Shadowing Pt 1

Today I went for my shadowing experience, and it was very interesting to say the least. I was about an hour late because my car broke down and I had to get towed before I made it there, but my teacher was very forgiving. When I got there at 10am, students were working on group projects which were venn diagrams based on the story they were reading. It was language arts, but the book was historical fiction (which I think was a good idea because he is a certified social studies teacher). The groups were spread around the room; a few groups were working on the diagrams, while some students did some research related the the project on the computers, and finally it seemed as if the last group was working on reading/sitting and not working on the project.

I made a few observations about the classroom. It was pretty large, the lighting was extremely bright, and the ceiling was very high. So even though there were many posters and students' projects were displayed around the classroom it still looked a little bare. It was clearly a history classroom since many of the posters had quotes about the subject and there were also many Time magazine covers around the room. There were also a few bookshelves that were stacked with books related to what their lessons were about (African American History and Ancient Egypt.)

There was also a student teacher present who pretty much kept to herself but walked around quietly helping students.

I noticed that there was a lot of noise coming from the groups, and when the teacher realized I was taking notes of the students, he came over and said "This is what I like to call organized chaos. The principal came in because there was noise and said he liked to hear the noise of progress." It was clear that most of the students were working on their assignment.

There were about eighteen students in the room; some came and left. The teacher said as advice, "Get a job in a school that doesn't have lockers." He had very good control over his students, but at some points they would take the liberty to leave the room when he wasn't looking or spend too much time at their lockers.

Around 10:30 he had the students clean up their desks to get ready for social studies. They went to their lockers if they needed to. From then until 11:15 they talked about Ancient Egypt and its geography. HOwever, before he started the lesson, he had to talk to the students about discipline, as many of them were not paying attention and were acting out. The lesson was very brief and simple; he wrote some notes on the board while going over a homework assignment. There were few students taking notes, and a few were not paying attention, although I'm not sure the teacher noticed. at 10:45 it was time for students to get back into their groups from before to work on maps they had been labeling and coloring in. Most students were talking but they were getting work done. It seemed as soon as the lesson began it was time for them to pack up their desks and get their books out for SSR (Silent Sustained Reading). I was surprised that in all the time I spent in a social studies class, only about half an hour was dedicated to that subject. So for around half an hour, the students either read their novels or wrote about them. There is a program called Read All About It where students write newspaper-style about their books. There was quiet chatter when the should have been reading and it was about five minutes before the teacher said anything. There were 2 students cleaning up in the back of the room, from the previous lesson, and they did not participate in SSR at all.

At 11:40 the students were told to clean up, and 5 mintues later they were dismissed for lunch.

[part 2 coming soon]