Hannah Parish-- Henry North

I am placed in a 4th grade class room at Henry North Elementary. The classroom that I am in is a bit different from a traditional classroom style, as there are a total of three classes in the one room. The room is divided into three sections and my class is in a little cove in the back of the room. There are about 22 students and about half of them are English language learners. The English language learners are constantly being taken out of the class to go to the second language teacher, which causes chaos as we have to catch the students up on what they missed. Many of the students are below grade level in most subjects. The students are very chatty and some students have a difficult time respecting authority. The students stay at their desks the whole time they are in the classroom so that they do not distract the students in the other classes. My mentor teacher teachers from the front of the classroom at her desk. Most of their lessons are done on the elmo. My mentor teacher does majority of the talking, and she expects the students to only talk if she asks questions. This, however, does not always occur. Due to the restrictions of the classroom, the students are not given many learning experiences as my mentor teacher hoped. She has said many times that the only way she found worked, was to teach to them as they remain at their desks silent. I admire how she keeps her students in line and under control, however, I wish that they were allowed to actively participate in the learning process, rather than staring a whiteboard.