The Art of Teaching and My Observation in Classes

The art of Teaching and my observation in classes

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Culminating Field Experience Portrichmond High School

During this semester I have learned many things about education. I want to become a good Spanish teacher for students in middle and high school. Being observing the students and the teachers help me to understand how important is education and teaching. Teaching is not just preparing a class and follow a curriculum and giving it. Teaching goes much further than that.

The school I was observing is High School in Port Richmond, where grades are served: 09, 10, 11, 12, SE. There are about 1,586 students. Student Demographics are: Asian: 7% | Black: 25% | Hispanic: 45% | White: 23%, English Language Learners: 7%, Student with Special Needs 26%. The Student Attendance: 86% (City: 89%), Students Chronically Absent: 35% (City: 31%) and Teacher Attendance: 97%. I think that students and teachers have a good percentage of attendance. About the school, I thought it was a clean school, the people are very respectful, the securities are kind. The first day I was at school, the person I had to talk to was not there, but she had left everything organized so that they could hand it over to me, such as the schedule of the teachers I was going to observe, and the information from her in case I had any doubts, this shows me something, that even though the person who had to attend to me could not be there for some reason, she left everything ready so that I could receive it, she did a good job and I think is important that the school gives importance to people who come from outside. On my first day of observation, I got lost, but whenever I asked where there was the room that I was looking for a security guy guiding me. This, for me, left a lot to say about the school. Many people talk about schools that are bad, or they are good, but I think this school has many good things.

About the school, in my opinion, the school looks more like a correctional school, since there are many walls with little light and the windows have bars, like those in a jail. Inside the school, there are many security guys and policemen and that also makes it look like a juvenile correction more than a school, but I imagine it is for the safety of the students. The school is large, the hallways are large and spacious, this is good for students at the time of changing from one class to another and for students with physical disabilities, so all students can move freely. The school also have stairs, outdoor spaces for sports, inside the school there are several elevators, which allows access to students and teachers with physical disabilities. During the observation in this school, I saw that there were many students with physical disabilities, such as students in wheelchairs, and I saw that the school was very well adapted for this type of students

Talking about the classrooms, first, I noticed that the classrooms are clean and organized. In the Spanish class, the teachers have decorated the room with flags of different countries with the names in Spanish. Most of the things in the room are labeled. for example, chair- "silla" computer- "computador", this helps a lot the students who take ESL, since it creates a more comfortable environment with the area that is being taught, in this case, it is learning Spanish. Apart from the decoration, inside the classroom where the students' chairs sometimes separated and other times in groups, when the chairs are grouped is when the students are placed in groups so they can work with other classmates and contribute different opinions or help themselves. with each other

In my observation, I had the opportunity to see how different teachers taught their students, the techniques they use and how students respond to these teachers when they are teaching a class. For example, I was in Mrs. Zayas' class. She is a teacher who teaches Spanish to students in grades 10 and 11. During her classes, I observed that she has many students with disabilities, for example, there was a Hispanic student who is in a wheelchair, but he was very sweet and intelligent, another student who has a physical and verbal disability, others who attend with their tutors. Mrs. Zayas at the end of the class told me that 50% of the class has a physical or another type of disability. In my opinion, this generates a challenge for her as to give the approach to each student according to their capacity not only physical but also intellectual.

Another teacher is Mr. Roman, he also teaches Spanish to students from grades 9 to 12. What I like about this teacher is how his students love and respect him. his classes are very fun and entertaining. he is always happy, greets all the students, the times in which I was observing him I always saw him with a smile in his mouth, this leaves a lot to say about a teacher. Mr. Roman likes to teach and his students enjoy the classes with him. I also realized that the students like him. I also see that Mr. Roman a recognition of the schools in 2012 for being one of the best teachers in the school, I think he deserves it. During one of the classes with Mr. Roman I saw that one of the students did not want to participate during the lesson class, Mr. Roman approached him and talk to him and try to get him to participate in the class, he is very serious but same time fun when talking. It does not cost much to get the attention of the student, that lets me see that Mr. Roman knows his students very well and how to do so that a student does not lose their motivation during class

During the semester in classes, we talk about culturally relevant pedagogy, where we talk about three important aspects such as academic achievement that is preparing students for exams, for grades and for their graduation. another, it was cultural competence, which is the ability to interact with different cultures, respecting their cultures, their traditional practices, and their beliefs and we also talk about sociopolitical consciousness, where they talk about what happens outside in the world, the economic differences between the rich and the poor, differences between genders. I put this because, during my observation at school, I could see that there are differences in terms of pedagogy, preparing a student to successfully accomplish their achievements not only depends on how a teacher teaches, but understand