FIELD NOTES PAPER

Field Notes Paper



Field Notes Paper

Field Note 1: Connection to the Reading

In my field notes I wrote about two male students who were both sleeping in the classroom. One of the two students was sitting in the first row, right most corners. He is Caucasian. The other student was sitting in the last row and approximately center column of the room. He is an African American. Miss Rosemary noticed that both students were sleeping as she was handing out the worksheets. After she finished handing out the worksheets, she went to the African American student that was sleeping and asked him “Do you need a pencil to work on you worksheet?” The student said while still facing down towards the desk and his head resting on his arm, “no, I have one.” Miss Rosemary gave the student a little touch on his shoulder as she passed by and continued to help the other students. She did not make a second attempt to wake up the African American student. Miss Rosemary also did not make any attempts to get the Caucasian student to work on his worksheet. However, at the end of the class, when all the students were preparing to go over to the math lab session, Miss Rosemary woke up the Caucasian student and asked to him with a smile “You had a tough day didn't you?” then walked over to the math lab with the Caucasian student. The African American student did not show up to the math lab session.

As the students were working on the Khan Academy (An online academy teaching student math and several other subjects) half of the class, seven students in particular had opened their Facebook pages and YouTube as Miss Rosemary was helping one of the other students. After she was done helping the student, she was going around checking on all the other students. Three of the students quickly switched back to the Khan academy, she walked past one of the students and told him to get back to his work. Another student was using Facebook. However she simply walked past him and did not say anything. As she walked past one of the other students, she noticed he was watching a YouTube video. Miss Rosemary stood behind the student and watched the video for about thirty seconds then started talking to the student about the video. After a short conversation the student asked Miss Rosemary what they were supposed to work on and started his work. The student did not go back to using YouTube or any other website for the rest of the session.

Clearly Miss Rosemary shows distinct interactions with her various students. I believe these different treatments where a result of the different perceptions Miss Rosemary has of her students. These perceptions could be results of past behaviors, race, culture or other factors I have mentioned earlier. I will analyze similar and several other different situations from my field notes which will hopefully help me understand ...