My first Week

This week really opened my eyes in becoming a teacher. It seemed like all of my other clinical were worthless until now. I was placed at Beverly Middle Schools observing a sixth grade social studies classroom. The classroom I am in has a wide variety of students ranging from high level to level students. The teacher I am with runs his classroom the same exact way I want to. He is very strict, but runs and controls a great classroom. The students are expected to raise their hand, not to talk without permission and respect the classroom, the students, and teachers in the building. The students respect him, because he’s not only teaching them social studies, but he is also teaching the students how to act in life. He is doing this by teaching them manners, having them say thank you and yes ma’am or sir. He rewards students almost daily when they read aloud, get an “A” on a test or when they win a review game. The rewards are called “mayas”. What this teacher does is, he prints out yellow pieces of paper with the word “Mayas” on the top, a place for their name and the date. This system allows students to buy paper, pens, pencils, and even extra credit points. The system works great, because it allows students to save the “mayas” and buy something they really need. This reminds me of chapter 4 of Marzano titles Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition. This teacher is reinforcing the students when they do something good by providing them with “mayas”. Therefore, when students will in turn behave and participate in order to earn “mayas”. The students in the class are great. Friday, I was allowed to teach a lesson. The lesson went very well and I feel the students retained the information I taught to them. Students asked many questions pertaining to the subject and I also asked questions to the students to see if they understood what was being taught. I start my lesson on the sixteenth of March and cannot wait to start. I was very unsure about teaching at a middle school. I wasn’t sure if I was capable of teaching younger students. Now that I’m here, I think that teaching middle school is the place to be. It seems that almost every day there is something new and exciting going on in the classroom.