Learning Log Reflection

In the beginning (and a little now) I wrote exactly every detail that happened in the different classes I’ve observed and wasn’t really writing a lot of questions and assumptions. I was solely an observer. Now I think I am more of an active participant. Specifically in my Literature and Social Studies classes, I ask questions to the students and work with them when they’re doing group work and hand out and collect homework. Although I’ve been taking less notes, I think that I’m learning a lot more through experience. I think that students respect me more for this and now truly realize that I’m there to help them learn, not to just watch them learn.

One thing I’ve been wondering about a lot is the way that teachers deal with behavioral issues. I’ve noticed a lot at the Center School that teachers deal with these issues by calling out a student in front of the entire class and making an example of them. We’ve learned a little about this in our classes and some of our reading explicitly state that this is the wrong way to deal with situations. For example, a student was late to social studies class one day and when the student walked in, the teacher said to him loudly, “Where were you? Why are you late? Where is your notebook?” and sent the student back outside to go get his belongings from his locker. It turns out the student had a conflict with his schedule and was talking to his advisor about it. This caused a huge disruption in the class and it took the other students a few moments to calm back down. The late student missed a few minutes of an important lesson and was really embarrassed. I don’t know how I would have dealt with this situation but I don’t think this teachers reaction was the correct way.