Daniel J Reilly                                                                                                              Reilly 1

 

Professor LoMonico

 

CEE 593

 

6 December 2005

 

Disposition:  After Thoughts about Observations

 

During the fall semester of 2005, I observed many teachers at two different school districts, “A” and “B”.  I not only watched the teachers, but the students as well.  I wanted to understand what techniques the teachers used, and the effects they had on the students.  I discovered that some teachers are implementing technology and performance in the classroom, while others are reluctant to utilize it at all.

While observing at high school “B”, I watched teachers utilize performance for the betterment of their students.  One educator was teaching Twelve Angry Men and had the students recreate the jury room.  She gave the students props and note cards to help identify their characters.  At first, the idea appeared to work well; however, as time went on, I noticed that certain ideas interrupted the flow of the play so much that students lost track of where they were.  One example of this would be having a student walk in and out of the room.  The students quickly lost interest in the idea and stopped paying attention to what their characters were doing. 

After completing the Methods II course, I realize that teachers need to evaluate their own ideas, then tweak those designs to create a good lesson for their students.  I can safely say that this teacher did not successfully evaluate the performance because in the years that she has been teaching, she has not redesigned this portion of her lessons.  I do think it is better to try to utilize performance than to not use it at all.

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There were some teachers who failed to use performance at all.  One teacher that I observed was teaching The Elephant Man.  During his lessons, he would actually turn off the lights and read to the class.  At the beginning of the period, the students sat in their chairs and listened to the teacher, but after ten minutes, the students began disrupting the class.  The teacher stopped his reading, looked straight into my eyes, and said, “Welcome to (School A).  I advise you to find a job in another school unless you want to deal with this.”  I was shocked.  After viewing this teacher’s techniques, I understand why the students reacted in this manner.

This teacher failed to engage his students.  I thought it was interesting that he instantly blamed the students for the lack of learning in his classroom.  This is one aspect of teaching that must be taken seriously if educators want to succeed in teaching their students.  When a class is not connecting to the teacher’s lessons, teachers must not assume that it is the fault of the students.  Instead, teachers must step back and evaluate themselves.  Although observing the teacher in school “A” was not beneficial as far as learning how to teach, it did teach me that one must step outside the box and assess all parties involved.   

Technology was also a focus of mine during my observations. Due to the way the two schools handled observers, I had no choice about which classes I would observe.  In the classes that I did observe, I did not see a lot of technology in use.  In both schools, teachers utilized overhead projectors, televisions, and videocassette recorders to teach their students.  Although the teachers may not have ample use of technology

 

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in the classroom, the things that were allotted to them were not used to their full potential. 

Teachers who used videocassette recorders to show movies or plays simply let them run their course.  The teachers did not stop videotapes to ask questions, they did not juxtapose one version of a movie with another, and they ultimately failed to engage the students.  Just like the teacher in school “A”, these students were listening passively, and after a short time, they were talking with one another about their personal lives. 

When taking all of this into consideration, I think it is about time teachers change their attitude toward teaching in the language arts classroom.  How can students be expected to gain knowledge when the teacher’s methods fail to gain their interest?  The most important idea in a school is that the students receive a quality education.  Teachers must take the time to reevaluate themselves and adjust their teaching methods as necessary.  If teachers fail to accomplish this, then the same boring lessons that I observed during Methods II will continue to be taught, students will fail to learn, and the primary objective of educating the students will be a failure.