Victoria Waller

Education 101
4/16/2014

School Observation II
While observing South Ripley School, I viewed many characteristics that made the school very
effective. These characteristics were an orderly school environment, a sense of purpose, a steady
emphasis on basic skills, and collegiality and a sense of community.
The first effective school characteristic I noticed was an orderly school environment. As I
walked in the front door the first day of my observation the school seemed very orderly and clean. The
white walls seamed to gleam. With in the last couple of years the school had been added on to, and the
Jr. High must have been a part of this add on. Although the children are a little noisy in the hallways
between classes, the teachers watch over them and keep them all moving. The students get a limited
amount of time to switch their books between classes. This time limit keeps the students moving and
out of trouble in the hallways. The students are not allowed to stop and stand in the entrances and exits
of the school. The office the strategically placed next to the entrance of the school to deter the students
from stalling. These points create an organized, clean school environment for the children to keep them
focused and ready to learn.
The second effective school characteristic I noticed was a sense of purpose. All of the
teachers, administrators, and staff refer to the students as great kids. One teacher mentioned that they
saw the school as an outlet for the children to escape their home lives. More then half of the children
who attend South Ripley live below then national poverty level.The South Ripley Schools are very
active in taking away the worries of the need for money and where their food is going to come from for
the children. This allows the students to be kids and enjoy school time. If a family is below the national
poverty level or just needs assistance they are offered free lunches and other things to release the stress
of finances. Classes start and end promptly which creates a comforting structure for the children. The

teachers are also very task oriented, but allow for self-expression. Support is free flowing from teacher
to student or vise-verse. All these examples lead to a great sense of purpose at South Ripley.
The third Characteristic of effective schools, the emphasis on basic skills, was prevalent at
South Ripley. The moment I walked in the teachers lunch room I noticed a big white magnetic dryerase board. This board recorded what the children had scored on the previous ISTEP in A B C D or F
letter grades. The board also recorded current grades on smaller proficiency tests given by the school
itself to see where the students needed a little help and on which basic skills. The teacher assistants use
this guide to aid the lower achieving students in an effort to raise their ISTEP scores. All of the students
have their core classes before lunch time. The core classes include a English grammar and reading,
math, science, and a history class. After lunch the children take their elective courses; however, if one
of the students is having trouble in one of the core classes they are placed into an aid class specializing
on the childs weakness. The teachers all find this system to be very effective. Although it might seem
that this system takes away from the teachers freedom to teach the way they want to, many of the
teachers reassured me this was not the case.
The fourth and last characteristic I would like to mention is collegiality and a sense of
community. The teachers lunchroom was full of teachers discussing teaching strategies. The ISTEP
chart aided these discussions. They discussed ways to draw on the students strengths in their
classrooms. The teachers and teacher aids all worked together warning each other when a certain child
needed help and in what area that student need the help the most. It was a pleasant atmosphere to be
included in.
Several philosophical orientations were used by the teachers of the 7th grade. The history teacher
used two main philosophical orientations, existentialism and progressivism. He used one main
psychological orientation, humanism. When the teacher was showing existentialism his goal was to
help his students become people who could exercise their freedom of choice and responsibility. While
completing their cross-word puzzles in class with their peers the students had a responsibility to

complete the puzzle to help themselves for their quest (longer then a quiz, but shorter then a test) the
next day. The role of the students was to develop a sense of independence to complete classwork, and
seek help if needed from their teacher or peers. Seeking help was one way the teacher was trying to
show his students how to solve problems. While reviewing multicultural religions; however, the
teaching philosophy changed to progressivism. The teacher asked history and government questions
focusing on famous people. To encourage the students to answer, the teacher tossed candy to the correct
answerer. This type of teaching reflects progressivism by encouraging the student to participate actively
and use inductive and deductive reasoning. The history teacher was very open to all the students
questions and comments. He allowed the children to be active and take initiative in solving their
problems, while still expecting them to listen while working to complete all their classwork. The
encouragement I felt throughout the history class reflected the teachers humanistic psychological
orientation as well. He respected every students answers and opinions. The teacher was a good guide to
making good choices in life. I very much enjoyed his classroom. It was a very good balance of student
active participation and development of listening skills.
This English grammar classroom, a map of which is at the end of this essay) is setup in a way
that all the students are facing the front of the room where the teacher, the projector screen, and the dry
erase board are positioned. This setting allows the teacher to lecture on her subject without the students
getting distracted. The wide rows between the students desks allow for easy observance by the teacher.
The teacher can easily glide between students checking their work and helping on homework. The
classroom arrangement is very consistent with English instructional goals and activities. This class is
taught mainly through lecture, and reinforcement of key ideas. All desks are faced forward for lecture,
and desks are spaced for easy reinforcement. The two high traffic areas include the front of the room
where the teacher lectures and the supply cabinet and book shelf is, and the rear of the room where the
door and computer learning centers are. These areas are spacial and clear of clutter. Since the students
desks are facing the front of the room the teacher has placed her desk there. The students desks are

therefore located in the center of the room so no matter where the teacher walks around the room she
can easily view all the students. All the supplies and books are easily accessible at the front of the room
in the supply cabinet or on the book shelf. The dry erase board and projector screen are very clean and
easily viewable for all the students to see for instruction. These things make the classroom have a good
arrangement. I can not think of anything that could improve this classrooms arrangement.
At South Ripley the students are ranked on how they preform in each class. For example: all the
eighth grade students are placed in a science class. Depending on how each student preformed in their
seventh grade science class, the eight grade science teacher can choose to place that student in one of
three different levels of science class for the students eighth grade year. The weaker student will be
placed in the lowest level of eight grade science, while the student who excelled in seventh grade
science will be placed in the higher science class. The same teacher will teacher each of the three levels
of eighth grade science and thus all of the eighth grade students. This system seems to be working very
well. South Ripley's standardized testing scores are increasing, and students seem to be content with the
levels at which they are being taught the various subjects.
I arranged an interview with three of South Ripley school's teachers on their lunch break. All
three have signed my observation form. I ask these three women multiple questions. The first question
was: what factors contributed to you teaching the subjects you teach?
A1:

A former teacher who had taught me in my youth had inspired me.

A2:

I have always had a love for children and math.

A3:

In my previous job I loved the teaching aspect, so I changed my career to reflect my love.
Next I asked: what do you enjoy most about teaching this curriculum? What do you enjoy least?

A1: They all three agreed that they love the freedom the get to choose and pick creative ideas and ways
to teach their separate subjects.
I then asked them: how do you select the content and skills to teach in you classes?

A1:

The common answer was as I had figured. The teachers all said that they start from the state

outlines. They take what the state says they have to teach, and the previous ISTEP scores of the
students and make a blueprint of what they need to teach. From there they use online materials and
methods of their own to plan their lessons. All the teachers also noted that they try to plan their lessons
at least a week in advance. This way if they are sick and have to call off the substitute that replaces
them has the lessons for that week. They included that they never want to plan to far ahead because if
the school gets called off for to many snow days they have wasted their time and have to rewrite their
plans. The principle encourages the teachers to always reflect on how each lesson they teach goes, and
how the students did on the test following the lessons. This allows the teachers to know if they need to
focus on something harder the next year or if more time can be spent on a different lesson.
Next I asked the teachers if they integrate other subjects into their programs. They told me that
the principle loves when they cross-curriculate, so they try to whenever possible. Science and math pair
up easily with word problems. English and history pair up with historical writing assignments.
The conversation then drifted to text books. I was surprised to hear that South Ripley Schools
has not integrated new textbooks into the school in several years. By next year the teachers and
students will not even be using the textbooks at all! They will instead be using tablets and chrome
books! The teachers will have to find material to teach from other sources such as the internet, or make
the material themselves. The three teachers looked and sounded prepared for this feat and even excited
about it. When I asked if they make their own decisions on what to teach they said yes and no. The
standards are predetermined, but how they teach these standards is where they can decide how and
what to teach.
The last question I got to ask before the bell rung was if the parents and professional
organizations participate in curriculum decisions. The teachers agreed that professional organizations
have never affected curriculum decisions, and parents rarely made any impact either. One of the
teachers did tell a story about when a parent that had a religious issue about a book their child was

reading for AR in an English class. The child was told not to read the book, but the book was not
removed from the library, because although this mother had a problem with the book the teachers at the
school and the other parents agreed the book should stay in the library. One last thought mentioned by
this teacher was that the English department teachers all get together and choose the books that will be
read by which grade each and every year.
During this observation I observed a lot of interesting ideas from the teachers I shadowed. It
was interesting to get the behind the scenes look at the government side of schools, the curriculum and
who chooses it, and how the curriculum is taught. I had a very pleasant experience at South Ripley Jr.
High.