Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Field Blog Post: Mayfield Middle School

During our time at Mayfield Middle School, there were many observations that I made in and out of the classroom. While I spent a good amount of my time observing a seventh grade history class, I also was fortunate enough to go outside to view a physical education class. In some ways the students actions were similar in both environments, and in other ways their actions were extremely different.
When some of my classmates and I entered a classroom on the second floor, the teacher immediately came over to welcome us. She was an extremely outgoing and friendly person. Within the first few minutes of observing her class, I noticed that she is continuously moving. I believe this is her way of keeping the kids focused in a sense, by being lively and interactive. As I'm sure most could believe, twelve year olds don't have the best time staying focused. Another reason for her constant movement is to prevent the students from distracting each other. When a few students would be chatting in the back of the room at an inappropriate time, the teacher would simply wonder back that way, without missing a sentence in her lesson. She walked to the back of the room to grab the students attention, but did not stop teaching while she did so. This makes it beneficial for everyone from a concentration stand point.
Another thing I noticed in the history classroom was the teachers continuous references to technology. Almost every student had a cell phone or ipod with them, and as you can imagine, the students are always intrigued and distracted by these pieces of technology. Rather than tying to eliminate this element of the students life, the teacher incorporated them in the lesson. For example, the class was learning about colonization, and trading between the early colonies and Europe. The teacher stated, "Pretend you are the colonies, and your parents are Great Britain. Your parents tell you that you can only use your iPhones on certain days of the week, and every time that you do use it, you will have to pay them a certain amount of money." I thought this was a great way of explaining something to kids that age. Using examples like this will not only better kids understanding, but also keep them engaged in the lesson.

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