Around Thanksgiving, I had the opportunity to go and observe one of my former teachers for two days. He teaches business and sports management at Kent Roosevelt High School. After being a student in his class, it was very strange at first being on the teaching end of things. I talked to him for a while during lunch and after school, and it was interesting hearing him talk about his teaching strategies. Once he started explaining his strategies, I remembered some of the things happening. He is a very nice and laid back guy, and many of his students respect him most for the way he relates with his students.
When the first class started on the first day, there were a few kids that walked in a little late. Being generous, he did not mark them tardy. The class was his business and career class. He had the same class for the first two periods of the day so that they could have a longer time together. The class was working on a virtual business simulator, something that allowed the students to experience what it would be like to own their own business. The simulator makes you start from scratch, starting out by picking a location. Obviously this is working to get kids to distinguish a good location for a business from a bad one. After they get their business name and location, they have to go through the process of hiring employees and ordering the goods. Once the business is up and running, the students have to manage things like employee strikes and late shipping. I was able to walk around and talk to students while they were working. Most of the responses I got were engaging, showing that the project was serving it's purpose. Mr. Dunlap told me after class that it was going to be a project that lasted them all week. The students were able to work on this for the first period of the day, but when the second period began, the students were ordered to their desks. They began an accounting lesson. I just observed this part from the back of the room. This involved a lot of note taking as the teacher showed examples on the board. The students asked many questions as it seemed to be a hard lesson. I was impressed by how the teacher would thoroughly answer every question, and would not move on until the student understood the explanation. I believe this is an important part of education. If your students do not understand the curriculum being taught, you should continue going over if until they can comprehend it. The number one priority should always be the students. The rest of the day, he just had sports management classes. These students were presenting a project, evaluating the NCAA rules and regulations. I was not able to do much in these classes but observe. The one thing that I found interesting was the difference in quality of presentations. I'm not sure if this was from a difference in efforts or knowledge, but it was very apparent.
It was very fun for me to observe one of my former teachers for two days. Though both days I saw very similar things, I found it extremely beneficial to my learning. This was the age I wanted to teach, and the subject was relatable to my situation. I also want to be a basketball coach one day, and fortunately Mr. Dunlap is the head coach at the high school. I was able to go in and observe a basketball practice while I was there also. Overall this was a great experience for me, because I was able to see my future career in action.
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