Eagle View ES Visit
Updated: Oct 11
Last Friday, 10/2, we visited Eagle View elementary school in Fairfax, VA. I got the chance to observe about 20 minutes of a kindergarten class with Sandy, and about 5-10 minutes of a special ed. group. Since I was with the kindergarten class for more time, this qualitative research report will focus mostly on that experience
Students
The main group I observed was a kindergarten class. The age group was 5 to 6 year olds, and there were about 18 kids in the class - I cant remember the exact number. There were a range of 2 to 4 kids per table.
In terms of ethnicity and gender, the group seemed to be pretty diverse. The group was also very diverse when considering motor skills, focus and attention level, and personality. In addition to the teacher, there were 3 IAs (Instructors Assistants). One IA seemed to be paired with one particular boy, which seemed to be an IEP situation.
Cirriculum
The kindergarten class spent the time block creating veggie salad out of cut, multi colored paper. I found a similar lesson plan here.
The teacher and IAs would pass out different colors of construction paper, and guide the kids in using kid-safe scissors to cut out pieces for their salad. The teacher gave a guide on particular shapes to make for each vegetable, but let each kid have some freedom with how they wanted to cut each one. For example, some students made triangle carrots, and some made long rectangle carrots. Once each veggie type was cut out, it was put into a ziploc bag.
I was surprised by the wide range of fine motor skills of all the kids when it came to using the scissors. Some students, especially the girls, were very meticulous and detail oriented when it came to cutting the shapes and holding the scissors. Some students really struggled with holding the scissors properly, and multitask both hands while trying to cut the shapes. I sat at a table with two students, one who was very detail oriented with great fine motor skills, and the other really struggled. It was very interesting to watch how one IA (the one who was sat at the table with the two) let the boy make mistakes and figure it out himself, and only intervening when needed. Another IA would quickly get frustrated with less-coordinated or easily distracted students, and crossed the line of helpful intervening, to aggresive interfering.
In general, This activity was definetely age appropriate. I was hoping to see something with more creative leeway in our classroom observation, but this type of activity suited a group of almost 20 5 year olds pretty well.
Time
I wasnt present for the beginning of the class, but I was able to see the last 20 minutes and clean up time.
Time was a very important factor here, especially when teaching kindergarten. It was very important to manage the groups expectations of how much time they had for each activity and clean up. When each new piece of paper "vegetable" was passed out, a 3 to 5 minute timer was also started and visible for all of the students. The timer wasnt intedned to rush the students, but it built necessary structure. At the end of each timer, the teacher got the class's attention with a bell, or by saing "Class Class", and the students would respond with "Yes Yes" (which was very cute).
This time structure also divided each task so that instructions were more simple and wouldnt get jumbled up since this age group has such a short attention span.
Cleanup time was given a dedicated 7-10 minutes at the end of class. During this cleanup time, the kids could draw whatever they wanted in their personal sketchbook and put their materials back into their dedicated space*. I also realized that for each grade level, you have to anticipate a certain amount of time for the kids to get in line.
*Another thing I learned here is that organization will save your life as a teacher, and is NOT negotiable.
Self
I learned that I would never be able to survive teaching in an elementary school. This is so not my thing. I felt my anxiety completely spike as soon as I walked into the room, and found myself freezing when it came to interacting with the kids and walking around the room. I am great in a private, small classroom setting with an elementary age group, but a group of this size was hard just spending 30 minutes around.
I also found that I enjoyed sitting with the group of older students who needed special attention much more than the kindergarten group. I am very familiar with similar groups of kids across a wide age range, and the smaller class size - just 4 students - is something I am much more comfortable with.
I still enjoyed myself, but it absolutely confirmed that I would not thrive in this environment.\
Visual Response
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