Conrad 1
Karla Conrad
Professor Eastman
Intro to Teaching
11 January 2008
Student Observation Paper
Part of being a teacher requires an understanding for how each student functions in and out of the classroom. Unlike a teacher that has to learn how twenty to thirty students operate I chose to focus on one of the students in Mrs. Rhoades classroom.
Janna was the first student that I talked to on my first day at Northwood Middle School. I gave her a smile and in a shy voice she said hi. For the rest of the homeroom period I noticed Janna trying to get herself organized. However, as she began moving the same things over again and straighten up already straightened papers, I could see she was a little nervous having a classroom visitor sitting in her work space. Out of the corner of my eye I could tell she was wondering who I was and what business I had sitting at her table.
In the following days I continued to observe Janna’s actions, but began interacting more with her. With her being in Mrs. Rhoades homeroom, I got the opportunity to study her behaviors in more than one class. This was quite helpful because Mrs. Rhoades math class had just been reviewing for a test and there had not been many classroom activities or participation by any of the class members including Janna. However, homeroom was a different story. Each morning she walked in with a positive attitude shown on her face. Never has it seemed to bother her that she had to get up while it was still dark outside. Before the bell rings in the morning Janna shows signs of being a social butterfly as she floated around saying her hellos to her fellow classmates. However, she quickly started working on her homework right after the bell rang. On writing day, she paid close attention to the prompts and never scowled at the idea of writing a paragraph about her New Year’s resolution.
On Wednesday I noticed Janna had on a cheerleading uniform. I asked if there was a game and she proceeded to have no problem explaining who played and how excited she was about cheering. During the Pledge of Allegiance she continued to show what was on her mind as she began to bounce up and down on her toes while doing a few cheerleading poses. This led me to ask her some questions about her after school activities. Not only is she involved in cheerleading, but she participates in dance as well. With these facts it was obvious this girl is not afraid to be in front of people and putting on a show. When questioned about being in front of crowd she was not afraid to admit that that was a major reason she enjoys cheering and dance. With the love of being the center of attention it was interesting to hear that she enjoyed practicing more than cheering at games. She explained that at practice the environment is more carefree and they get to laughmore often. This told me that although Janna enjoys attention, she is mature enough to realize that laughing and having fun with her friends is more enjoyable.
With a student liking to be the center of attention at basketball games and in dance, Janna brings a different side of her to Mrs. Rhoades’s math class. She never tries to steal the thunder from Mrs. Rhoades, but actively participates in the classroom. When asked about how hard she thought a test was she maturely stated “I thought it was a very well put together test.” This answer compared to all the other one word responses thrown out by her classmates shows her maturity and respect held for Mrs. Rhoades. She gave this same respect to meas I got the opportunity to interact with the students from the teachers place. While walking through some problems with the entire class, Janna always raised her hand before speaking and had the exact answer I was looking for in each problem. This did not surprise me all that much because while in math class Janna never takes her eyes off Mrs. Rhoades. She is able to keep focused for all fifty minutes of class. That is definitely an accomplishment compared to most other students that have to be told to refocus throughout the period.
All in all, observing Janna for the last four days has taught me a lot about how a sixth grader operates. Seeing her participate in two different classes and interacting with fellow classmates has shown me how mature, organized, focused, intelligent, and fun loving this young lady has become throughout her young life.