Group B - Student Observations
Abel Macias
Helena Cho
Jackie Bonventre
Jason Askegreen
In the classroom:
Noted, the students were just returning from recess, they took a while to calm themselves down. The students were in constant movement and not sitting in their chairs "properly," leaning over and almost laying in their chairs. The students spoke softly and uninterested when answering questions, yet when wanting something, they raised their voice above others. Seemingly unfocused, the students surprisingly were able to repeat directives and respond correctly. Most of the students were Hispanic, African-American, or Asian.
At recess:
At recess, the students seemed "touchy-feely": Always patting each other and rubbing elbows. The kids "hung-out" in groups in the average of about four, usually of the same ethnicity, but some mix. Few students walked alone, but when they did, they seemed lost. Same type gender groups were definitely the majority. The clothing included, for the boys, BIG baggy pants and long shirts despite the hot weather. Most clothes had an affiliation to some athletic team. All the guys wore Nikes or some other type of basketball shoe. The ladies wore similar clothing as well as a few dresses and skirts. Their hair was worn long and pulled back or braided with beads.
Their conversations included a lot of hand and body movement, flirting and slang. The topics ranged from school work, each other, families, TV shows, after school activities, and being late for class.
In conversation:
In interviews with the students, we discovered that students at O'Farrell had attitudes, were more racially mixed than other schools, were nice, active, liked to "hang-out", and enjoy the hands-on experiments in their science classes. Some of the five adjectives that were given by the students about other students were as follows: confident, stingy, smart, playful, aggressive, talkative, forward, nice, active (mentally and physically), loud, funny, and "gang wannabees." Some interests of O'Farrell students include the opposite sex, clothes, sports, paint ball, rap music, video games (Mortal Combat), hanging out with friends at the mall, field trips, and even some of their classes.
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