Middle School Observation by Elizabeth Johnson

ej494727 — 2023-11-17 18:35:17 UTC

I observed at Robinson middle school on 10/20/23. During this time I was able to observe seven teachers.

Here is what I learned, witnessed, and thought...

1st Hour

ej494727 — 2023-12-08 18:39:59 UTC

This class period had only five students. I believe that this class was just a homeroom style start to the day. Each child had a certain number of online assignments due before the bell. The teacher did a really good job of walking around and helping the students, however, it seemed as though the second he would walk away from them the students would stop working. At the end of this very short period each student got to pick out a piece of candy for completing some of the work. I didn't personally feel as though this teacher was super involved with each student, nor did it seem as though any of them had a close relationship. He definitely had the appearance of "here to get a check" and that was all. I did like that he allowed one of the students to sit by herself as she said that she was having trouble focusing with the other kids making noise.

Start of the day!

ej494727 — 2023-12-08 18:42:37 UTC

As I walked into the office of the middle school, I noticed a lot of movement and activity. I had scheduled to observe at the end of a nine weeks without knowing it. Each end of the nine weeks there is an Honor Roll march through the halls! This nine weeks they had so many kids on the honor roll that they could only allow two kids per class to march through the halls. The principal was all dressed up with school spirit items and led the march with the marching band. All of the other students and staff were out in the hallways cheering and clapping for everyone. It was really neat to see how excited everyone was!

3rd Hour

ej494727 — 2023-12-08 18:49:58 UTC

This teacher did such an amazing job! This was the fullest classroom I observed in and Mr. Downing kept their attention so well! I was super shocked when I walked in. Mr. Downing was very soft spoken and much smaller than most of the students he was teaching. I noticed that he had a specific handshake with each student as they walked into the room, and he had something specific to talk about with each student. I really enjoyed watching all of the different interactions as they entered the room. This class was learning about making claims with reasoning and having evidence for them. To teach this he was asking the class if Lightning McQueen, the car from the movie Cars, should have life insurance or car insurance. To make this decision he showed them several clips from the Cars universe showing how the cars are "lifelike". They then had to make their choice, defend it, and explain it.

During this class he also announced who the student of the week was! It was super exciting to see how they all waited hopefully to see who he was going to pick. The winner got a little goodie bag of candy and half the class was mad because he "always picks a girl". The winner said, "he always picks a good student" and it was really comical.

5th Hour

ej494727 — 2023-12-08 19:02:45 UTC

The second to last class that I observed was a special education class. This teacher only had two students this hour and could not seem less interested in teaching them. While I was in the room she only interacted with one of the students and let the other one walk in and out of the room several times, lay on the tables, throw a ball across the room (many times), and talk over her most of the time. I was waiting for her to at least acknowledge him and address him just to say hello, or even to ask if she could help him in any way, but she never did. This tells me that he either does this all the time and she just lets him do it, thinking that she can't help at all, or I just caught them both on a bad day. I was really disappointed in the way she handled the situation. I was hoping to learn a way to address this kind of a problem, but I did not.

Overall

ej494727 — 2023-12-08 19:15:35 UTC

Something that I thought was INSANE during my observation was the fact that none of the classroom I was in used paper or pencil! They even had posters on the walls reminding students which way a paper was supposed to go when writing on it. Each classroom used technology in some form or another, most used iPads, but a couple used laptops. This was also the largest school I have ever seen, with over three floors, and at least 60 teachers. It was very clear in walking down the hallway which teachers were respected by students and which ones were not. Several teachers had a line of students waiting to greet them in between passing periods and before and after lunch.