I have been observing in a third grade classroom and while in the classroom, I noticed many different things. The first thing I noticed is that the students used hand signals if they needed different things in the classroom such as they would cross two fingers if they needed to go to the bathroom. I found this very helpful because they were not interrupting the whole class to ask the teacher. She could just look up from what she was doing and tell the student yes or no. I noticed that in the classroom there is a wide diversity of students. The classroom has three ESOL students and two of them speak English really well. The third one is a new student and even though she can read and write in English she has a hard time answering questions that are asked of her. The teacher feels that she just does not have the vocabulary needed to answer the questions and plans to work more with her on increasing her vocabulary. The first day I was in the classroom, they were at a program for gun safety and what you should do if you ever saw one. I found this to be a little much for third graders to handle but the school is located in a lower socioeconomic area. I feel they do this because it is common for bad things to happen in that area. As a parent, I am not sure this is something I would want my children to attend. I feel this is something I should be talking to them about.
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