Observation Reflection

Now that I have finished my field observation, I feel as though I should reflect on what I have accomplished and learned this semester. Looking back on my experience, even though it seems like I didn’t do that much in my classroom, I learned so much about the teaching profession this semester from working with students and relating what I was learning in class to what I saw in the classroom. What I enjoyed most about my observation time was working with the students. That is something I always love to do and I will miss a lot. Most of my time was spent helping students with their assignments since they worked individually during class, but I learned so much by working individually with students. I was able to talk with them and look at what they were learning from their perspective and try to help them better understand it. When I first started observing, I was nervous when answering students’ questions because I was afraid that I couldn’t help them. Over the semester, I found that I was able to answer most of them and help the students. During my last two weeks of observation my cooperating teacher was absent, so I was able to help the students even more because many of the substitute teachers didn’t know what the class was learning about. These two weeks gave me so much confidence in working with these students. I just wish that this confidence had come earlier.

I really enjoyed observing my cooperating teacher this semester also. He has such a creative teaching style that is uncommon in most teachers. I’m not exactly sure how to describe it other than that he treats his students with complete respect. Unlike many teachers that I’ve had, he treated his students like adults and had discussions with them about issues affecting society. During my last day of observation, he showed a video about the genocide going on in Sudan and asked the students what they thought about it. He also gave them a fifty point extra credit opportunity to think of something to do about it and do it. He gave examples such as sending money to an organization that would help those in Sudan or writing a letter to a government official asking them to do something about the problem. After class, he spent extra time talking with a student that was very interested in this situation and had strong feelings about what should be done. This teaching method of questioning and improving society reminds me of Dewey’s philosophy of education. There are dozens of other teaching techniques that mu cooperating teacher has done that I can relate to readings that we have done over the semester. I feel very lucky that I was able to work with him and prepare to become a teacher while observing him.

Now that I have finished my field observation, I miss it terribly. I can’t wait to get back in the classroom and start working with students again. One question that I still haven’t fully answered is my feeling about teaching junior high school students. Each week I seemed to have a different opinion, either hating the idea of having to work with them or thinking about the possibility. I am, however, very excited to continue to work with children of all ages. This was a wonderful experience and I can’t wait to get back into the classroom.