October 28 7:45-11:15

The teacher that I’m observing teaches both 6th grade ELA and math at Marcus Whitman. The day started out with ELA with an organization check and then it moved to a circle chat on the book Maroo. Without knowing how else the book was taught I think that this was the best way to share the students thoughts and journals. To add technology to this lesson I would have had the students keep an online journal instead of in their notebooks. With an online journal or a blog it would be easier for the students to make changes to their writing. During the second half of the ELA class the students created a Venn diagram comparing the characters in Maroo to the lives of Early Man. The diagram was done as a class on the SMART Board. The SMART Board worked well for this activity despite its current technical difficulties. The board is currently not aligning properly. Ms. Bliss said that they have had a technician in to look at the board but they have not been able to fix it yet. I watched her align the board and it became worse than it was before the alignment. The students were split between whether they used their fingers to write on the board or whether they used the pens.
After the ELA double period was math and the SMART Board was used in this lesson to do the warm up question and notes. After the students completed the warm up questions in their seats they were called up to do it on the SMART Board for the class. This activity allows different students to interact with the technology. After the warm-up questions the SMART Board was used for instruction and notes. It was the first day that 2 step equations were covered. The students’ notes were pre typed and Ms. Bliss added to them during the period.
The last group that I observed was the same class as the first one, ELA with different students. The class followed the same format as the first one and started with the discussion circle. During the circle the students discussed the difference between the characters in the book and the lives of people today. The topic of technology today came up in the discussion and students mentioned that early man would not know what to do with today’s devices. Then the class moved onto the Venn diagram. This time the SMART board acted up even more after it was realigned and this caused the students to not be able to write on the board. Until this problem with the board is fixed the students are not able to fully use the technology that is present in their classroom.


Todays time: 3.75 hours
Total Time: 3.75 hours