Observation Week of 10/2

This week I did my first observations at in a 6th grade Social Studies class! I was very excited to be going to this class as I want to specifically teach 6th grade Social Studies because it's my favorite year content-wise (Ancient Civilizations). The first thing I noticed immediately was how much the school culture has changed in the four years since I've been in middle school. The students are given more freedom, but also act more mature and well-behaved compared to when I was in middle school; which I was very surprised by considering most of the students I saw were only 11 years old. When I was there I observed two class periods back to back, and at the end of the day. I was prepared for the students tired, off-task, and unfocused, but they were actually really engaged. They were all very eager to answers questions and speak out on their topic of Mesopotamia. They had a test coming up after the long weekend, so they were reviewing for that test during in class. For homework the day before, their teacher had assigned them to finish filling out their study guide if they hadn't finished it in class, and in-class that day they all reviewed the answers to the study guide out loud, as sort of a class discussion. I thought this was a brilliant idea to have the kids engaged and answering as a class, thinking it through, rather than just the teacher giving them all the correct answers. It was a way for them to more efficiently learn and review the material for their upcoming test. For the rest of the hour, the students worked silently on their Chromebooks and played a review game, and when they were finished they were allowed to silently play other games, read, or work on homework. The students were outstanding silent workers, there were no problems as every single student was on task! Plus, I think it helped that they all seemed to really enjoy their online review game. During this silent work time, the teacher would walk around to help with technology problems, or answer any questions. Although, when she answered questions she would only answer questions about how to play the game or vocab questions, as she never gave students the answers to the questions but made them find the answers on their own in their notes. For my first observation, it was a very laid back day to observe, but I already feel as though I am already learning a lot about teaching and classroom management, and I can't wait to continue on next week!