Field Experience Week 1 (Week 4)

 

• Week 4 Classroom Climate and Culture

Name: Sydney Bauman

Date of field experiences reported: 9/12-9/16

Time spent: 8:22-9:57 A.M.

• Sequence of Events.

Both periods start with attendance. Then the class begins working on their homework from previous lessons, or my mentor teacher begins with instruction. During the period, students are disengaged, with only a handful answering questions. My mentor teacher constantly reprimands students for having their hoods up, earbuds in, Chromebooks open, heads down, phones on, and not writing notes. The students are disrespectful and when reprimanded, nine times out of ten, they continue to do whatever it is they were called out for.

• Elaboration of One or Two Significant Episodes. 

9/14/22

One student, in period two, that is Analytical Algebra, had their Chromebook open, headphones on, and hood up when the teacher was trying to begin class. The teacher told him to take his hood off. He did not respond. She said it again. He still did not respond. The third time she said something, he responded with "huh." He was unable to hear the teacher because his headphones were hidden underneath his hood. He took them off for a short period of time and then went right back to what he was doing. This was distracting to the whole class.

9/15/22

The Analytical Algebra class has been working on substitution and elimination with two variables. The Algebra 2 class has been working on elimination with three variables. After going over a problem or two in the Analytical Algebra class, the teacher asked for feedback from her students. She did this by asking them to put their thumbs up if they felt good about the lesson, thumbs in the middle if they felt in the middle, and thumbs down if they did not feel good about the lesson. This is a quick and simple way to get feedback from your students throughout the class period. Then the teacher continued by asking what she could do for them in order to help them with the lesson. A few of the students mentioned going through the problems step by step. Since the teacher has been doing this, her answer back to them consisted of saying that this is something she has been doing. The reaction of the students to this answer was definitely not their approval.

• Analysis of Episode(s).

9/14/22

I am unaware of how the student-teacher relationship was prior to my arrival at the high school, but since I have been there, the student has shown no interest in being there and no respect for the teacher. The student may have the feeling that nobody cares about him or there could have been prior instances between him and the teacher that have brought on this attitude he has towards her. Going forward, I am unsure how the teacher will approach the situation with this student. Will she completely disregard him or will she continue to try to draw his attention towards the lesson. From this situation, I have learned that it is important to do what you can to engage your students. This could be something as simple as involving a real-world topic that the students take an interest in, having them come up to the board to solve the problem, or just having them write the answer while the whole class is solving the problem. When I have a classroom of my own, I plan to make student involvement a priority. I hope this will benefit the students in that the option of sitting on their phone or with their head down will no longer be an option.

9/15/22

I believe this situation has two crucial components: the feelings of the teacher and the feelings of the students. When the teacher asked this question, from her reaction, I do not think she was expecting this answer. I believe she felt disrespected because their answers were what she had been doing for the majority of the week. The students still have much confusion when it comes to the topics of substitution and elimination, so they thought going through them step-by-step would be helpful to them. The reaction of the teacher to their answers then gave me the impression that the students did not approve and that the majority of them were going to shut down and no longer pay attention. I believe this situation could have been handled with a caring tone and an answer such as "I will make sure that I write the steps more clearly in the future." This will then give the students the idea that their voice matters in the classroom and maybe even spark some motivation in them. Although this would have been the ideal way to handle the situation, the teacher has probably lost patience while the students probably continue to feel a lack of care from the teacher. As a future teacher, I plan on taking it one day at a time while trying to stay patient and showing my students that I care about them and their successes.

• Week Overview

My first week in the field has been an eye-opening experience. After week one, I feel as if I have a good understanding of the teaching style my mentor teacher has and the relationship she has with her students. During this week, I was able to get involved in the classroom by helping my mentor teacher grade, trying to keep the students on task, and answering any questions they had about the content they were learning.