J.P. Elder Middle School
October 10th, 2018
The first thing I noticed about this school was its size. Considering the fact that this school was designed for the middle school level, it was huge! At this school I observed a seventh-grade social studies class. There was nothing striking about the appearance of the classroom as I walked in. The desks were in pairs and were all facing the Smart Board at the front of the room. The lighting was normal with no addition of lamps nor windows. The classroom had motivational posters, historic figures, maps, flags, and student work placed in a few areas around the room which added to the overall classroom environment. The atmosphere of the classroom was dull as the class was silent when I walked in.
Unfortunately, for this day in particular, there was no lesson being taught by the teacher. The students were assigned readings from their textbook and a worksheet to complete. They worked with their shoulder partners and talked quietly, asking questions every once in a while. The activity for this day was very student-centered as I noticed the teacher spent the majority of the class cleaning desks. She would at times, however, answer her student’s questions with other questions that led them to the answer rather than answer them directly, which I found effective in the sense that the students would be encouraging to think on deeper levels. On the other hand, she would also direct them back to the textbook; rather than answer their questions, she would tell them to reread a portion of the book. This is something that, as a student myself, find ineffective when learning new information. Reading a textbook is not the most exciting way to learn history, however, this could have been a once in a while type of activity.
An interesting aspect of the classroom I noticed was its visual organization methods. The teacher had nicely placed a calendar on the white board, unfortunately, nothing was written on it. I find that calendars are both beneficial to the students and the teacher but in this instance, because it was not in use, there was no significant effect. In addition to the unused calendar, the teacher had designated a space for class objectives on the board. She had labeled spaces to write the “date”, “today I will learn…”, “so that I can…”, and “I’ve got it when…” however, like the calendar, there was nothing written by them. Despite this, I found these methods of organization super beneficial. Both having a class calendar and learning objectives is something I want to implement in my future class. They hold both the teacher and the students accountable for what needs to be completed and are things I will keep in mind for when I have my own classroom.
In terms of discipline, I witnessed an interesting event. A girl walked into class about ten minutes late and the teacher immediately asked her where her pass was, and the girl quickly responded and said she did not have one. The teacher then asked, “are you out of dress code?” The girl did not respond, so the teacher then asked her to unzip her jacket – in front of the entire class. The girl was then sent out of the room and directed to the office as she was in violation of the dress code. This was something I have not seen before. The student was called out in front of her peers, however, class continued as normal once she left. I feel like there were better ways to confront this situation, such as speaking to the student in private – there is a possibility that the teacher does do this on a normal day, but today was an exception.
One connection between this observation and a topic we have discussed in lecture would be cooperative learning. The entire class, students were working with their shoulder partner to answer the questions from their worksheets. While the task itself was not necessarily difficult nor creative, the students still worked together to complete a common goal.
The second connection I made was with the established routine at the start of class. At the start of the second rotation, I noticed the students knew what to do right when they walked into the room. They went to the back of the class, grabbed their journals from their designated period’s bin, and went to their seats to begin their warm-up, which was already displayed on the smart board. I find that having a warm-up question on the board is an effective way to control the class prior to a lesson, and I believe that in this particular class, that was its only purpose.
The entire hour of class consisted of the students reading and answering questions. With this, the question I have after this observation is, to what extent is learning from a textbook actually effective? What ways can the words from a textbook be transformed so learning is more engaging and interesting?