Observation 1
This week everyone in SED 363 at LVC started their weekly field observations at Palmyra HS. The nice thing about being placed at the same school as your professor, is we get to move around, and by the end of the semester will have observed a variety of social studies classes.
Wednesday, I begrudgingly agreed to sit through an economics class, because I knew I was going to see at least one this semester, and figured I may as well get it over with early. Instead of hating the class and reliving the worst class of my senior year of high school, I found the opposite to be true. The teacher not only had the students engaged, but also gave worksheets to those of us who were observing. Going over the same work as students is honestly one of my favorite things to do when I’m observing a class. I have had several field placements where I just sat at the back of the room, and watched the students do work…I really disliked those days. When I get worksheets, not only do I see what the students are currently learning, I also usually attempt to fill them out and see how well I know or remember the material.
Enough about worksheets…this class was nothing like I expected. The teacher balanced independent work, with discussion, and had the student wanting to learn about supply and demand curves. When talking to him, the teacher told us the “secret” to his success: applicability. When reviewing the material, he would create relevant examples, and reference anything from sports to movies, if it would help the students learn. Observing this class really helped show me how the teacher makes the class. If the teacher acts like he/she doesn’t care about the subject, the students aren’t going to want to learn it.
The second class I observed was a government class. This class was learning about the early history of the American government, and why America broke away from England. While the students in this class seemed interested, I didn’t think they seemed as engaged as some of peers in the economics class. This teacher also made the effort to make the material applicable, but for some reason, his class just didn’t feel as engaging as the economics class. However, it was still interesting to see the varying degrees to which teachers will incorporate different topics that are relevant, and students will relate to.
On Friday, I went to Palmyra anticipating another day of observation. However, on the drive over, my carpool buddy and I noticed there were a lot of school aged people walking around, looking like they were heading home. After a quick look online (what would we do without smartphones?) I saw that the school had a half day. So we stopped in, said hi to our teacher so she knew we made the effort to go out there, and then were faced with the decision of what to do with these two extra hours on a nice Friday. I think this really shows what it’s like to be a teacher, because you can plan all you want, and take the time to make sure everything looks right, but stuff comes up, and sometimes you have extra time to fill. We chose to go to Chocolate World, and the Hershey/ Dauphin County Historical Society, but in the classroom, the decision would be more of “do I move onto the next part of the lesson, or review so much it’s like I’m beating a dead horse?”
