Sunday, November 6, 2011

Elementary School Observations

Finally, after a long 3 weeks, Friday marked the last day of my teacher observations. Not to say I didn't enjoy it - I did, immensely- it's just that I'm ready to have my mornings back. Nothing beats sleeping in until 10 a.m. on a Monday.

Anyway, the whole week was pretty hectic to tell you the truth.  The elementary school I was assigned to is off I-64, towards Canton and is on a road that winds through a neighborhood. Even after taking a preliminary drive there, I had a little trouble finding it the first two days. It doesn't get any better when it's 7:15 in the morning, the sun has barely come up, and the little blue sign with the name of the road on it is barely visible. I almost killed myself that Wednesday trying to find it! When I actually got to the school, however, I was happy to see all the little children milling about, chattering to their teachers. The classroom I was warm and welcoming.  The teacher, however, I could tell was not really into teaching these 1st graders. Just about everything these little ones did exasperated her. Monday, I cut her some slack because who likes Mondays? But as Wednesday and Friday came along, it just got worse. She was irritable on Wednesday and tired from her workday the day the day before on Friday. She was also kind of disorganized. Her classroom was well put together, but she herself didn't have a lot of things in place. All in all, I was impressed by her classroom, just not her general attitude towards teaching. That really depressed me about her; I thought she had some potential.

I really did enjoy my time observing the different schools in Tyler. Maybe next semester I'll be able to go out of district for my hours.

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