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Field Observation Packet:

Cynthia Cunningham Elementary School

Sarah Marie B. Esguerra

College of Southern Nevada

EDU 201: Introduction to Elementary Education

Professor Susan Bridges

December 4, 2020
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CSN Education Department - Alternative Field Observation Activities Packet

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Greetings Future Educator,

One of the most rewarding aspects of EDU 201, 202, or 203 is the opportunity you’ll have to observe in a school
classroom where students are actively engaged in learning. Each of these three CSN courses require students to
complete a 10 hour "Field Observation" in a Clark County public school. If CDC Guidelines for Covid-19 prevent
you from physically attending a school campus during the current semester, this packet will offer the alternative
experiences required to satisfy your “Field Observation” requirements for this class virtually.

If possible to pair you with a cooperating CCSD teacher, your placement will be processed by CSN’s observation
coordinator, and you will receive details regarding your assigned school from your CSN professor. Only then, will
you contact the school and meet virtually with your assigned CCSD “cooperating teacher”. Both you and your
cooperating teacher will design a mutually agreeable schedule to complete your required contact hours once you
meet for the first time.

Within this packet, you will find the required field experience assignments that you must complete in order to pass
this class.

Your Name: Sarah Marie B. Esguerra

CSN Course: Elementary Education

Professor: Susan Bridges

Professor’s email: [email protected]

CCSD School: Cynthia Cunningham Elementary School

Cooperating Teacher: Nicole Baxter

Alternative Field Observation Packet © CSN Ed Department 2020

Field Observation Packet

Assignment #1 – (Culture)

Physical Characteristics: Look at a picture(s) of the school to determine atmosphere, comfort,

and feelings the school creates for students in the educational setting.

1. Consider the school property: building, grounds, fencing, equipment, landscaping, trees,
parking lot, crosswalks, gates, signs and symbols. Describe in detail. – Upon looking up for the
Cynthia Cunningham Elementary School online, I did not find any official website. I also
could not find any photos of the said school except for an aerial shot of its building. The
land around the structure does not have grass at all and looked like it was still being
renovated. It seemed like it is being renovated as there were construction pillars around it.
I could not really give any detail of the inside as well as I couldn’t find anything about the
school.
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2. Next, (if available) study the interior of the school: halls, floor coverings, lighting, doors,
windows, hall colors and decorations and entrance security. Explain in detail. – The exterior
and interior of the school are both not found online. Due to the pandemic, I cannot visit the
said school and did not find anything online like photos about it.

Culture of the School: Read, listen and/or observe to determine the climate, values, and
atmosphere within the school.

1: What are your first impressions of the school? Enrollment, graduation rate, proficiency rates,
student/teacher ratio etc. – Upon researching online, I found out that this school is in the
lower rank of Clark County school district. They are rated 2/10 as a whole school as per
greatschools.org. In the Nevada Accountability Portal website, for the school year of 2019-
2020, there are 1,796 enrolled students. Their graduation rate is 80%. Their proficiency
rate for Reading is 38%, which is lower than the State average of 49%, for Math is 25%
which is lower than the State average of 38%, and for Science is 3% which is below the
State average of 25%. The student and teacher ratio is 16:1. Their academic progress were
rated 3/10 and their test scores are 2/10, as per greatschools.org.

2: Please describe the student make-up of the school, including gender, ethnicity, students with
disabilities, ELL students, and any other attributes that are important to note you found. – The
biggest ethnicity are Hispanics with 47% of the whole school student population, Black
22%, White 14%, Asian 6%, Pacific Islander 2%, Native American 1%, and two or more
races 8%. The percentage of male students is more than half which is 52% while female
students are 48%. 8% of their student body are students with disabilities. I could not find
from the three websites anything about the number of students with disabilities in the
campus. The only information in regards to students with disabilities is the information of
suspension rates of students with disabilities which is 8%, lower than the State average of
15%. There is no information of ELL students. The school’s only top achievement is it
being part of the 20% top most diverse schools in the state of Nevada.

3. Explain the school’s mission/vision statements, motto, and mascot. – As per their website,
the school’s mission is to build life-long learners. The staff and students will work within
the campus full of respect for each other and instill passion for learning to reach their full
potentials. I believe the website heading includes the school motto which is “Committed to
respects, passionate for success!” And there was no information regarding a school mascot.

4. Examine school traditions, achievements and awards; community recognition or community

partners; extracurricular activities/clubs and athletics. Look for and document sources of
community pride and sense of identity through ceremonies, assemblies, trophies, and artifacts. –
These are all not found in the website. The website is not that efficient with information
and most are just listed. There are no photos of students, teachers, gatherings, the school
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campus itself—it is not that informative. It did not give much information for future
students. Parents will not be able to consider enrolling their child in this school because
there are no information available for them to research about.

5. Briefly describe three other pieces of information that can be found on your assigned school’s
website. – As I mentioned earlier, there is really nothing that can be found in the website
except the list of names of the staff, links for students to use, links for teachers to use, and
three FAQs. I wish there was more that was part of the website to be able to help
researchers like myself to understand their institution even more.

Culture of the Classroom: Each classroom has its own culture and way of life.

1. What are the teacher’s expectations for learning and success? – She did not mention any of
her expectations for learning. But as I observed the following days, when some of her
students won’t get to finish their assignments or activities during class, she would remind
them of their responsibilities as students. That they know how important it is for them to
do what is asked of them. She would also remind them of how they were before when
actual classes took place inside the classroom, that if they have any questions, they can
always speak up.

2. Evaluate the level of student participation in the class. Who participates? Who does not? –
Most of them participate, especially when the teacher calls them out. There are at least 2 to
3 who would initiate answering questions without being called out, the rest would just
recite when called.

3. Evaluate the interactions between teacher and students, rapport, cohesiveness, distribution of
power, teacher personality. – The teacher, in my opinion, did not sound or look enthusiastic
as she would perform her online classes. During these unusual way of teaching, I think it is
the job of the teacher to go over and beyond in reaching out to their students. By doing so,
teachers need to really be and offer more of themselves for students to be engaged. But
with what I observed, the teacher did not look happy at all whenever she would perform
her tasks in class. The students seem to and show respect to Ms. Baxter and she would
reciprocate towards them as well. Whenever there are breaks or after the class proper, a
student or two would share stories of their experiences, and Ms. Baxter would listen and
talk to the student when there is time before the next class. Ms. Baxter is in control as she is
the only teacher in their class, she does not give any power to other students due to the
online virtual schooling.

4. Observe student-to-student interactions, inside and outside of the class. Are they using any
chat features to communicate with each other? – Because they are first graders, I don’t think
they know how to use this feature. They would usually share more and interact more with
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Ms. Baxter than with their other classmates. There was one day when Ms. Baxter tried
breakout rooms, and students didn’t know what to do. Two of the girls talked to each other
trying to help each other out in spelling some words needed for their activity.

ASSIGNMENT #2 (Observations)
1: What are your first impressions of the virtual classroom environment? Is it warm, inviting,
organized, etc? Describe the virtual environment in detail. – It wasn’t at all. The angle of the
camera was like it was just placed in Ms. Baxter’s usual classroom table. She did not use
visuals on the board to engage learning. It wasn’t warming or inviting, which would have
helped in making the virtual class experience more bearable. Some of her teaching tools
were in a shelf far back so whenever she needed something, she still had to stand up and
walk a few steps and go back to her table which I think was wasted time. I would
appreciate it as a student if she even tried to put a bit of effort in making the virtual
classroom environment as if they were really inside the classroom, like posters and visuals
were seen every virtual class.

2: Please describe the student make-up of the class, including gender, ethnicity, ELL, students
with physical challenges, and any other apparent attributes that are important to note. – The class
was a mix of different ethnicities. There were (if I’m not mistaken) 4 to 5 Blacks, 3 to 4
Whites and 1 Asian. There were more girls in this class, or maybe the same number, I’m
not quite sure because attendance is not always perfect. Ms. Baxter mentioned that she had
French students for small groups but I don’t seem to recall if they would attend the whole
group classes. There were no students with disabilities for this school year, as Ms. Baxter
mentioned.

3: Are their posted class rules or course expectations? If rules/expectations are posted write them
exactly as they appear. – There were no class rules or course expectations. As I mentioned,
there were nothing visually seen or posted in the environment. Ms. Baxter would only
remind the class of their responsibilities like doing their activities and assignments.

4: Does the teacher enforce these posted rules/expectations? What rewards or consequences are
used for compliance or noncompliance? – When I interviewed her, she shared about a reward
system in her class. That when students are doing well inside, they get to choose what
task/job they can have inside the classroom. But now that the class is done virtually, she did
not have any rewards system or enforcement of these rules. She would just remind them
once in a while of their responsibilities of their requirements.

5: What is the posted daily/weekly schedule for different subjects or periods? – The teachers
would usually have like 15 minutes of preparation in the beginning of the day and then the
45 minute whole group would follow. After the first whole group of live ELA class, there is
a 10 minute break and would continue to the 45 minute Math whole group live. When
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Math class is over, there is a 5 minute transition before their Science/Health/SS

prerecorded and independent work for 25 minutes. This is followed by 30 minutes of lunch
break and rest of the day is consisted of small groups/independent work, specials and
Phonics, which all have 50 minutes each.

6: Do you see evidence of the school’s mission/vision statements in the virtual environment? – I
was able to observe the respect of the students to their teacher but with how Ms. Baxter
didn’t show or sound enthusiastic in teaching made me feel that she didn’t show that
respect back to her students. I did not feel the “passion” of the teacher but with the
students, I did observe some who seemed to thrive and enjoy the classes even though they
are now virtually done.

ASSIGNMENT #3 (Classroom Layout)

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1: Describe the workflow of the online environment. Is the space and time used efficiently? –
The workflow differed per day as there were different activities per day. I think it was used
well but Ms. Baxter would usually start 15 minutes after the official start of class. She says
it is to let everyone settle down or to wait for others who are late, but most of the time
almost all the students are in right away and I believe 15 minutes is too long for a waiting
time. Because of this, I believe the time was not used efficiently. Although, Ms. Baxter
would be able to finish most of the activities assigned for the day. She would always have
an activity wherein her students would need to write answers before leaving the class for a
break. This helps the students to participate in class and make sure they really do what is
expected of them to do. I believe the space
was not used efficiently. I strongly believe
that visuals play a big role in the engagement
of the students especially through virtual
learning. Ms. Baxter could have used more
visuals in teaching as she would only usually
use the camera when writing or screen
sharing the activity on the screen of her
monitor.

2: In your opinion, how can the virtual arrangement of the room be improved? – As I was
saying, visuals have a big role in engagement of students, especially now that everything is
done online. Having posters that encourage students to learn and get through these trying
times can help their mental state. Teachers could still use handmade posters and activities
that they can display in their backgrounds or use during activities so that there is a bit of
familiarities for the students. The use of cameras and writing in the usual book can be
boring, as well as screensharing the screen activity can be boring. If that was the case, the
students can do it at home then, without their teachers or classmates. I believe the old
activities in school can still be done but in a way that it is only delivered virtually. Another
suggestion I can give, especially for younger aged classes, the teacher can prepare materials
beforehand and ask the parents to pick these up in the campus in the beginning of the
semester or weekly. This can help students in using actual materials and objects that are
used for their classes and can see their teachers using the same ones. It can give them a
feeling of actualization and a familiarity of school activities but only done at home.

ASSIGNMENT #4 (Instruction)
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1: Is instruction delivered in small groups, centers, whole groups, individually? – The classes I
observed were mostly whole groups, as when I tried to observe small groups, most of the
students didn’t show up. The whole groups depended on the subject that was scheduled.
ELA is usually the first class and then followed by Math. There was one day wherein Ms.
Baxter tried to disperse her students into breakout rooms or small groups which she
honestly said it didn’t work because it wasn’t effective for a younger aged group.

2: Describe your cooperating teacher’s teaching style. – Ms. Baxter was quite organized as she
had all activities set up before class. Although she is organized, I did not like her way of
delivering her teaching style. As I mentioned earlier, students in the virtual environment
need more enthusiasm to enjoy their virtual learning experience. Ms. Baxter would usually
go right straight to the activity or continue an activity they did the day before. In my
opinion, introductions in the beginning like acknowledging everyone and saying good
morning, sharing one word they feel, or laying out the plans for the day, can actually make
a difference for the students. She then would end the class with an activity where the
students would usually write down their answers to a questions before they move to their
10 minute break. I thought of this as effective as not all students had the same pace in
answering and writing. This is a perfect way to make sure the students can do the activity
on their own without help and time pressure. In a way, when a student finishes earlier, they
are rewarded with more time to rest before the next class.

3: How does the teacher incorporate the sensory modalities (learning styles)? Give examples. – I
wasn’t able to observe how she gave importance to the different learning styles of the
students. Although it could really be challenging for educators to do so during the virtual
learning environment. But I believe she could have still used these learning styles in a way
to mix up the activities done in class. Because she repeated the same activity of discussing
the topic and then going straight to answering or activities, it became boring and
redundant. I wish she used the different learning styles like kinetic movements, musical
learning and again, visual learning as well. I think she was not able to use or maximize how
the students can be learning more and in a more exciting way as well.

4: Do the students seem engaged in the lesson(s) presented? Please explain. – Not all the
students seemed engaged. I remember in the first few days of observing, there was even a
student who feel asleep and was just removed in the Google Classroom. 2 to 3 students
would interact in the class activities while the others would just listen or would have a hard
time staying still and would keep moving around.

5: Are there any students isolated or not present/participating in the class? Explain? – All of the
students were usually part of the class. None of them were isolated or stopped to
participate, rather they encouraged to answer questions by being called out to answer some
questions.
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6: How does the teacher handle absences from the class? – She really didn’t mention how but I
believe she would use the small groups for the student who was absent to catch up or to be
able to finish what he/she needs to do.

7: How does the teacher handle transitions from subject to subject or activity to activity? Are the
transitions efficient? – Because we had technical issues, I would stay on with Ms. Baxter up
until the next class. She would usually eat breakfast during the break. When a student
would come in too early, she would instruct them to come back after a few minutes again.
She would also remind some of her students to log off when they forget to leave for a break.
The transitions for me could have helped the students to kind of recharge and remove their
eyes off the screen for a few minutes. Some would use this time to share stories with Ms.
Baxter too.

8: List ways the teacher uses “attention getting” commands, word phrases, signals, etc. Are they
effective? – She would just usually call out their names to get their attention. She didn’t use
any hand signals or anything that was unique for them to enjoy using. I think because the
students are so used to Ms. Baxter’s way of disciplining, it continued in the visual
environment. So the way she calls their attention with the use of their names are still
effective and the students do focus and work when being called.

9: What specific behavior issues does the teacher have to deal with? How does the teacher
handle the behavior issues? Be specific. – Ms. Baxter control over muting the student’s
Google Classroom, so this is one way she handles issues of students who forget to turn their
mics off and unnecessary talking is heard by the whole class. Most of the behavior issues I
observed is the students being restless during class and would walk around their houses.
Ms. Baxter would usually just let them do what they want. She doesn’t really pressure
them to stay in place. When the activity would require the students to participate, that’s
when she calls their attention to answer and be part of the discussion.

10: Are there any policies or procedures that help or hinder instructional time? Please explain
them and how they help or hinder instructional time. – I don’t recall any policies or
procedures that Ms. Baxter used inside her virtual classroom.

ASSIGNMENT #5 (Observing a student)

1: What drove you to choose this student? I chose Jiyanne Mendoza. It drove me to choose
her because of the fact that she is the most active one in class, as well as her race being a
Filipina like myself. Ever since the first day of my observations up until the last, Jiyanne
would be the only student who would really participate by raising her hand when Ms.
Baxter would ask a question to the whole classroom. She seemed enthusiastic about class
and enjoyed learning.
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2: Explain what the student did during the observation. It was during Math class and the class
was doing simple addition and counting using their hands. Jiyanne was one of the students
who was confidently raising her hand to answer Ms. Baxter’s question of 4 + 4. Even
though she knows answers, she would excitedly raise her hand to answer and patiently wait
to be called before unmuting herself and answering out loud.

3. Summarize the lesson given and the student’s responses to the lesson. It was a Math
discussion of simple addition and Ms. Baxter was using her hands to count. The activity
was from the book and it was a word problem. Ms. Baxter used the strategy of using the
fingers to count. She also used drawings to represent the numbers in each side of the
square. When Ms. Baxter was writing in her end, Jiyanne was doing the same in her own
book. This made it easier for Jiyanne to find the answer as she was following along Ms.
Baxter’s explanation and strategies.

4. Make sure to document ALL behavior in relationship to what was being presented by the
classroom teacher. Here are the screenshots of the activity and what Jiyanne was doing
during the activity:
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* Jiyanne is seen writing together with Ms. Baxter in her own book.

* Jiyanne is seen patiently raising her hand to answer the question in their activity.

5. Please describe what you discovered about the student’s learning styles, involvement in class,
and his/her educational needs. I discovered that could be a visual learner as she used her
actual book to follow through Ms. Baxter’s activity. She is very involved in class and was
always on time and always present in school. She is one of the participative students in the
class and is not afraid to ask questions. She also answers questions or activities on her own
and are most of the time on point and correct.

ASSIGNMENT #6 (Cooperating Teacher Interview)

1: What was the primary reason you became a teacher? The main reason she became a teacher
was that she wants to help gifted students to be able to use their skills in the proper way.
Her schooling experience when she was young helped build her passion for teaching as she
didn’t want students to experience what she experienced. She said that when she was
young, she wasn’t encouraged that much which resulted to just average results in school.
She wishes to change this and help students reach their best potentials.

2: What are the main challenges you face as a teacher? Her main challenges as a teacher is
talking to parents and making sure that she only works in her contracted time. That is her
motto that when she doesn’t get to do finish something in her contracted time, it is not
worth doing.
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3: What is the best part of being a teacher? Having 22 kids telling they love you every day.
Getting to see their growth and physically seeing in their faces when they understand
something. Because of this, she does see and realize the difference she is making in the lives
of the children.

4: How do you determine where students sit in class? She does flexible seating. She makes the
expectation that the students can sit anywhere they want as long as they get to do their
work, it is fine with her. If they are not doing their work, that is when she directs where the
student should sit.

5: How do you select members of any flexible groups? She bases it in the first week of
instruction. She then groups the students depending on their interactions and first tests in
each subject.

6: How often do you interact with parents in person? What are the main reasons for interactions
with parents? In person, she would interact with parents most of the time because they pick
up their children. And it would always be small talk and she would always invite parents
for small groups or small activities that they can do with the class. Now during virtual
instruction, she would only meet them when she brings out and distributes some supplies.

7: How much grading do you complete on a daily/weekly basis? With Clark County, the
teachers are required to have one grading a week per subject. It depends on the week and
the subject. The grading is easier when you get more used to it. She uses charts and excel.

8: How long does it take to prepare lessons for the day/week? She got lucky in the grade level
she got because everything is shared within the grade level. She created the writing lesson
plans while the Math, Reading and Phonics have been purchased. The base for all the
lesson plans and long range plans are shared and all other teachers created their own
specific subject target.

9: What procedures or strategies do you use to maximize instructional time? Good classroom
management. She doesn’t really teach in the first 3 weeks of school as she focuses much on
classroom management. Her lessons are engaging and expectations are set up high and
results to students helping disciplining others instead of her doing it. Organization is very
important for her classroom management. She has two baskets that have two subject
matters and when the students see the color of the basket, they know what subject it is.

10: What positive reinforcements have you used successfully? What behavioral consequences
seem most effective with this age group? The students love their classroom jobs. The team
leaders are in charge of the members of their team. When you misbehave, you lose your
job. This is the consequence as they really love their classroom roles. They also have
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classroom parties as a reward when they all do well in school. When a student misbehaves,
he or she doesn’t get to join in the group activity.

11: How are specialist teachers involved in your instructional planning and process? They are
really not. There is not much co-teaching here in the school.

12: How often are you evaluated, and what measurement tool is used by the administration for
determining your teaching performance? She has 3 times of being officially observed. There
are a lot of pop-ins as well. When there are special observers in the school, they usually
come in the classroom to observe. They use the NEPF Teachers Standards. For the online
classes, all observations are now scheduled and the observer is expected to be in the virtual
class.

13: What consequences are there if your evaluation is not favorable? During her first year of
teaching and because it wasn’t that good, her principal made it into an informal
observation instead. The principal also used this to give tips and suggestions for her to
improve. After a month, she was observed again. If by the end of the year and you still
don’t improve and the appropriate score in the standards, you go back in being in
probation. When you’re on probation, you get evaluated more along the year and you are
under mentoring.

14: What surprised you most about teaching as a profession? How teaching is unappreciated.
Her grandma was a teacher and she didn’t know that a lot of people don’t appreciate
teachers and the fact that there is free education.

15: What drives their lesson plans? What standards do teachers use during lesson planning? That
she needs to teach the standards. She uses the program Ready. She tries to cross teach
subjects to help students experience holistic learning.

16: If they are teaching at a Nevada Charter school, are there lessons prescribed from core
standards or from other resources? She is not that familiar with Nevada Charter schools.

17. How do you accommodate ELL, GATE, General Ed and Special Education students? With
her ELL students, she uses a lot of ELL strategies like whole brain teaching and total
physical response. It helps the students to learn the vocabulary. She also teaches bilingually
especially to the Spanish speaking students. She gives her students symbols like when her
students don’t understand so she knows when she needs to help them out more. She just
goes based on her Special Education students’ IEP. She doesn’t have any GATE students.

ASSIGNMENT #7 (Summary)
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I realized that virtual learning is very challenging especially for the younger age group. But
even though we are going through tough times, children still see happiness and hope in
their everyday interactions with their teachers and friends. That children are adaptive and
that they will still strive to learning because they are beings who long for knowledge and
learning.

I also saw and observed how teachers are the core of the classroom. That the tone of their
voice, their body movement and how they interact with their students really is the building
blocks of the classroom vibe and success. I also appreciate teachers even more now
especially now that they are hurdling even more challenges through this online teaching
platform. They went through a lot of stress to be able to still achieve the best way for
students to keep learning amidst the global pandemic. When you thought teachers can go
above and beyond of their services, they prove everyone wrong by coming out of these
challenges with their chins up high.

In the end of the day, the joy of seeing children achieve the everyday activities, even if they
are simple or challenging, inside the actual or virtual classroom, is enough to make
teachers feel that they have achieved in this profession. Being able to change lives through
education and learning is the best way to help the society and the world, for knowledge is
power and teachers are keys for children to have this power to be used well and right.
Kudos and cheers to all the virtual teaching educators, you are truly the heroes of 2020!