Week 4 Focused Observation: Learning Interactions

Nicole Tate

Date of field experience: February 12-16, 2024

Yorktown Middle School - ELA 8th Grade - 2nd and 3rd period

At this point in my field observations, I am getting very comfortable being in the classroom each day. I think that my confidence in front of students has skyrocketed even since just starting this semester. I have been building a strong relationship with my host teacher, too, which has helped me get more of an insight than just observing. One thing she told me is: "something they don't tell you in college is that you will stay up all night grading and work over the weekend". This is obviously something that stresses me out, but I'm not going to think about it too much at the moment. Since I am a theatre teacher, I am automatically going to be highly involved in extracurriculars. My host teacher is one of only 10 students in Yorktown Middle that is involved in extracurriculars. She runs both the academic team and hosts study tables each week. Her son is a student in the high school, so she is also at so many of their athletic games supporting students.

Looking at learning interactions from the viewpoint of student collaboration in class, my students do not do a lot of that. My host teacher has told me that this semester she is teaching her periods mainly through first-half instruction, second-half independent work, to prepare them for high school. She used to teach at the high school there, and she has also met with the high school English teachers to know where her students need to improve before starting, so I trust that she knows what she's talking about there. My experience in high school was just much different: I think I was CONSTANTLY doing collaborative work. One reason this may be different is because the level she teaches is very mixed, so students get frustrated when placed together because they all prioritize school differently, and this will hold some students back. There are some students in the classes I observe that absolutely refuse to do any work. As a student who was always in advanced/AP classes, this is something new for me to see, but is very beneficial as I prepare to teach. As I was talking to her about this, I mentioned how one of my high school teachers would place us into groups based on assessment: one student from the top third, one student from the middle third, and one student from the bottom third. She actually ended up using this idea later in the week for their bellringer which I thought was very cool! The students were not used to this, and said they hated their groups (oops!).

Like I said last week, my schedule has picked up almost double this week. My meetings for dance are happening more than ever as the semester is now in full swing. I am having more meetings to prepare for my show, which starts next week (crazy!), and my second job is picking up. This week, my roommate also had the flu, and although I didn't catch it, I was definitely fighting off something myself. Over the weekend, I did get to go to NYC, which was the highlight of my week! I have a family friend who is currently on Broadway in the Michael Jackson musical. My aunt and uncle and I got to go see him, and it was one of the best shows I have ever seen.