Clark Observation Reflection Essay

Courtney Dickinson

Methods and Management

Mrs. Ho

November 25, 2015

 Clark Observation Reflection Essay

Over the two weeks of November 9th through November 20th, we observed different high school

classes around Clark. Over the two weeks we observed pre-kamp with the TEACH seniors, an ELL class

with Ms. Ghazal, a tenth grade advanced study math class with Ms. Jordan, an eleventh grade US history

class with Ms. Kraft, an English 10 class with Ms. Erickson, a Biology 9 class with Mr. Snow, a drawing 1

class with Mr. Jarrell, a beginning choir class with Mr. West, and a Math applications/ Special Ed class with

Ms. Karandikar. It was a very interesting experience to see how different teachers run their classrooms and

how differently the students react to these different methods. It was interesting to see the different parts of

the school and classes that we dont normally see.

This experience helped to dissuade my decision to teach this age group, both during internship and

next year, because I just didnt like the discipline issues and the attitudes of the students. Some of the

positive experiences I had were in prekamp, it was cool to see how well the seniors interacted with the kids

and were involved with them the whole time. Another positive experience I had was in Ms. Krafts room,

she had a very interesting relationship with her students where should could kind of mess with them and

use sarcasm without hurting anyone. Another positive experience I had was in Mr. Jarrells room, he had a

very laid back way of managing the class and was very good at explaining things when he was telling us

what the class was doing, and I liked that he took the time to talk to us, instead of just ignoring us the whole

time. There werent very many challenges, I think the biggest one was paying attention the whole time,

when the class wasnt really doing anything but working on an assignment. And it was difficult when as an

observer you didnt know what was going on in the class, but the teacher didnt really acknowledge you.

One positive incident I observed was how Mr. West interacted with his students. It was very evident

that they all respected and liked him as a teacher. He interacted well with them through a lot of joking

around with them while still working hard. One negative incident I observed was in Ms. Karandikars class.
Her class was special ed, but I just thought that she got impatient with them sometimes. There was one

student who kept repeating something over and over and the teacher eventually kind of snapped at her and

I thought that was unnecessary. I also found the fact that one of her rules was dont embarrass the

teacher weird. Im not sure what the reasoning behind that being a rule is but it just seems strange to me.

Im not sure what I would do differently, probably just try to be more patient with the students.

Mr. Jarrell used one of the major ideas that a lot of the theorists we studied used. His methods

mainly consisted of the students being self-reliant. He tried to just create a positive, healthy environment for

them, and used that to guide their behavior rather than harsh discipline.

I think the greatest challenge facing teachers in school nowadays is probably budget. Because of

the low budget the school receives, most teachers cant afford to have many of supplies they really need to

teach their class in the most effective way possible.