I Cannot Believe How Different Teaching Really Was

Hollingsworth 1

Reflective Paper

Jarek Hollingsworth

Manchester College

EDUC 111: Introduction to Teaching

I cannot believe how different teaching really was. This experience was my first class room experience. It was a true eye opener for me, I know that the students are in middle school and middle school is a hard time for teaching. I know that all the kids start to feel rebellious and it’s tougher for the teachers to get across to the students. I now know that I don’t want to be a middle school teacher; I want to be a secondary education Physical Education teacher so hopefully I won’t have to deal with kids in middle school.

Last week I got to observe a Physical Education Teacher at ShawneeMiddle School in Fort Wayne. The teacher I got to observe was named Angela Day. She was very nice to me; she really helped me and always answered my question. She would also wait until I was done with a part of the lesson to tell me what I did wrong instead of pointing it out in front of the entire class. It was nice having her there because the day she let me teach we didn’t have a lesson plan so she helped me come up with activities to do during the class. I did fine for the first part of the class but there was fifteen minutes left and I had no clue what to do. I went up to her and asked her if there was any kind of game she could show us, so the kids did not have do boring drills the whole time. Having Mrs. Day there really benefited me because I wouldn’t have been able to run a class by myself. She was younger but she has taught at all kinds of different school. During her seven years as physical education teacher, she has taught at rural schools and city schools. She has taught at three different schools and she knew how to handle the kids and it was really interesting to watch her teach.

The school we had to teach in was a lot different then what I have ever been to or grown up in. I grew up in the country so I went to a very small high school. In my middle school I went to school with those kids all through high school and there was not another school to combine with, there is only one school. At Shawnee there were a few kids with respect issues, but I think you’re going to have that at every school. When I heard about the poverty and the amount of kids that were in special education I was shocked that there were not more behavioral problems. When the principal talked to us about all the students and how one in five students are in the special education program that was very shocking to me. It showed me that working with the types of kids they work with takes a lot of patience. I believe that I’m a very patient person and I think that I could teach at a school that was in the city. I would like to teach at a school that was just like my school that I went to just because it would be more comfortable, but I could really see myself teaching at a school that was located in the city. It was really interesting to hear that they were the fourth worst school in the school districted last year, when it came to academics. Then they were able to turn it around in one year to be the fourth best. That really shows a lot about the principle and the staff. I think it is great for both the thing for staff and their students.

The very first day I went to the school was on a Thursday. On this Thursday they had a two-hour delay. The schedule was a lot different then what it usual is. There were a lot of kids who did not seem to really care to much about gym class. They are supposed to wear a uniform for gym class but on this day because of the delay they didn’t have to. All they did on this day was take attendance and she talked about the rules. This was a great first day because it was almost like the first day of school for us and it was the same for the students. We were able to get the rules from her. I know that there are going to be rules for a class room and it was good she had a lot of rules, but that’s not how I’m going to run my class. There will be very basic rules in my class. I just don’t believe in having lots of rules for my students. I was very nervous the first day because of my lack of experience in the classroom. Now when I look back on it I really didn’t do much on the first day and did not really have much to be so nervous about.

The next week they had Monday off and we came in on Tuesday. Tuesday was a lot like Thursday but they had to dress in the uniforms. There were a few classes she didn’t get done explaining the rules, so she had to finish doing that. These first two days were really boring for me and I was starting to really rethink becoming a teacher. I felt like we should have been doing stuff after the first day I was in the class. I realized that the first couple of days are going to be just trying to get use to the new routines and getting use to the teacher or the teacher getting use to the students.

On Wednesday they really got into talking about the activities they were going to be doing and she also put them into lines where they will stretch and get warmed up. This day was like a normal day all the kids were dressed and they were ready to do something other than talk about rules. The kids had some problems with the stretching such as remembering the stretches and making sure to count out aloud. When it came to talk about the activities which was volleyball, the students listened very well and they were not distracted. On this day she really started stressing on the kids about being here every day and dressing every day. I notice the biggest problem in her gym class was the students not dressing. She told me that her grading scale allowed the students to earn ten points a week and not dressing on one day will cost them 2 points witch drops them to aneighty percent which is a B on their grading scale. There is no reason to not dress for class. The only reason you should ever miss a class is if you’re very ill or you’re hurt. I never really thought not dressing was going to be a problem because I never had a problem at my schools with dressing for gym class. On Wednesday, had been the best day so far just because they really go into everything and they weren’t just sitting there doing nothing.

Thursday was my favorite day out of the whole week and my favorite day of the whole experience. On Thursday the teacher let us teach the students how to serve a volleyball. I didn’t make a lesson plans so I just winging it. I was very nervous to teach the class but after the first class I started to relax and everything started to flow perfectly. It was still kind of shocking that I was up talking in front of all these kids and they were just sitting there listing to me. None of them were disrespectful and they had their full attention towards me. I taught them how to sever the ball under hand then after that I demonstrated it for them. After that I just had them serve it back and forth to each other. This is we’re I was very thankful that I had Mrs. Day because we still had 15 minutes and we had been serving it back and forth for quite some time and the kids were getting bored so I asked her if she knew of any games that we could play and she told me a game, I explanted it to the students and they ended up loving it. I was so glad that she was there to help me out because if she wouldn’t the kids would have probably hated me and thought I was the most boring teacher they ever had. Thursday was a fun and new experience for me. I loved just being around the kids and helping them out and answering their questions. This day would be the best day out of the whole week.

On Friday it was kind of sad to have to leave because I felt like I want to stay there longer to teach and help out Mrs. Day. Class on Fridays is very different then what I had ever done in my school. On Fridays they have to write a half sheet of paper on a topic that they are given by the teacher. They do this right after they attendance is taken and when you are in middle school it takes fifteen to twenty minutes to write a half page of paper. So by the time they get done with that activity and started stretching, a decent amount of time had been taken up. There is only about fifteen minutes at the end of class so Mrs. Day usual lets them pick the activity they want to do. However, if the students were bad she picks the activity and it usually something they don’t want to do.

This past week has shown me a lot about teaching that I had never seen before, like having to make sure you get your point across to the students. Also I learned that having those kids sit and look at you while you are talking is very nerve racking. It is very easy to mess up and not explain something right then they end up doing the activity the rest of their life in the wrong way. Other than those very little problems I think that being a teacher is not too far out of reach for me. It was great to get this experience and really showed me the ups and downs of being a teacher. Now I hope to go home and be a substitute at my high school so I can get more experience. This experience showed me that I can be a teacher but I’m going to have to work at it and there are skills I will have to work on, but I will be able to do it and hopefully be a good one.