Escobedo 1

George Escobedo
Ms. Landers/ EDUC 1301
February 29, 2016
“Reflection Paper 1”

For my first experience observing a classroom, I had the pleasure of observing Mrs.

Thompson’s seventh grade science class at Baytown Junior High School. Her students were well

behaved and practiced in their routines. Mrs. Thompson took firm control of the class from the

moment that she entered and ran the lesson in a “brook no nonsense” manner that the children

had no choice but to respect. The overall set up and design of the classroom was what I would

consider to be typical for a science classroom. Rather than individual desks for the students, the

room was furnished with desks made for pairs or lab partners. The rectangular desks had square,

wooden legs and black plastic laminate tops with two cubby holes apiece. The desks were

arranged in three separate rows of six. They all faced a white board that stretched the length of

one wall with the two outer rows canted at 30 degree angles towards the center. The visual

effect was similar to that of an amphitheater. Along with the whiteboard, that same wall held a

projection screen and the new-age version of an overhead projector. The two walls running

perpendicular to what I have dubbed the “whiteboard wall” had black laminate counters that held

three sinks apiece, presumably for washing up after lab exercises, and glass doored specimen

cabinets at the end of each counter. The back wall of the room was sanctioned for Mrs.

Thompson’s desk.

The students were learning about the food chain and food webs on the day that I visited.

They learned about consumers and producers and their relationships with each other. I also

learned a couple of very important lessons from my observations. The first lesson that I learned

was the importance of discipline and routine. Even though it has been a very, very long time
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since I walked the halls of Memorial Middle School, my own junior high, I can still remember

the time I spent there and what was important to me at the time: My friends. Hands down,

unequivocally, the only redeeming quality that I could find in being forced to get up way too

early and attend school was being able to see my friends. From the time that they entered the

classroom it was obvious that the priorities of Mrs. Thompson’s student were about the same as

my own had been at their age. They entered the class boisterously, talking and joking amongst

each other, their actions bolstered even more when they discovered that I was not a teacher and

Mrs. Thompson was nowhere in sight. Despite being loud, they never got out of hand and as the

bell rang the routine started. All of the students took their seats and faced forward while one

student retrieved their learning journals from one corner of the classroom and passed them out.

Their behaviors were well practiced and it was obvious that Mrs. Thompson had drilled the

actions into them. While I would not have trusted the students to behave themselves for more

than a couple of minutes without teacher supervision, the routine was enough to keep them

disciplined for the 60 or so seconds that passed before Mrs. Thompson walked into the room.

Upon entering the classroom Mrs. Thompson maintained the sense of order that seemed to

permeate the class and most of the students. She greeted them warmly, with a large smile on her

face but immediately confronted the lone student who refused to face forward in his seat. She did

not yell at the student but her tone and manner made it clear to both him and the class that his

behavior was unacceptable. The student posed no further problems for the rest of the lesson.

Although I did not realize it at the moment, through my observation of other less disciplined

classrooms, I came to see how vital classroom control can be to creating a conducive learning

environment.
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The second important lesson that I learned from observing Mrs. Thompson’s classroom

was how great of an injustice is being done to the students by the “No Child Left Behind” policy

or at least Baytown Junior’s interpretation of the policy. The way that the instructors at this

school were told to adhere to the rules of this policy is that if one of their students receives a

failing grade, or even a zero, they have the opportunity to redo their assignment and receive a 70

on it just for turning it in. This means that they can pass their classes with minimal effort and

unfortunately, according to Mrs. Thompson, the students have figured that out. She claimed that

it has been a trend in her classes that students will not even put forth a genuine effort on many of

their assignments since they know they can turn in a poorly attempted retry and still pass. The

students are being robbed of the lessons of hard work and perseverance. Life after college or

even high school does not function so fairly. The private sector runs, in many ways, on the

concept of Social Darwinism and many of these students will be rudely surprised when they get

fired for missing a deadline or they lose a promotion or job to someone better qualified. This was

my first time observing a class so I am optimistic that this will not be a recurring issue.

Overall, my experience in Mrs. Thompson’s seventh grade science class was a very

enjoyable one. I was able to see a very effective way of managing a classroom and the day’s

lesson was very enjoyable as well. The teacher used a lot of modern technology in her lesson

including a video, projector and a touch screen, large monitor. The technology made me curious

as to what I will be using in my own class when the time comes and what sort of advances will

have been made in science by the time I am teaching it. This pleasant experience made me

hungry for more and I am really looking forward to observing high school classes since that is

the age range that I am hoping to teach in.