High school field observation

From the moment I walked into the art room, I immediately felt like I was back in high school. Though that was not long ago it seemed so far in the past until I walked through the doors of that room. Everything felt and looked the same. After taking it all in and settling in to observe all that was occurring around me I noticed how good the class was at what they were doing. This art class in particular was a jewelry making class. Though I had never taken jewelry before I was semi familiar with some of the concepts and tools they were using.

         The teacher seemed pretty warm to the idea of us being there to watch her, because she really knew what she was doing. The environment she taught in was a happy and easy going with music that the classroom liked to listen to. Her teaching style is something I would very much like to emulate. She made it so that her students all felt comfortable and confident with what they were doing in her class. In addition, she was very proud of her students and how good their pieces were. She was also a very hands on teacher who was always going from one student to the next to make sure everyone go the help they needed.

         Based on my readings thus far, one of my questions has been, why do teachers become teachers who clearly don’t want to be? Well my experience shadowing this teacher I found this not to be true what so every with her. She was clearly a teacher who wanted to be a teacher and was very good at it.

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Through my second observation I was able to get more insight into how the children interact with one another. In addition, I was able to see the children who were tentative listeners, and who the more problematic children where.

Having the opportunity to see what truly goes on in an average classroom without disrupting the flow of it is a rare opportunity that I was lucky to be a part of. Being there for the second time allowed me to not cause as much of a disturbance since the children became more used to my presence. Being there for the children in their classroom really allowed me to watch how the children learn and how they don’t and the teacher’s attitude and reaction to each situation.

This visit was very interesting for me to hear how the kids genuinely felt about me and how they reacted to me when I told them something. For example, Mrs. Sa’ad (the teacher) had me sit between two students who couldn’t stop arguing and while sitting between them and following her instructions about what to do with the two students, I found that one of the students had a hard time listening to me. This was eye opening to me to think about what I would have done as a child in their situation versus what they did. This experience was very helpful for me to be a part of because it allowed to get a very good insightful view into how the persevere me and change. Hopefully as I continue working in their classroom the children will start to respect me a little bit more and I can continue to get insight into their world.

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           The idea that not everyone can be a teacher is a very important one. I think the reading brings this idea across by talking about how not just everyone can walk off the streets and become a teacher. There is an old saying of “Those who can do, and those who can’t teach”. This idea is shown at the beginning of chapter nine. Not everyone should be a teacher just because they do not know what else they should be doing. People in many cases look down on teaching or think of it as a backup plan when in reality for as long as I can remember people have always said what a good teacher I would be. If this is the case, then why did everyone tell me I should pursue a backup plan job.

            Teaching should never be thought of as a backup plan. Teaching is something that many people want to do and are genuinely good at. The issue with teaching is that some people who do not do a good job at teaching ruin the reputation of good teachers. In many cases the bad is remembered more than the good which causes people to think that many teachers are genuinely bad and that they do not care. This chapter in the book establishes the fact the real and good teachers need to be hired and properly trained. If we use what this book discusses here, then I think the amount of people who can recall a bad teacher experience would drastically go down.