Class Observation UPIS Kinder (Reflection)

            Being a TEG major who enjoys the company of children, it is such a joy to go to UPIS K-2. The atmosphere is always light and colorful. The students are surprisingly well behaved as compared to students this age in other schools. The walls and windows scream happiness, color, shapes and rhymes. The students’ art projects covered the bulletin boards. It gives me a sense of happiness and relaxation. I do look forward to working in a place similar to this someday.

I would like to note that this wasn’t my first time to do an observation in this department and I’m sure that it wouldn’t be the last. I was able to observe in the same room (although it was a different class and teacher) last semester in my EDTEG101 under Teacher Yvette. Back then I had no idea of what framework they used for teaching as we were more focused on the general concepts of teaching in early grades.

Now, since this is my second time to watch how a class goes in UPIS K-2, there were a lot of things that I didn’t really get back then that makes a lot of sense now. Last semester I was wondering how on earth the teacher manages the class when there were three different groups doing different things at the same time. I was also wondering as to why they have to do different things anyway.  Aren’t they all kindergarten students who had basically the same needs and therefore the same activities should be required of them in the name of fairness and equality?

Apparently not.

What strikes me most in this observation is that even if they were doing different activities or worksheets from one another, they generally seem to be satisfied or maybe it would be better to say occupied with it since it is tailored to cater to their own pace. I learned that the groupings are according to the level of the students.

Even if they are in the same classroom, there will always be students who perform better than others. There are those who will be on the average. And there will be those who will need to catch up. The groupings of the students make the catching up possible without having to hinder the growth of the other students. Although they are all learning the same subject, they are given different questions or activities depending on their current level.

I would also like to point out that the groupings of the children are named after food instead of numbers or letters wherein it would have been easier to figure out that “Oh, this group is the fast learners. That one is …” . By using non ordinal names, the students wouldn’t be labeled which is something that we generally would like to avoid.

Aside from the groupings, something that really struck me in this observation is how good the teacher was in managing the class’ behavior. It was as if she had an army of ways to get them to listen and not wander about. She uses the story, songs, and many other things to subtly tune the behavior of the student whenever they get a little too energetic. It is remarkable how she maintained a smiling face while trying to get children to keep quiet or sit properly. I can’t help but think how different my own early education was in terms of discipline. I remember that it was more blunt and not so much subtle. I hope to learn such skills in classroom management someday.