back and look at them. To keep them

participating in the lesson, she asks simple questions so that the students arent afraid of getting
 Uturo 3

them wrong. She also says things like If the fraction is in simplest form thumbs up and if it's not

thumbs down to give them quick ways to participate. When the students are actively

participating, even in these small ways, they are more likely to be paying attention, and therefore

more aware of where they are wrong or what they need to work on. She constantly reminds them

of what they are learning by describing a situation and then asking them What kind of event

does this make? The lesson was taught in a good order: the students first learned about

probability and how to find it, and then they started working on the story problems that included

the exact same type of probability that they had just previously learned. This must help with their

understanding of the content. Ms. Pelak seems to confront misbehavior of students directly in

front of their peers. This strategy has pros and cons in my opinion: the other students can learn

from the mistake of one student to not make the same mistake; however, calling out a student in

front of their peers can lead to feelings of decreased self-esteem. She makes them aware of all

the resources in their books because they have a test coming up. Despite a future test, though, the

students do not seem to be focused on their homework. I also noticed a student in the front

corner of the classroom working on a different math lesson and he had a different book, I thought

it could possibly be something advanced.

It was now time for the eighth-grade class. These students seemed to be at a much higher

level than the seventh-grade class. They are expected to do a lot more on their own; they come

into class and do a warm-up activity that is on the board. This classs start with the warm-up

activity and following discussion seemed to lead to the creation of an environment that is much

more conducive to learning; the students seem more engaged and focused. I think that seventh

grade should be able to do this as well, so I wonder why she doesnt try it as it creates a more

positive environment for the rest of the class. I noticed that the work done in class and at home is
 Uturo 4

assigned as work sheets rather than problems form the book, which is very different to what I did

in middle school so I wonder how that changes the learning that occurs. Ms. Pelak has a good

combination of showing them how to do something, asking them how to do something, and

letting them do it on their own. This way they dont become reliant on her to teach them; they

also learn how to learn on their own.

As the seventh graders time in math class ended, the sixth graders shuffled in. These

students were again different; they were much younger. They were taking a pretest on that day.

The pretests in this class were used to see what each student knew. If a student got an 80% or

higher, they would not have to take the post-test. Instead, during the lesson, they would work on

a challenge project related to the lesson that they would then present to the class. Before the

students start their test, Ms. Pelak has them put up their folders to block their work from the eyes

of their classmates to avoid cheating. As I look around at the sea of folders, I notice that there is a

student that is working on the seventh-grade worksheet. I realize that he must be advanced like

the seventh-grade student was. While the students finish up their pretests, the students receive

their post-tests from the previous lesson. Ms. Pelak instructs them to make corrections to the

problems that they got wrong and turn them in to her. They also put the test into a binder and

graph the scores of this post-test to the previous pretest that they took so that they can see how

much they improved over the course of the lesson. While the students are independently

working, I notice that Ms. Pelak often writes instructions for the next class on the board to

prepare for her next lesson. I had to leave in the middle of the sixth-grade class, so I didnt get to

see what came next though.

For the next four visits, I participated more than I observed. During the technology class,

I helped with small jobs. I made copies or hung up the students work on bulletin boards. Then,
 Uturo 5

during the math lessons, I walked around and answered questions or made sure that all students

were on task.

On my second visit, I sat in on their morning prayer that they do in the gym every

morning before their classes begin. It was cool because all grades participated. They did the

readings for that day and sang a song together. At the end the principal, Dr. Brenes, talked to

them. I noticed that each week he seemed to start his talk on a negative note - he brought up

something that he noticed students doing or heard them saying sometime during the week. To

me, it seemed also as though this speech that was the start of each day set the tone for the

environment of the school. The teachers often seemed focused on the negative and focused on

punishment, and this focus seemed to stem from the principals attitude as he started off the

school day. After his speech, he would end on a motivational note. All the students would state

that they would graduate from San Juan and that they would go to college; then they all shouted

si se puede. Overall the morning prayer seemed like a positive tradition.

During my last visit, while the students were in technology class, Ms. Pelak and a teacher

that helps the students who need more help discussed some of the problems that they have with

the school, so I listened. They were upset because there were IEPs that had not been updated for

extended amounts of time. They were also frustrated that they didnt have an intervention

specialist because it put too much responsibility on the teachers. It was discussed that they

should just get a special education teacher that could act as an intervention specialist.

Also during my last visit, the school was preparing to go to a Whitecaps game as a

reward for reading every day during March (reading month). Ms. Pelak told the students that if

they only missed a few days, she will still allow them to attend because she understands that life

happens. She told the other teacher that helped that there were some teachers who were sticking
 Uturo 6

to the original plan - a student can only go to the game if they read every day in March - but that

this was too strict because it meant that only a few kids could go, and even the ones who really

tried, werent rewarded for their effort.

I really enjoyed visiting San Juan Diego because it was different. I learned a lot from my

cooperating teacher, Ms. Pelak, because she is a great teacher. I also learned that not all schools

are perfect and they can always use improvement, whether its an improvement in the physical

structure, the atmosphere, or the way that it is run. I loved seeing what teaching middle school

math would be like, and Im glad that it was at this school that I could do that.