Feburary 24, 2011

While at the middle school yesterday I was more involved in the class. It was a lot of fun. Towards the end of class the teacher seperated the kids into three goups. One of those groups I got to lead. I worked through the worksheet with them and helped them to understand what they were doing. This helped me to interact with them individually. I enjoyed listening to them speak their opinions on the subject they were learning.

Feburary 10, 2011

1. Yesterday I went back to the middle school to help in the history class. While I was there I was able to witness an observation. One of the principals came to observe the teacher while she taught. This made one of the teachers very nervous and flustered. But I thought she did a good job. Another thing I noticed was a procedure that the head teacher uses to silence the class. When the students were talking to much and she wanted their attention, she would raise her hand and say, "When the hand goes up, the mouth stays shut." This was very affective as it made all the students be quiet and pay attention.

2. The new tardy policy that was put in place on Wednesday has its drawbacks, such as students missing their classes. However, with this policy only being in place for a three days it is already showing its effectiveness. Students are arriving promptly to class for fear of going to ISS. Also, with the addition of an ISS to the students record they would not be able to exempt finals this semester. This provides great motivation for students to not be tardy. Although I do think it would be to the administrations advantage to allow for viable excuses from students who are not usually tardy as there are some situations that are unavoidable and it is a huge inconvenience to miss class especially when they are AP classes.

Feburary 3, 2011

I was not able to go to my class last Thursday, but I do remember some of the procedures the teacher has in place. When the students first enter the room they are supposed to get there homework out. After the teacher collects all the homework the students write in their planner if there is a test and the teacher goes around and circles it and adds her initials. This means the students must get their parents initials to show that the parents are aware that their child has a test coming up. Then the teacher has the class as normal discussing whatever topic they are on. Also sometimes at the end of the class she will give each student a question and they must turn in this slip with the correct answer be fore they can leave class. This helps to make sure the student is paying attention to the lecture and learning the needed material. The way she allows them to get a book is she has a different continent name for each table and when she calls that name, that table may go grab a book from the shelf. I'm sure there are many more procedures but that is all I remember. Another procedure she might have is how they may go to the bathroom.