Class Observations - Glendale School of Science and Technology

It has been said that you learn more from a bad day than from a good week. I would contest that this is true. While I'm sure every teacher dreads being observed on a bad day, such was the case when I observed a grade 6 math class at the Glendale School of Science and Technology. Students ranging from disruptive to disengaged, it was reminiscent of kindergarteners without the thirst for knowledge. Of course, any teacher can work with well-behaved students who listen and learn. It takes mettle to endure the days and students who challenge us. Conversing with the teacher briefly through the day, he explained challenges you face as a teacher that the other observations neglected to cover. For example, many students in his grade 6 class read at a grade 3 level or lower. This compounded a lot of learning issues, since if you can't read the materiel, how can you be expected to learn it? Another challenge was the fact that many of his students came from rough living situations. These students were not being assisted at home in their learning, and they were placed in their grade with the expectations to operate at a grade 6 level. These students are essentially set up for failure, and of course it becomes your fault as the teacher when it happens.

Having a teacher level with you on a real and honest level is a valuable treat to aspiring teachers. And to be honest, it was not intimidating or discouraging to talk about or observe. In fact, it had quite the opposite effect on me. As the kids were doing questions from their workbook, I had the chance to circle the room and interact with each table, helping students with their questions and trying my hand at using creative teaching methods to help them understand the concepts of fractions. I would use questions on the page as examples, one to show them the concept, one to help them with the concept, and one to let them solve on their own to ensure they understood the concept. I felt such pride and fulfillment when I saw their eyes twinkle once the understanding hit them. Once they grasped what mere minutes before had them frustrated or despairing, and once they took off to solve the rest of those previously impossible questions. Within an hour, students were calling me Mr. Walker and asking me to come help them with questions further in their book. That was the moment I knew teaching was for me.

Many of these kids would have scared off prospective teachers. They were the kids you expect to see in movies about the teacher who tames the unruly classes, the classes that chewed up and spit out lesser teachers. And even though I was there for half a day, I fell in love with that class. They were the kids that needed help the most. The kids who challenged you and made you grow. But most importantly, they kids where you could make the biggest difference with. And that is the highest calling a teacher can ask for; to make a difference, to change a life for the better. And it isn't something I had to travel to Detroit or the slums to do; it could be done not three stone throws from where I grew up.

This observation taught me that I had a passion for the broken, a love for the unloved and a desire for the undesirable. And I learned that in a grade 6 math class.