High School Observation

Observation #1

Mrs. Kirsty L. Horst

Life Skills at James Buchanan High School

Physical Arrangement: I arrived at Mrs. H’s classroom at the end of homeroom right before the bell rang for first period. The first thing I noticed was how large the room was. It was about twice the size of a normal classroom. On the front wall is a whiteboard that spans the whole length of the room. On the first section of the whiteboard near the door are the class calendar and large-print signs with the login information for Moodle and GoogleDocs. There are also two inspirational quote posters along with the notecards with the names of the ten students on it. On the last section of the whiteboard is three columns. The first column is Entertain with the short definition

The sewing center has three sewing machines sitting on students desks. There are an ironing board and iron in this corner of the room. Along the back wall is a workstation with the five desks set up in the shape of a W with blue chairs along each side. The American flag is also hung over the sewing center. In the back corner of the classroom behind the workstation desks is a small kitchen setup. The kitchen consists of a two-burner stove and oven with a sink. Next to the mock kitchen is a fridge. Along the back wall is the mock living room. In the living room area, there are a yellow flower print couch, a brown coffee table, and an end table with a lamp on it. Next to the mock living room is the reading center. In the reading center is two light blue beanbag chairs on a shag carpet which sits next to Mrs. H’s desk. Mrs. H’s desk is covered in folders, has a computer on it along with a filing cabinet. On the right side of the room is four floor to window cabinets with file boxes on top and playground equipment like jump ropes and balls. On the cabinets are the names of the ten students with their individual schedules laid out on notecards. In front of mock kitchen living room area is Mr. Smith’s desk that has one student desk next to it. In the center of the classroom is six sets of two people tables which serve as the student 's

H returns she explains that she is going to put the students in groups to do a graded worksheet on author’s purpose. Group one has three students with Student E, who has doing a animals studies project, Student K and Student A. Group two is Student M and Student S. In each group the student’s read the questions out loud and discuss which category it belongs under. The students then write the answer the group comes up with on their worksheet. After the worksheets are completed they switch to finishing the sewing unit. There is one student, Student A, that has to finish sewing her tote bag. The other students are shown the supplies they have to work with and are sent to look up pictures of t-shirt quilts they want to mimic for their final sewing