Emily Huffaker

Ms Sherrell

TAP 1

Elementary and High school observation summary.

Growing up in public school and being in a classroom three fourths of the year, I thought

I knew a lot about how classrooms operated and what went on in a classroom. These

observations brought me to relies that I did not know as much as I believed I did. While

elementary and high school classrooms are two completely different settings they did teach me

many things about how a classroom works.

A elementary classroom is very structured and had a specific order that is stuck to

everyday so is high school but in high school the day is not drastically altered by a class not

staying on track. I observed a child disrespecting a teacher in elementary school and the teacher

had to discipline her in front of the whole class. This behavior and action caused most of the

class to be distracted for the rest of the day. In high school the children would have been a little

distracted but it would not have derailed the whole day. I believe that if they teacher had pulled

the child off individually and handled the situation it would have not caused such a

disruption,but the teacher might have done that for a reason.

While observing this third grade class I noticed that she had them do a copious amount of

individual work and learning. In high school you do do more student based learning but students

are normally teaching each other and I believe this to be a more effective measure. My class

room setting was not hostile, but you could tell the teacher did not engage personally with the

children as much as others would. My personal preference would be for a teacher to be personal
with me and show more humanities. Maybe if they teacher taught more to the class as a whole

the learning environment would be more beneficial and welcoming.

During my high school observations I observed to english classes taught by two different

teachers. Both settings where very inviting but I felt one class was more comfortable with each

other and their teacher. This particular teacher would recall stories and memories the children

had shared to relate to the learning topic while the other teacher would just braise over topics

without relating them or going into grave details. While both being effective learning

environments for students one might benefit for a certain learning style than the other would.

While I did have fun in all three of my observations I did come away with more

knowledge than I thought I would. Overall I learned that though teachers may be teaching the

same subject that does not mea they teach the same way, and while I believe that a situation

should be handled one way a trained profession might not agree. I enjoyed getting to interact

with the children and teachers in a non-student way for once and get to experience the behind the

scenes of a classroom.