Austin Classical Academy aka Vista Public Charter School demonstrates the qualities of a private school but more thorough and more about the students then I as a student who went to a private school during my 6th grade year, I use my personal experience to see how the difference is between my past and being in a classroom and observing a different environment then I have ever experience. On the school website, it states “Our priority is to cultivate a lifelong love of learning and virtuous character, We are able to achieve this by creating a rich learning environment while supplying the student with the foundations of a classical education within a 21st Century setting,”(Educational Philosophy).
Austin Classical Academy is for K-8th grade students and the school itself doesn’t seem to have very much material because of its size and budget. It has a total of 15 teachers and a little over 200 students. The teacher that I observed is teaching 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th grade students Reading and Writing class as well as 2 electives. I also learned that they have very little trouble with disciplinary actions with the students and what was really shocking to me was that the school administration doesn’t tolerate bullying at all, if bullying does happen, it is automatic expulsion. I also saw how the classrooms were small and very simple. From the outside, it is very difficult to find because it is behind a church and to get to the front door, it’s not where you would expect it to be. From the teacher I observe, she stated the students do extremely well on not only STARR exams but also the curriculum. The curriculum is very well thought out and extremely high on the standards for the students as a whole, from Latin to Singapore Mathematics, I see that the school sets the expectations for the students as high as possible.
Overall, I saw how the school itself may see to be a low-class on the outside and inside but when sitting in on a classroom and seeing how the school works, it’s through the heart of the students and teachers and how hard they work to be the best in their eyes. Learning Climate is the idea of teacher-student interactions at different levels such as, academic, personal and social (Borich, 2011). From what I saw in my observation, the relationships between teacher and student really recognizes the ideals of the 3 different levels of learning climate. The relevance to classroom instruction is that because as teachers, we can see how students are affected by academic, personal and social issues that may lead them to needing help.
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And in order to prevent the struggle for students, teachers should be able to establish somewhat of a relationship with each student to help the student/s with any obstacle they have no matter what the reason. Also, it helps students see how collaboration works with others whether if they are students or a teacher. The teacher that I observed was Ms. Abel who was teaching from 5-8th grade students, teaching Reading and Writing. The teacher was simple and quiet but well organized within her classroom as well as with her students.
Based on the Sign System for Observing the Dimension of Classroom Warmth and Control, she represented High warmth, but Low control and she is in the Quadrant C area. Ms. Abel shows similar behaviors that support the Quadrant C, for example she would frequent use rewards by watch YouTube on the projector in order to get the students to settle down and write the short stories. High task orientation was also represented because of the students having something to do every day for the time they are there. She seemed to let the students have full control and if needed, she would correct their disruptive behavior. Her classroom didn’t really have a balanced because of it being summer school and with students either being more disruptive or quieter, the research somewhat reinforces that the ideals that classrooms and how teachers teach their students are affected by institutional roles and expectations, individual personalities and dispositions and lastly, classroom climate(Borich, 2011, p.62).
All of these things work together to either show a well-organized and good behavior class or a disorganized and not well-behaved class. The significance of social environment that it has towards a classroom is that students use their social skills to communicate with one another whether it is for school work or just to make friends. The classroom is affected because each student has their own personality and sometimes they might not mix well together.
Based on Classroom Social Environment, for the 6th grade and the class was for Reading and Writing, overall that grade level was very rambunctious group and some of the students didn’t really mix well together. They would be all over the place and sometimes if needed, Ms. Abel would sit the student outside in the hallway where there were desks for students who misbehave who be separated from everyone else either to be calmed down or to separate the personalities that don’t mix. Based on the form, I saw well-define friction between the students as well with Ms. Abel.
All 6 of the students that were in the classroom were having difficulty getting along with one another. As well, they would tend to overpower one another with their frustration and not wanting to be there in the classroom. For example, one student was stating something about what the students had done similar with a different teacher and the students disagreed with that particular student and she had seemed to have had enough and she yell and outburst towards another student. Based on the research from Borich, “The greater the friction, the more time spent on classroom management and the less task oriented the classroom will be,” (Borich, 2011, p.76).
The research really was spot on with the classroom because the friction within the classroom I observed created hostility with the students as well with the teacher being in less control of what the students would be feeling and how they would be corrected by Ms. Abel but then would continue to cause friction with one another. It affected the classroom negatively because it leads to bad behavior from the students as well as frustration from Ms.Abel. Another thing that affected the classroom was the cliquishness, 2 students seem to be more isolated more so by choice and not by the teacher.
The other 4 students were closer towards one another. 2 girls were always chatting together and the 2 boys of the 4 would be laughing and more talkative with another. Of the two that were more isolated, the young boy would be more isolated than the other and the group would make themselves more distanced from the boy. Based on the research from Borich(2011), it states that if there is a high level of cliquishness, it would lead to off-task work and distracted especially when the students would collaborate with one another.
It affected the learning climate in a negative way because it would then lead to friction and as how the teacher had the formality of the class rules and the room itself. The last thing I saw was competitiveness, all 6 students would compete with one another to see who was right or wrong and this would lead to friction as well as cliquishness. For example, one student kept changing her answer in order to be correct before the other students so that she can be right, and all the other students would be wrong. Ms. Abel didn’t really acknowledge the competitiveness but didn’t ignore it either. She more so as used it in a way to get the students to participate in the activity.
Based on the research from Borich(2011), it states that competitiveness whether it is too much or too little, it is believed to lead to harm/damage to learning because of the constant repetitive cycle of competing within the students. Friction , cliquishness and competitiveness all collaborate with each other because of how they affect not only the classroom but as well as how the teacher is teaching and their expectations. Because I observed 5-8th grade Reading and Writing, I used my own experience from that time in my life. I don’t think I was a bad student but I definitely struggled because at first I was better at Math than Reading from 5th-7th grade. Once I got into high school, it switches from now me being good at English and worse in Math. What stood out to me was the curriculum at Austin Classical Academy because it reminded me of my high school.
At Manor New Technology High School, we did group work and combine History and English because they correlate with each other. We also had high expectations for each other because it was preparing students with the tactics to use when working with team members. What I learned about the teaching process is that teachers will do anything for their students. Ms. Abel, the teacher I observed said that when her students needed her, she would always stay after school for 3-4 hours until the student either understands or passes the STAAR.
I saw how Ms. Abel is loved and cared for my all her students because of how nice and kind she is and she cares for her students. One challenge I believed I will have is the impact on my students. I want to be able to show my students that I’m there to help with learning and give them an experience that they will never forget. I’ve never forgotten how my Government teacher, Ms. Young impacted me to not only be a teacher ,but to succeed in my school work but also in my adult life.
