Shadowing

For part of my contract about mentoring, I though it would be a good idea to have other teachers mentor me with their multiple teaching styles. For this shadowing I decided to choose teachers outside of my mentor teacher and in different content areas. I chose to observe Reading, Social Studies, and two Science teachers. All teachers were 7th grade teachers with the exception of one of the science teachers who was in 8th grade.

Mrs. Maloney (7th Grade Science)

My first shadowing took place in a 7th grade science class for two periods. This was nice to have because I was very familiar with the teacher and had a good relationship with her. She was very willing to let me observe and even got me involved in the classroom discussions. Her class was a lot different than my mentor teacher's and I think this is because of the different contents. The class was set up in tables and she used a lot of manipulatives in her class. The manipulatives worked very well for this particular lesson because it was all about energy and how it can be transferred into electricity to operate numerous things. The class was open for discussion which sometimes led to the students getting off task, but she had great control of her classroom and got the students back on task quickly. Even though she had complete control of her classroom, Mrs. Maloney had a very good relationship with her students and made the class very fun to learn in and observe. She made plenty of real world references, which got the students very engaged in her lesson. Suncrest has access to a lot of technology, and Mrs. Maloney made good use of all the technology in her classroom. Besides the multiple manipulatives in her class, she also used the intel board to go through notes randomly throughout the lesson. I think she did a great job of integrating different types of teaching into one lesson and this observation helped me see them thoroughly.

Ms. Cunningham (7th Grade Social Studies)

Ms. Cunningham was also another 7th grade teacher I had a good relationship with and had no problem with me observing her class. Her class was more setup like my mentor teacher's, with the desks in rows and the teacher's desk at the front. She started class off with a brain teaser from their previous lessons to get the students started. She is a little bit of an old school type of teacher, but seems to have the respect of all her students and gets their attention easy. I had come on a good day because the students were writing thank you letters to people who had come in and talked to them during multicultural day. This allowed for me to see their creativity and also allowed them to express it in the classroom. She clearly had laid out the rules for the activity and had students working with one other person at most. To encourage good behavior, she played music for the students when they behaved. I love this idea because it gives the students something to look forward to, which I believe encourages them to stay on task and not lose focus.

Mrs. Goodwin (7th Grade Reading)

I was a little out of my element here because I always considered Reading as one of my worst classes. I still went in with high hopes and was surprised that the class was a co-teach classroom, but was happy that I had a good relationship with both of the teachers. The class setup at the start was just like a normal classroom, with the desks lined up in rows. This lasted for only a little bit before the students were split into three groups and each group went to a different station. I liked this idea because this class is the only one I know of at Suncrest that is a block. It was great to see this because students got to spend a decent amount of time at each station. The station I thought allowed for the students to understand responsibility was the silent reading station. Students sat quietly and read a book while the other two teachers taught the other two stations. Also incorporated into the classroom was technology. Both teachers used a timer to time each station and also had laptops to look up information for a project the students were working on. The students really enjoyed looking up material and were pretty well-behaved for a block period. I really liked the idea of stations for the class and the students seemed to enjoy it as well. I think it worked well because it was a block class and it was able to keep the students interested the entire time. It was great to see the station style used in a classroom.

Mrs. Dowling (8th Grade Science)

I felt that it would be good for me to observe an 8th grade teacher to see how a teacher differs on a different level. Even though she was an 8th grade teacher, I had a good relationship with Mrs. Dowling because she was my Tutor Coordinator. The class was setup a lot like Mrs. Maloney, meaning it had a table style of seating for students. Unlike Mrs. Maloney's class, each student had a laptop to look up material for the project they were working on. In the next few months, every classroom will have a set of laptops to be used whenever. The first class was very talkative at first and it was hard to get the class started. Instead of yelling at her students, Mrs. Dowling gave them an ultimatum. She reminded them that she was getting grading on this and that they were. She stated that she doesn't have to help them with the project and if they want to get a good grade, then they should calm down and start listening. This worked pretty well and the class got back on task. While shadowing her, she showed me exactly what her students were making and how the laptops were being used. I learned a lot about the new technology being integrated into the school and got to see how a teacher might use them in their classroom. Mrs. Dowling picked a good way to use them, because each student was looking up a different disease or disorder. This gave me a new insight into 21st Century teaching and can see how well it will work in the future at Suncrest Middle School.