We often see lower level courses as a way to make the transition for students coming from high school easier. We also see lower level courses as prerequisites for the upper level courses, but what really is the difference between a lower level and an upper level course? I personally think the difference is in a lower level classroom, I expect the classes to be bigger, more general, and not so in depth. In an upper level classroom, I expect the classes to be more interactive and have group projects that you have to do for yourself without the teacher standing and lecturing the whole time. To test this hypothesis, I observed a lower level humanities course, while my partner observed an upper level humanities course. Methodology I chose a major …show more content…
At first, I emailed Dr. Caldwell on January 29th, 2018 and asked to observe his MUS115 class. He replied very quickly to tell me he would've let me observe his Chamber Singers, but I had to decline because they were getting ready for a choral festival, and I wouldn’t have been able to observe during the time I needed to observe. Therefore, I switched to a different course and emailed Dr. Sumpter on the same day to ask if I could observe her MUS273 Piano II class from 1-1:50pm on Monday Feb. 5th, or Wednesday Feb. 7th. When she replied she told me that I would only be able to hear her give verbal interactions and not musical ones because everything was done on a headset. After a couple of back and forth emails we agreed that I would observe on Monday Feb. 5th. After my class I went to Moore Auditorium to find room 141, and although it took me some time considering the confusing hallways down there I managed to find the classroom and enter 10 minutes before class started. When I entered all of the students were in the room, but Dr. Sumpter wasn’t. I went to the side of the room and pulled out my pencil and …show more content…
The class I observed was very hands on, and the students had a good relationship with their professor. They seemed comfortable talking with her, and not just sitting there in silence when she tried to interact with them. She made jokes like "what would Mozart do?'. She seemed very susceptible to pathos. When she went over to the sick student she was listening to what was going on with her and it seemed as though she felt bad for her and was very understanding. I think maybe the class size and major/class may have had something to do with this good student-professor relationship. Since the class was so small and isn’t open to the public as a Gen Ed. Requirement. It was kind of like an upper level course in some ways, but still had some characteristics of a lower level course. In lower level courses students tend to sit further back from the teacher and are very silent unless they have to speak. The students in the class were closer to the teacher and in a very organized style. The students in this course didn’t take notes like in lectures, they were just hands on the whole time. All of the students had their phone secluded away from sight. Meanwhile in most of my lower level courses some of the students are on their phones or at least have their phones on their desk. I don’t particularly know if this class is just a blend between lower level classes or the mood was affected because I was there but
A formal observation was conducted on a tenure history teacher, using the McRel Evaluation tool. Prior to the evaluation, the teacher met with the administrator to discuss the lesson objective and talk about the dynamics and make-up of the classroom. This classroom is a 9th grade inclusion classroom, consisting of a total of 21 students, ten with individual education programs. There are two teachers in the classroom, a general education teacher and a special education teacher. The teacher observed was the general education teacher.
presence within the class they are teaching, if you see this works maybe think about how you as an
This is very understandable due to the fact that he is a teacher, and his role as a teacher prevents him from getting too personal with his students. Moreover, in my opinion, it was very important to keep this barrier between the professor and his students because otherwise they could've lost their respect for him as a teacher.
John Henry is a 15 year old 9th grade student who suffers from ADHD and anxiety disorder. John frequently makes inappropriate verbalizations during teacher’s instructional time. This behavior causes distractions for himself and his peers. The teacher would ask John to stop talking out of turn, but the student only stopped for a short amount of time. The teacher would then pull John out of the classroom to speak one-on-one on some adjustments he can make with his behavior to make his learning more successful. After pulling John out of the classroom, he would be complaint for 2-3 days, but not for a week long period. Afterwards, the parent/guardian were contacted, but the target behavior was still not altered in any way.
Most students feel inferior and intimidated by their instructors. The fear to voice their concerns because they fear their teacher might fail them. The fact is you can't build positive relationship without communication. The mistake students make is to create distance between themselves and their instructors. I had students say that they feel nervous when talking to their instructor. So they will avoid conversation with their instructors at all costs. I think that this is due to inferiority
The classroom observation took place in Chaira’s class at Early Education Center (EEC) in Highland, NY. Chaira class is a self contain (Full day center-based special) class that consist of 12 children, 2 assistant teachers and 2 one to one aides. The age range for this class is from 3 ½-5 years old. EEC starts at 8:45am and ends at 2:30pm. The staff is very friendly and caring to the children. I arrived EEC at 8:30am and talk briefly with the teacher. She discussed the agenda for the class. She invited me to interact with the children in the class. This allowed me to observe and get hands on experience working with preschool children.
Classes became “lifeless and petrified”, as Freire says. I had few teachers who attempted to follow the problem-posing model of education, to interact more with students and communicate with, and not to, them. These teachers were always some of the favorite teachers in the school, and taught classes students enjoyed. Students were more willing to work in these classes, as they felt they had a more important role in how and what they learned.
“What’s your story?” “Why are you here?” “What happened?” “What have you learned from this class?” “What kind of impact will you have on your society?” These are just a few of the questions Professor Conti made me think about as we stepped into the final weeks of our semester. From that moment on, I knew that within this semester Professor Conti stepped away from the stereotypical classroom. He cares about his students and rather than relying on textbook material; he used their words and experiences in order to develop a very enjoyable and worth while class.
We are more than halfway through the quarter and it has definitely been an exciting journey for me as a course assistant. Based on my observations and discussions with students inside and outside of class, they are starting to feel comfortable to sharing their thoughts and opinions during class discussions. I believe that this is mainly because of the reading/discussion group that the other course assistant and I host every other Sundays.
Some even seem to possess a sense of entitlement and believe they should put minimal effort in their courses .Rather than wanting to acquire knowledge for its own sake, an increasing number of students simply want to be entertained in class. Characteristics of the millennial generation may make this particular group of students more prone to classroom incivility than previous generation. Other related causes include medication or other substances students may be taking, illness (both physical and mental),fatigue, stress (feeling overextended), emotional challenges (loss of loved one or break up of a relationship), emotional immaturity and poor problem solving skills, attention seeking, redirected aggression (when a student becomes upset with a professor due to an unrelated event that occurred outside the classroom), vision and hearing problem or other disabilities. In regards to stress, some students are often joggling multiple roles.
Once the students walk into a classroom they take a seat in one of the desks that are usually facing the professor’s desk and the board. I have not seen one occasion where a student walks into class and sits in the professor’s desk, because that is not that norm. Once the professor begins to lecture the students sit quietly, and raise their hand when they have a question or a comment. These are all norms that students were taught since the begging of their education, and because of these norms I have seen respectable and stable behaviors in all of my courses. Also the expectations professors and students have for respectable behaviors supports and ensure that the same behavior becomes stable within the classes.
Relationships like this can evolve due to the student being eager to take advantage of every opportunity to interact and seek help from the professor and the professor allowing these interactions and arranging special places and times for them to interact on a daily basis. This can lead to the student and professor becoming extremely comfortable with one another, which results in a professional and personal relationship occurring simultaneously. This is a dangerous situation for both the professor and students. As a result, the professor can be at a risk of losing his job, certification, or marriage. For the student, it may be difficult to drop the class due to short staffing or limited class sections requiring the student to have to remain in contact with the professor.
In this elementary school, there are three first-grade classrooms and they have pretty much the same decoration and organization.
To further the children understanding the properties of matter, the lesson will be a hands on activity to demonstrate the differences between a solid, liquid, and gases. As the instructor, I would introduce the terms matter, solids, liquid, and gases instead of focusing on the terminology I would focus on the shapes of solid, liquid, and gases. I would show the students various objects that would represent solid, liquid, and gas for example, I would show the solid objects and ask them what kind of shape is this or what shape do you see? The properties of liquid I would have a glass of water and various containers, I would poor the water and ask the students what shape is the water and how does the water change when poured into the
In addition, during my observation even if this was my first day, I observed the different levels of intelligence of the students based on how they answer the question and how they react in the discussion. I also noticed their behavior inside the classroom, students at the back were very noisy, and busy doing unnecessary things.