Observations
From the moment I heard I had to observe a classroom, all I could
think about was wanting to go back to my past and visit my elementary school,
Saint Albert the Great. Through my years of first through eighth grade at St. Albert’s
I had some amazing teachers that were inspiring, then some no so wonderful
teachers that only made me frustrated. I knew getting to St. Albert’s would be
tricky because it is not that close to school, but it is something I have been
always wanting to do. I needed closure to see if I was being naive and could
not see the opportunities I had in school, if the school was not all that great
or mainly if the school had improved. To my surprise, I felt such a growth in
the school within the first five minutes of observing.
Students
The eyes of the first grade class of Mrs. Beskid, stared at
me when I walked in. Mrs. Beskid told the class to be on their best behavior. A
marker of one of the students dropped and Mrs. Beskid said, “Someone pick it up”.
Literally, five kids sprinted to get the marker and all bumped into each other.
When I was a student in her class, I remember she had to struggle to get
someone to raise their hand at times to answer questions. This no longer was a
problem. I can honestly say every student raised their hand to answer question.
I could not help but notice in the class of thirty- four students most of them
had blonde hair and blue eyes. There was one Asian and one African American.
Chapter 5 in Educational Foundations
touches base on discrimination and racism. From reading this, I saw no biases
or stereotypes in the classroom. This may be due to the fact that the school is
predominantly white, but all the kids respected each other and interacted and
got along with each other.
Something that really touched my heart was that I saw a
student with a behavioral/learning issue or problem and he did not leave the
classroom! Chapter 6 in Educational Foundations brings up the
idea of exclusion of students with problems or issues. Many schools have a
pull- out basis and leave the classroom if they struggle or are not very strong
in a certain subject. When I was in first grade, I had to leave the
room during spelling/phonics because I was not strong in that. It made me feel
stupid and feel excluded from the lesson. Still to this day I am horrible at
spelling but it is something I know and accept even though I am very insecure
about it. Anyways, I saw this boy with a leaning/ behavioral problem or even
maybe school was not his strength. He did not have to leave any of the classes
even though I could see he was struggling. Mrs. Beskid saw he was struggling
and would quietly help him. Should would help him sit up or find him the right
page so quickly and quietly that the other students did not even notice. Mrs.
Beskid never excluded him from not participating. Page 61 of Educational Foundations states, “Students
who don’t fit the mold, for whatever reasons, need good teachers who
understands that the questions students
ask are the most central issue to knowledge construction and active engagement”.
Mrs. Beskid never once discouraged her students to ask or answer questions. She
had so much patience with the one boy she helped and would work with him
instead of making him feel stupid answering or asking a question. I then
realized that there is such hope in the educational system. Teachers like Mrs.
Beskid are the reason students like going to school and participating. I loved
the student’s participation, but more I loved Mrs. Beskids’s teaching methods.
Teaching Style
Throughout the course when the
class of ED 100 discussed effective ways to teach and the banking concept, my
mind was so addicted to this. At first I did not know why. Throughout class
discussions and observing I realized my horrible experiences influence the
eagerness for me to want to learn about effective teaching methods. I wanted
closure on how if those teachers who were not the most helpful could have
taught different therefore I would be more confident in school. My goal was to
see if St. Albert broke away from just the teacher using the chalk and talk
method, which Educational Foundations refers
to as teachers who only teach and give notes. Before I observed Mrs. Beskid for
the first time I read up on my blog on chapter 8 on the banking concept.
“Is the only purpose for our minds
to be told information and for us not to seek out personally how or what we want
to learn? Has my previous education been robotic? I went to school and sat in a
desk for 6 hours looking at the chalkboard, my textbook and my teacher only. At
the end of the day I did not really have a choice on how I wanted to learn and
50 % of the time I did not even retain the information.”
“In chapter 3, Why Teach? ties in greatly with opposing the banking concept. To
prevent from students being robots regarding learning, teachers really need to
care and be innovative with their teaching techniques. Teachers should really
ask the question,” why teach?” before they even step foot into the classroom. They
should ask questions like; why do I want to teach? What kind of young people do
I want to work with and what type of school do I want to work in? . The main
way to stop the banking concept is to have innovative teachers and curriculum
chose to the student’s minds and liking.”
These quotes from my blog assured
me that my focus was to observe if Mrs. Beskid did not have different teaching
methods or only talked the student’s ears off. Thankfully because Mrs. Beskid is
an awesome teacher I did not see any of this. Mrs. Beskids’s teaching style
drastically changed since I was in her class. I remember her being such a great
teacher but now she is phenomenal. Her new way of teaching reminded me of Education Foundation’s chapter 9 on Stir
and serve recipes for teaching. Mrs. Beskid just started to teach when I had
her as a teacher. Due to chapter 9 I realized that it takes time to come up
with a teaching method that you are good at. You can instantly be the best
teacher possible. I saw her growth as a teacher and it amazed me. Below is a list of how she used many
different teaching methods or ways that I found to be spectacular. She had a
balanced mix of different methods that kept the students on their toes.
Methods of Mrs. Beskid:
- · Picked a student to read a passage then e it reinforced the passage by making the class read it out loud again together
- · When assigned homework, she immediately made the students put it in their book bag
- · Gave frequent breaks to let the students clear their minds
- · To memorize certain lessons, she had songs and dancing motions with it
- · Made lessons on the smart board fun by having a magic wand to touch the board with
- · When answering a questions she said “It’s okay if your answer is wrong. Try your best and after we will figure it out
- · If a student misbehaves, she wouldn’t punish them but explain how that was not nice.
- · Big on pronunciating words correctly
- · Made students use crayons or highlighters to give life to their papers
Overall, Mrs. Beskid is a reason
why I would potentially think about teaching. A teacher should be someone who
you feel comfortable with. You shouldn’t be afraid to ask questions or sound
stupid. A teacher should have her arms constantly open. Mrs. Beskid showed all
of these characteristics and I wish I could go back to first grade and have her
as a teacher again.
