Andrew Sciacchitano ED 225 Nagnon Diarrassouba

Classroom Observation For my classroom observation, I (and two riends o mine! chose to go to "entral #igh school in downtown $rand %a&ids' (e chose "entral because it)s got a largely *o&en door+ &olicy with visitors, and is also a very diverse high school' It also hel&s that this school was only a short drive, and that the three o us could do observations all at once in it' (al,ing u& to "entral #igh made me -ust a little intimidated' It was a high school that was easily bigger than most buildings on cam&us' A ter mounting the ste&s onto the ront &orch o "entral, the two &eo&le that car&ooled with me, and I, were met with our loc,ed doors. a sign hung rom them that said */%ES0ASSE%S (I11 2E A%%ES/ED,+ which we all agreed was a little e3treme' A ter a little loo,ing around, we igured out that we had to ring the o ice' So I &aged the o ice, and we were let into the high school' /his all struc, me as very odd' (here I went to school, the doors were almost always unloc,ed, and to get a visitor)s &ass, you only had to as, or one' (e were all as,ed or identi ication, a ter which they issued us three visitor)s &asses, and the rece&tionist set about the tas, o inding us classrooms to observe' "entral #igh is a &ublic high school, and it loo,ed li,e one' Surrounded on all sides with $rand %a&id)s suburbs "entral stood, a our4storey island on the landsca&e' #owever, one thing I did not e3&ect rom "entral #igh was how uture4 ocused it was' In

the o ice were various college news&a&ers, ads, health maga5ines, and other materials, all ocused on continuing e3cellence after graduating rom "entral' As a school, "entral was de initely ocused on $rand %a&ids 0ublic Schools) ($%0S! mission statement, which is *to ensure that all students are educated, sel 4directed, and &roductive members o society'+ And this school was diverse 6 very diverse' (hile I was in the main o ice, one o the secretaries was having a conversation with a student and &arent 6 in S&anish' (hile ta,ing all o this in, the other secretary was trying to ind classrooms' It was easy enough or my two riends, both o whom were English ma-ors, to get a classroom and observe it together' As or me, the secretary had some trouble with me' I am a math ma-or, and a&&arently the class hour we came to visit on was the school4wide math &re& hour' So she couldn)t ind me a math class to observe' I told her my other ma-or was 0hysics, and she saw i she could get me a &hysics class to observe' Still no dice' She as,ed me i chemistry would do' I thought bac, on the act that I)d never ta,en chemistry in high school, avoid it li,e the &lague now, and overall hate chemistry with a burning &assion7 a ter this thought, I re&lied, *8eah, sure, that)ll wor, or me+ with a smile' She made a call, and then told me that, *he says you can come observe, he)s teaching chemistry in room 9:9' It)s this loor, down the hall and almost all the way at the end' I nodded and headed out' I ound my room, crac,ed the door o&en, and saw a small class wor,ing on what seemed to be a *grou&4o 4two+ basis' I &o,ed my head into the door and as,ed, *is this chemistry;+ And was met with a *no, this is anatomy'+ /his was a &leasant sur&rise, and one <uite welcome' /he teacher, a laid4bac, loo,ing man with a beard, as,ed i he could hel& me' I said I was an education student at $=S> and wanted to observe his classroom'

#e gave me a big smile and told me to ta,e a seat wherever I li,ed' I sat down and got out my noteboo,, care ully dictating his style into my notes' #is name was ?r' ?ichael 1arsen, and he was *teaching+ anatomy' #e was very riendly and hel& ul, wal,ing around the small class rom table to table o ering hel& and what seemed li,e ongoing lectures as he did' #e was a &ersonable ty&e o teacher, tal,ing to students each individually while addressing the whole class in the lesson' S&ea,ing o which, his lesson o the day was the human heart' #e came over to my table and tal,ed with me *So we)re doing a lesson today on7+ */he heart,+ I re&lied, ,ind o &roud o mysel or guessing rom the little wooden igures on the des,s' *(ell, I couldn)t tell you' I don)t ,now what this is,+ he said, &ic,ing u& the model' */hey)re inding out what it is, and then they tell me what we)re learning about'+ Again he smiled' #e was a very smart man' 8ou see, he had the students inde&endently learning about the heart' A&&arently this was how he started all his new lessons@ with a day where the students ind out or themselves what they)re going to learn' #e too, more o a acilitative role in the classroom than the classical role thought to belong to a teacher' ?r' 1arsen)s class consisted o seven students and a aculty member' (hy the aculty member was there I don)t ,now, but I could tell who he was rom his la&to& and cell &hone o&enly and un&rotestedly being on the des, in ront o him' A these seven students, only two were male' Ane o the boys was A rican American and the other was #is&anic' A the remaining ive girls, two were A rican American and three were #is&anic' /he only Euro&ean Americans in the class were the aculty and mysel ' /he

cool thing was that there were no clashes o culture or race' As it would seem, the class was so small that the students seemed to ocus more on the wor, and wor,ing together to get it done than ic,le issues o race or gender' /he two boys in the class sat ne3t to girls, and all o the students) noses were buried in their anatomy boo,s' I thought it was a great classroom environment, in which the teacher made the students eel li,e his e<ual, which I)m sure they li,ed, because they tal,ed o&enly with him about the lesson, ay <uestions they had, and even -ust shot the bree5e with him' #e made another round to where I was and told me, *I)m sorry' /oday)s ,ind o a boring day to observe my class. there)s nothing going on in it' 2ut what are you doing Friday;+ *I have class rom eight until eleven and I wor, at one &m'+ */hat wor,s great,+ he turned to the class, *So Friday we)re going to dissect a real human heart, I ho&e our riend,+ he motioned to me, *doesn)t mind volunteering'+ /he class laughed and I did too' #e was a unny and down4to4earth ty&e o guy, the ,ind o teacher I want to be' #is laid4bac, attitude hel&ed to calm my mood' I)d never been in an inner4city school be ore, and everything seemed a bit overwhelming' (hen I got into the school I was very sus&icious o any student wal,ing to close to me, but by the time I le t ?r' 1arsen)s class, I elt signi icantly more at ease' I waited in the main o ice or my riends to inish u& their observations' (hile in the o ice, I got to witness a hall4&assing time in this school' It was very interesting' I didn)t ,now schools had security guards in them until I saw two o them &atrolling the halls and telling boys and girls to get to class' (hile I sat and waited in the o ice, I thought about the day'

I came here with e3&ectations that it would be a sort o mess' From what I)d heard and saw wal,ing in, "entral loo,ed li,e a dum&' 2ut then I was sur&rised to ind that it was actually <uite a good school, with hard4wor,ing, well4intentioned &eo&le as its teachers and administration' ?y eelings about the school went rom a ear ul a&&rehension to an e3cited gratitude' I got e3cited to come bac, or my ne3t observation, and started ma,ing small tal, with the students, or &arents, or sta who wal,ed into the o ice while I waited' (hat I)ve ta,en away rom this is the ,nowledge that good teachers are &ersonable' Not that they)re smart and willing and love ,ids, but also that they have to be &ersonable' /hey have to be a&&roachable, sometimes even unny, in order to get students to learn and to enjoy learning' /he teacher I observed was very much li,e this, and I ho&e to be the same way when I become a teacher' Also, I)ve learned that &ublic inner4city schools are not as daunting as they seem' /hey are not all that dangerous, most o the time, and are in act great &laces to meet good teachers and sta , and where those teachers and sta will be ,ind to you'