THE FIELD OBSERVATION PACKET
Read through all the assignments and take notes during your observation visits. You will gather
information on more than one assignment during an observation. Then, using your notes answer the
questions for each assignment.

All assignments must be Word Process except the classroom diagram. ​Your detailed
responses to assignment questions must demonstrate careful analysis of the questions and the
observation information.
Questions responses must include detailed explanations and examples from the classroom
observation. All responses must be written as complete sentences.
Do not include the questions. ​ Use only the question numbers and include a reference to the
questions in the short essay response as demonstrated below:

● Assignment One - Question 1: What is your first impression of the classroom

environment?
● Response: The ​classroom environment​ is friendly and welcoming to the students and
seems a fun place to learn. The classroom is decorated with the students’ work,
interesting posters and the teacher shows respect to the students.
 
When it is time to submit the Field Observation Packet for grading:
print the cover page of the Field Observation Packet,
include all the observation assignments
include your Time Log and Cooperating Teacher Evaluations.

THE FIELD OBSERVATION ASSIGNMENTS

 
 
ASSIGNMENT #1 (Observation) 
 
1:​ ​My first impression of the classroom, walking in, was one of nostalgia. It feels like so long ago that I 
was in high school, but when I walked into that classroom, it felt like only yesterday. The classroom 
itself is designed in a way that could easily make it appear hostile and prison-like, with no windows, 
harsh lights, and rectangular shape created by cinder blocks. However, Mrs. Crouch has decorated 
the room with motivational posters, a birthday board with pictures of her current students on their 
birthdays, various student projects, and posters with pictures of her former classes. The desks are 
individually placed to face the front of the room, which has a projector and a large white board. Mrs. 
Crouch has written a schedule for each of her classes on the far left side of the whiteboard, with a 
brief overview of the lesson plan for each day of the week. The back of the classroom also has a large 
whiteboard. 
 
2:​ ​The AP statistics class in which I have spent the majority of my observation time is about a 50/50 
split of males and females. It appears to be primarily Caucasian, with a few scattered Asian and 

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Filipino students. There do not appear to be any physically challenged students, although there a 
student on the track team who wears a knee brace due to injury. There are a couple of Mormon 
students; one has discussed the mission he is going on when he graduates.   
 
3:​There are no posted class rules, but there is a poster with a Palo Verde High School code of 
conduct, which is an anagram of PRIDE. The letters stand for preparation, responsibility, integrity, 
discipline, and expectation. A rule that is not posted is that students must place their phones in an 
organizer on the back wall of the classroom. This is how Mrs. Crouch takes roll and it is how she 
ensures that students are not using their phones during class. 
 
4: ​Because I am observing a class comprised of highly motivated seniors, they can generally be 
expected to do well in class without having to follow a strict set of rules. Mrs. Crouch does have a 
reward system, however, for high test grades. Students who receive an A or a B on any test are called 
to the front of the room after Mrs. Crouch has graded their tests, and they get candy. They also do 
not have to complete the homework for the next section, as they have demonstrated mastery of the 
previous subject. This being an AP class, however, many of the students who get A's and B's study 
anyway, since they want to do well on the next test also. Mrs. Crouch does not use this system with 
her college prep class, because she feels they would take advantage of it and not benefit. 
 
ASSIGNMENT #2 (Classroom Layout): ​Use graph paper or drawing software to create an accurate overhead 
view, labeled drawing, of your assigned classroom. Then answer the questions below 
 

 
 

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1:​ ​The room seems to be designed in a reasonably efficient manner. All lessons are done at the front 
of the room on the whiteboard or the projector, so it makes sense for all the desks to be facing the 
front of the room. Mrs. Crouch's desk is placed in the upper right-hand side of the room, which gives 
her easy access to the white board and projector so she can easily stand up in front of the class to 
talk to them and get right back to her desk when she needs to. 
 
2:​ ​If I were to change anything about the physical arrangement of the room, I would move the 
organizer in which students place their phones to be by the door. This way, students could place their 
phones in it as soon as they walk in the door and grab it when they leave. It is currently across the 
room from the door, which causes a bit of chaos with all the students walking to it and walking away 
from it and getting back to their desks. 
 
 
ASSIGNMENT #3 (Instruction): ​Observe any instructional time in your assigned classroom, and record your 
observations when presented with the questions below:  
 
1:​ ​As noted before, the schedule is posted on the left side of the white board in the front of the room. 
Mrs. Crouch teaches seven individual classes, but only two subjects--College Prep and AP Statistics. 
The schedule on the board is split into College Prep and AP Stat, and under each column, the 
schedule gives a brief overview of the week's lessons and the homework for the week. Palo Verde 
works on a block schedule, so each class meets every other day.   
 
2: ​Mrs. Crouch gives every lesson as a whole class, but after the lesson, she often has the students 
work in small groups to complete assignments, and as they work together, she goes around the room 
to offer assistance. Students are also always welcome to come up to her at her desk to ask questions 
while they work. 
 
3:​ ​Mrs. Crouch's teaching style is very engaged. She likes to bring in real life experiences of her own, 
and she will ask students to bring in their own personal thoughts and experiences. She uses her 
hands a lot while teaching, and incorporates lots of visuals on the board, which is good for a math 
class. When applicable, she brings in hands-on activities for the class; for instance, when studying 
probability, she brought in dice and a deck of cards to practice. Mrs. Crouch primarily utilizes a direct 
teaching style, but does incorporate group activities from time to time. 
 
4: ​ ​When Mrs. Crouch teaches a lesson, she has notes projected in the front of the room for students 
to copy as she lectures. This form of note-taking appeals to visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners. 
Visual learners benefit from being able to see the notes on the white board, auditory learners benefit 
from hearing Mrs. Crouch discuss the notes, and kinesthetic learners benefit from the action of 
copying the notes down and practicing the problems discussed in the lesson. 
 
5:​ ​The students do seem engaged in the lessons presented; Mrs. Crouch makes a point of asking 
questions and calling on students during a lesson. During a lesson, almost all students can be seen 
looking at the front of the room and paying attention. Students frequently ask questions and bring 
their own thoughts and experiences to a lesson when applicable. Students in the AP class treat 
lessons more like open discussions and feel comfortable speaking up without raising their hand and 
waiting to be called on. This kind of environment invites students to learn and participate. 
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6:​ ​No students appear to be isolated from the rest of the class. Some students are quieter than 
others, but no one is ever left to work on their own during small group exercises. 
 
7: ​Transitions are typically quick and seamless in Mrs. Crouch's AP class. The College Prep class 
takes a bit more time to transition than the AP class, and requires a few more reminders to settle 
down. One transition that made me smile is one Mrs. Crouch used in her College Prep class one day; 
the morning announcements showed students and teachers around the school talking about what 
makes them happy, and after the announcements ended, Mrs. Crouch said, "You know what's going 
to make you happy today? Statistics!" and then proceeded with the lesson. When transitioning from a 
quiz to something else, Mrs. Crouch will give a warning a few minutes in advance telling students how 
much time they have left, and when time is up, she will have everyone turn their quizzes in. When all 
students are back in their seats, she will go on to the next part of class. 
 
8:​ ​Mrs. Crouch uses her words and a stern tone of voice when she needs to get her students' 
attention. She does not yell--in fact, her voice is quieter when she is getting her students' attention 
than when she is teaching. Considering the fact that AP students know better than to talk during a 
lesson or otherwise distract the class, this quick reminder is typically all that is needed. I have not yet 
witnessed any student behavior that required more action than a stern word from Mrs. Crouch. 
 
9:​ ​The AP class is well-behaved for the most part, and does not require much discipline. However, 
even these students are not always perfect. When one student was hanging out in the back of the 
classroom talking to another student during a lesson and distracting her, Mrs. Crouch called him out 
for it and had him move to a different seat in the front of the room. Such instances are rare, however, 
and most students do not need to be reminded to pay attention. This may be because the AP test is 
quickly approaching and students cannot afford to mess around during lessons. The biggest issue 
Mrs. Crouch faces is tardiness; sometimes students come in late, and they are chided for it, but Mrs. 
Crouch does not send them to the office for it because she does not want them to miss any more 
class time. 
 
10:​ ​Morning announcements occur first thing during the second period of the day. This takes up about 
5-10 minutes, a significant amount of class time that could be used to teach. However, it does 
provide valuable information to students and teachers about what is going on in the school everyday, 
so I feel it helps more than it hurts. Another policy that takes up some time is Mrs. Crouch's 
requirement that students place their phones in the organizer at the beginning of class. While this 
takes up time that could be used for instruction, it helps in the long run, because students are not 
distracted by their phones when they should be learning. 
 
ASSIGNMENT #4 (Culture): ​Using the questions below, carefully observe and evaluate the culture of the school.. 
Remember you are evaluating the school for its educational culture, place of learning, sense of safety, invitation 
for learning, promotion of self-actualization, development of values and socialization. 
 
Physical Characteristics: ​Look at the physical areas of the school to determine atmosphere, comfort, and 
feelings the school creates for students in the educational setting.  
 
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 1. ​Palo Verde is in a very green and probably wealthy area of Summerlin, and it is surrounded 
by nice neighborhoods and a community center. There is a bus area and drop-off area on one 
side of the school, and then there is a student and teacher parking lot on the other side. The 
parking lot is pretty big, in order to accommodate all the people that go to the school, and 
while most of the spots are not covered, some of them are. The building is very large; walking 
into the school, you enter a paved courtyard surrounded by different school buildings. There 
are many signs indicating that this is Palo Verde High School, and there are a couple of 
crosswalks leading from the side of the street the school is on to the other side. There are a 
surprising amount of trees and other landscaped areas, indicating that this school is 
well-funded. All in all, it is an attractive area. 
 
2.​ ​The entrance to the school is not particularly secure; anybody can just walk in the entrance 
to the courtyard, and from there, one can get into any of the classroom or administrative 
buildings. This could be a major security flaw, or it could simply be an indication that Palo 
Verde is in a nice, safe area and they have no need to be concerned about security threats. 
There do not seem to be many windows in the interior of the school, but because the hallways, 
stairways, and locker areas are mostly outside, this is not a big issue, as students and teachers 
still have plenty of sunlight and fresh air. The floors are covered in a thin carpet, and the 
lighting, while somewhat harsh, is adequate. Walls outside classrooms are covered in posters 
and school news and events. Classroom doors are wooden and have windows that peek into 
the classrooms, but all these windows I have seen are covered up with paper. It is unclear if 
this is school policy or the choice of individual teachers. 
 
 
Culture of the School: ​Read, listen and observe to determine the climate, values, and atmosphere within the 
school. 
 
1.​ ​The Palo Verde mascot is a panther, and the school colors are green and black. The 
school's mission statement is to prepare students to realize their academic, creative, 
emotional, physical, social, and career potentials as contributing members of society in a 
community of mutual respect. 
 
 
2. ​The staff in the front office is incredibly friendly and welcoming, and were very helpful to me 
when I came to visit. The office itself is very quiet, and the few students I saw in the front office 
were quiet and respectful. Outside the classroom, students do not really appear to interact 
with faculty, but the general relationships between students and faculty seem to be healthy 
enough. Faculty members appear in the morning announcements from time to time, and their 
interactions with the student news team seems positive. 
 
3.​ ​Students tend to congregate in the courtyard, which makes sense as this is the hub from 
which all areas of the school can be accessed. From what I have witnessed, students do not 
tend to linger in hallways, by the lockers, or in the parking lot. 
 
4.​ ​Administrative buildings are on the first floor of the school, and are accessed easily from 
courtyard after you have walked in the front entrance. Classrooms are on both the first and 
second floors. There is a great deal of outdoor space in the school; as mentioned before, the 
locker areas, stairways, and the majority of the hallways are outside in open air. The building is 
arranged, from what I can tell, in somewhat of an "H" shape; classrooms are on the exterior, 
and administrative rooms and the library are on the interior; the administrative building is on the 

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 first floor, while the library is on the second. The gym and theater are in separate buildings, not 
connected to the classrooms, but can also be accessed via the courtyard.   
 
5. ​The school shows pride through their morning announcements, which connects all the 
members of the school and keeps everyone updated on what is going on in the school 
everyday. In Mrs. Crouch's classroom, she has poster of the winter sports schedule, showing 
pride in school sports. The students in both the AP class and CP class seem pretty involved in 
school activities; in the classes I observe, there are members of JROTC, track and field, 
basketball, choir, and more. The halls outside the classrooms are also covered in posters 
advertising student events and motivational phrases. 
 
Culture of the Classroom: ​ ​Each classroom has its own culture and way of life. 
 
1. ​Mrs. Crouch has high expectations for her AP class; she treats them like adults and allows 
her students to make their own decisions about what their studying needs are. She expects her 
students to perform at a high level, and expects all her students to pass their AP exam, though she 
keeps giving encouraging reminders that getting a 3 on the AP exam is still a good score. 
 
2. ​While some students are definitely more active than others, most students seem to 
participate on some level. There are a handful of students that can always be expected to 
speak up when Mrs. Crouch asks a questions, and these students sit in the front to the middle 
of the room. However, Mrs. Crouch maintains an environment that encourages discussion and 
participation, and she does not call on students who do not want indicate they have something 
to say, avoiding putting anyone on the spot and making them uncomfortable.   
 
3. ​Mrs. Crouch has a good rapport with her students. She is a very laid-back teacher, though 
she still maintains an air of authority. She likes to joke with her students and bring in personal 
experiences to her lessons. The students seem to respect her and enjoy being in her class. 
Mrs. Crouch takes an interest in their personal lives, and cares about the things that matter to 
them; she asks about one Mormon student's mission, and about sports, and she brags that 
one of the students in her class was the school's Student of the Month one time, even though 
it was several months ago. One of the reasons she came back to teaching after ten years was 
because she felt the need to be a "mother" to other children, and her maternal instinct is clear 
in her interactions with her students. 
 
ASSIGNMENT #5 (Cooperating Teacher Interview): ​Arrange for a convenient time to interview your 
cooperating teacher. Ask the questions below. Include any school document, handouts, etc. the teacher 
provides..  
 
1:​ ​Mrs. Crouch became a teacher because she was coaching swimming at the time, and it was a 
natural transition. She decided to be a teacher after her junior year of college, and she feels this is her 
calling. This is what she loves, and she is good at it. She is a nurturing person, and loves to build 
relationships with students. 
 
2:​ ​The challenges Mrs. Crouch says she faces are that she is so busy she feels she can never catch 
her breath, she doesn't get paid very much, and that some students are not receptive to learning. 
 
3:​ ​Mrs. Crouch says the best part of being a teacher is the kids, and being able to mentor them. She 
loves math, and she wants to bring some joy of math to her students. She likes that everyday is 

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different, and that everyday is a challenge. She also enjoys the intellectual aspect of it, too, but says 
the least important part of her job is actually teaching math. 
 
4:​ ​In the beginning, Mrs. Crouch organizes students in alphabetical order, but switches seats each 
quarter. She does not care where students in her AP class sit, however, and by the fourth quarter, she 
says it doesn't really matter where anyone in any of her classes sits. Assigned seating is primarily for 
Mrs. Crouch to take roll more easily, and by the fourth quarter, she knows her students well enough to 
take roll without assigned seats. 
 
5:​ ​Both Mrs. Crouch and I were unclear about what is meant by the term "flexible groups." However, 
Mrs. Crouch tells me that she allows her students to pick their own groups when the lesson involves 
working in small groups. 
 
6:​ ​Mrs. Crouch does not interact with parents a great deal, now that she works mainly with seniors, 
but when she worked with freshmen, she called parents to introduce herself and talk about how the 
students are doing. By the time students are seniors, she says, the parents are pretty much checked 
out. She says some of the main interactions with parents are when she goes to school events; she 
says she goes to a Palo Verde event every week, whether it is a sports event or the school play. 
 
7:​ ​Mrs. Crouch says she tries to streamline grading as much as possible, and says it takes her about 
an hour a day to grade papers. She also has a few teacher assistants that help her grade papers. 
 
8: ​Mrs. Crouch says it take only a couple of hours to prepare her week's lessons. 
 
 
9:​ ​When making a lesson plan, Mrs. Crouch likes to have the schedule for the day broken down into 
sections so that if one section goes over the time limit she had allotted, she will cut down on the time 
she spends on other sections. 
 
10:​ ​Mrs. Crouch gives out candy when students get A's and B's, and when kids are doing well, they 
get to choose their seats, and she sometimes sends postcards or calls parents to tell them their kid is 
doing well. The behavioral consequences that are most effective at this age, Mrs. Crouch says, is 
talking to the kids, and having a relationship with them. She doesn't have a lot of behavioral problems 
in her classes, she claims, because she is very tolerant of organized chaos. When students are 
comfortable in the class, they will not act out. She has written one student up for threatening to shoot 
up the class, however. 
 
11:​ ​Mrs. Crouch says she is pretty much on her own when it comes to instructional planning. 
Specialist teachers are not particularly involved in this regard. 
 
12:​ ​Mrs. Crouch is evaluated 3 times a year, as she is a veteran teacher. Her performance is measured 
by the Nevada Performance Framework. 
 

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13: ​Mrs. Crouch says she has never had a bad evaluation, but says that if the evaluation is not 
favorable, the teacher will be given recommendations for improvements and given the chance to 
implement these changes. 
 
14:​ ​Mrs. Crouch says that what surprises her most about being a teacher is that there are so many 
facets of it, and so little of it is actually teaching a subject. 
 
 
 
ASSIGNMENT #6 (Observing a student): ​Discretely observe one student in your assigned classroom during 
direct instruction. Explain what the student did during the observation. Summarize the lesson given and the 
student’s responses to the lesson. Make sure to document ALL behavior in relationship to what was being 
presented by the classroom teacher. Please describe what you discovered about the student’s learning styles, 
involvement in class, and his/her educational needs. 
 
The student I decided to observe was one of the AP statistics students. She sits towards the middle 
of the room, in the fourth seat from the front in the third column from the end. During a lesson, she 
listens intently and takes notes in a well-loved spiral notebook. She usually keeps one leg on the seat 
of her chair; this seems to help her concentrate. While she is one of the less talkative students in the 
class, she remains engaged, and answers questions when called on. On one occasion, when Mrs. 
Crouch was asking her students what they thought of the reward system she had devised for the 
class, she called upon this student. According to Mrs. Crouch, this particular girl is one of the 
higher-achieving students in the class, which is why she asked for her input on the efficacy of the 
reward system. Here is a brief explanation of the reward system: when students get an A or a B on 
the last test, they are called to the front of the room to get candy, and they do not have to complete 
the assigned homework for the following section. The student I observed told Mrs. Crouch that while 
she likes the reward system, she does not always take advantage of the no-homework part. She likes 
to have the practice, so she usually picks out some problems from the homework and works on them 
so that she can be prepared for the next test. During a lecture about chi square, this student 
mentioned that she learned about chi square in her biology class, but it didn't make sense to her then. 
After Mrs. Crouch's lesson, she claimed, it all started to make sense. 
 
 
ASSIGNMENT #7 (Summary): ​Thoroughly summarize and reflect upon your entire 10 hour Field Observation. 
What did you observe, learn, realize about teachers, students, instruction, the school environment? How has this 
observation better prepared you to understand the teaching profession? How does the observation relate to the 
text information and class activities? What specific ideas on teaching will you remember to include in your 
classroom? 
  
This experience provided me with some valuable insight into the world of teaching. As I talked to Mrs. 
Crouch and watched her interact with her students, I realized that the most important part of the job is 
the relationships one builds with the students. From the classes I observed, I gathered that Palo 
Verde is a school with a great deal of community pride, and it seems like a positive environment for 
learning. I witnessed no negative interactions between students and faculty/staff, and perhaps it is 
because we are now in the final quarter of the school year, but the general student population seems 
happy and enthusiastic. While observing Mrs. Crouch, I recognized that her teaching style is based 
very much off of progressivism. She incorporates real-life experiences into her lessons whenever 
possible, and encourages her students to relate lessons to their own lives. I like how Mrs. Crouch 
utilizes a combination of direct and cooperative lesson planning; sometimes she lectures while having 
students copy notes, and other times she divides the class up into small groups and has them learn in 
that manner. This is a strategy I would like to utilize in my future career as a teacher; using a variety of 
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teaching methods keeps class fresh and is the best way to accommodate all students' needs. Mrs. 
Crouch employs several strategies to keep her students motivated and engaged, from candy and 
prizes to fun class activities that make math fun. Speaking as someone who has never liked math and 
dreaded going to math class, I am amazed at how enjoyable Mrs. Crouch's classes are. I believe the 
most valuable lesson I learned in my observations is that knowledge of content matter, while 
important, is not nearly as important as the teacher's ability to connect to his or her students. If one 
cannot reach one's students on a personal level, how can one expect them to be engaged in the 
lesson?  
 
 
Remember that before receiving the final grade for this EDU 202 course, the CSN student must submit 
the completed ​Field Observation Activities Packet​, ​Time Log​, and ​Student Evaluation​ to the CSN 
instructor for grading.  
 
The cooperating teacher must also email the instructor to confirm the successful completion of the 
observation. The student must also provide the CCSD cooperating teacher with their CSN professor’s 
email, so the cooperating teacher can send an email to verify that the student has successfully completed 
the 10 hours of observation.   
 
The instructor’s email is provided on the first page of this packet, and on the next page for the 
cooperating teacher.  

Remember that completion of the Field Observation is a PASS/FAIL component of the course. 

Remember to save this completed packet in digital form, and as a hard copy for the Education 
Department’s capstone course, (EDU 299) 
 
 
   

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