¡Viva Mexico!
Today was Mexico culture day in class. The students spent most of the class time learning about Mexican music, clothing, and food. The teacher was fortunate to know a lot of information about Mexican culture because his wife is Mexican and they have visited the area many times. He modeled a surabe, a traditional outfit worn by Mexicans. He also brought in musical instruments from Mexico and showed a video of mariachi band that he saw. It was exciting and refreshing to see junior high students actually interested in a subject and continue to ask questions. The class spent the remainder of class looking at slides of their teacher’s trip to Mexico and its architecture and unique culture. Once again, in order to help the students understand some of the more complex ideas, he used examples that the students understood, such as comparing the town plazas in Mexico to the downtown area of Bloomington. I had never experienced a lesson about any culture like I did today. By bringing in artifacts and personal pictures, the teacher made the lesson interesting.
On a more negative note, I had a horrible realization today that I do not always enjoy being surrounded by junior high students. After the first two days of observation, I had thoughts of possibly teaching junior high students rather than elementary school students, but today my mind was changed. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people talk when others are talking, and that is a huge problem in the classroom. That didn’t seem to be a problem when I observed an elementary school classroom. I think when the children are that young, they respect their teacher a little more and listened to them if they are being disciplined. While I understand that the students were excited about today’s lesson, that didn’t give them the right to shout out comments or talk to their peers every time the teacher moved to a different topic. It was frustrating to sit there and hear students talking to their friends or playing with skateboards on their desks while the teacher was talking. I know that every teacher has frustrating days, but I feel like I’d go crazy in a week of teaching at a junior high school. I can’t believe that students could have such little respect for a teacher that treats them very well. Today was a good experience and I plan to observe the teacher’s methods to quiet down the class more closely next week.