SUNEL LOOTS

Student number:
56685998
Due date: 18 September
2015
BPT1501 Observation report and
Collage

ASSIGNMENT 4
Unique number: 602824

Open Rubric
 Observation report

I attended Dainfern College over the period of 10 and 11th of September 2015. I observed a Grade 3
classroom that consists of 26 learners. As I did my teaching practice there earlier this year I have
gotten to know the school environment quite well. The atmosphere is very welcoming and
comfortable. They have aimed to create a space for children to feel safe and comfortable to be
themselves. The school building itself is very modern. They have planned the layout in such a
manner that the classrooms all face the playground in a U shape. The classrooms all have big
sliding doors leading out to the playground. This allows students to do class activities outside if they
chose to, giving them a more interactive experience.

Each classroom has their own working bench in front of the sliding door and a display cabinet next to
each classroom for the students work. All the classrooms are filled with natural light from the big
glass windows. All the classrooms are required to have the following:

1. Allocated space for movement, reading, relaxing or for lessons.

2. Allocated space for the theme of the week.
3. Educational board game corner.
4. Lockers for students belongings.
5. Bookshelf with reading material.

The specific classroom I observed in was laid out in the following way:

Students each had their own desk, two laced next to each other. The students were facing the white
board. This allowed them to all see comfortably and to make use of the projector as often as
possible. The teachers desk was placed behind the students, allowing her to keep a watchful eye on
the learners without her movements and activity being a distraction for the learners. All students sat
on normal plastic chairs with chair bags on them. Students were allowed to sit on yoga balls if they
were given permission by the teacher and Occupational therapist.

Store
room

Movement space
Teacher
Reading desk
corner

Desks
Lockers

Main
entrance
White board

Board
game
s
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As you can see by the above layout that there are a few students allocated to sit alone or facing the
wall or teachers desk. This is simply to prevent these learners from getting themselves into trouble
as they have either got behavioural problems or lack of concentration.

Mrs. Maree (teacher) is a very loving and caring teacher. She approach the students in a very
peculiar manner, but her students respond well to her and the environment she creates for them.
She has a very sarcastic jokey manner with her students, but she is strict and has firm boundaries.
She adjusts her interactions with each individual student as she is very well aware of their needs and
struggles. I think her happy go lucky approach often leaves her unprepared and unsure of work
activities but none the less she never allows the students to know she is uncertain.

Mrs. Maree can sometimes come off as uninterested as she easily gets preoccupied. She has the
ability and resources to make her lessons a bit more interesting for her students but as she is not
always prepared she falls short in this department.

The school approaches teaching in a very practical manner, believing everything that is taught
should be experienced by the students themselves. The school provides the teachers with every
single resource they need to achieve their lesson plan as they have a budget allocated specifically for
this. The school also encourages teacher to make use of the technology that is available at the
school, allowing students to make use of the iPads, computer and many more. The principal is a big
believer of interactive learning, she enjoys seeing children learn while having fun. There for you will
find that the children spend a lot of time completing their school work by playing games. The
teachers are also fond of allowing the children to complete their work outside on the playground.

The students are remarkable. They have positive attitudes and are excited to learn and play. I have
never before seen such a well orchestrated environment. I would say that 90% of the code of
conduct is adhered to, things like respect for adults, your peers and manners are emphasised every
day. All the students cant be well behaved at all times and there for there are punishment and
reward systems in each class according to what system works most effectively for the teacher and
students. Mrs. Maree is fond of sending students out of her classroom to get time out so that they
can come back with a better attitude. She also has a marble system that she splits between a happy
and sad jar. When the students misbehave she removes marbles from the happy jar, placing them in
the sad jar and vice versa. When the happy jar is empty the whole classroom receives a
consequence. This technique worked brilliantly as she did not even have to say a word, just shake
the jar and the class goes silent.

In the time period that I attended the school they were given the following tasks:

1. Prepared reading
2. Dictation
3. English creative writing
4. Spelling/math test
5. Dr Seuss activity
6. Solar system activity
7. Rotations

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Most of the activities were given to the students earlier in the week before my observation and
there for they were in the completing phase when I had arrived. During the tie I spent observing the
teacher had applied all the learning styles mentioned earlier. She was present and willing to help
each student. She became a bit inpatient when activities took longer than expected but managed to
complete all the work required. The students were eager to participate and worked really hard to
impress their teacher and peers.

I enjoyed my visit to the school emensily. It was very interesting to see this manner of teaching yet
again. I personally think that this is the best way to teach children, meeting them on their level of
interest and keeping them interested through play. I cannot fault the teaching or give any advice on
how to better the teaching as it is already fun filled and interesting. I can say that I think it is
essential to plan a week ahead for your classes, being prepared makes things run smoothly and
keeps the teacher present.

Story behind the collage

The activities represented in the images are the following:

Rotations

This is an activity that takes place 30minutes every day. The learners are divided into groups of 3 to
complete the tasks. The Grade 3 teachers all get a turn to create the rotation activities. In this
particular rotation the children had to all complete the following activities:

1. Tangrams
2. Sequencing a story
3. Working with shapes
4. Math problems
5. Identifying parts of speech
6. Math board game
7. Writing a letter and comparing characters from Dr. Seuss
8. Word searches
9. Times tables
10. Filling in missing words

Each day each group gets assigned one of the above activities and then they continue with the next
activity every day. These activities take place outside, unless you require a desk to complete the
activity. The teacher walks around to oversee these activities and she offers assistance where
needed. The purpose of this activity is to reinforce basic skills that the students learn through playing
and having fun.

Solar system

This activity was given to the students a week prior to my observation, they were in the final phase
of completion. The students learned about the solar system and were required to build their own
model of it (solar system) at school. The students were given creative time to complete this task.
They were allowed access to the computers to do research or to look for examples. The students
could choose to work outside or inside the classroom and they were given the choice to work in
groups or complete the task individually. Again the teacher was present at all times.

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This activity allowed the children to learn about the solar system in a hands on approach, while
giving them the responsibility to create and complete the task by themselves.

Dr Seuss

The whole Grade three group focused on the Dr. Seuss series of books the whole term. They formed
all their work activities around this theme and as a fun way of ending off the theme they all created
their own hat. This was linked to the Cat in the hat book. The students were very excited. They were
told to create a hat that best describes them individually and to go all out with creativity. This
activity was a major success as it was used as a reward system for the students. They had all worked
really hard and could celebrate this as a group.

Collage

My poster is an A4 landscape design, unfortunately I have created it on another programme and

cannot insert it on a landscape page. The collage follows on the next page.

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