I thoroughly enjoyed my job shadow with Miss Kline at Harrison Parkway Elementary. It was a truly rewarding experience and it was so much fun to be there at school all day and see how everything runs together before the time when I typically arrive.
One thing that I loved was getting to see Math Workshop. I had only seen the students doing math one other time this year and it was extremely cool to see how their minds worked during math. Their minds are all incredibly creative, which I get to witness every day during Reader’s Workshop, Writer’s Workshop, and inquiry, but I loved seeing how they incorporated that creativity into their Math Workshop. They worked on finding perimeter and area of different irregular shapes as a challenge question at the end of the warm up, and I loved seeing them try to work out what they could do to find out the dimensions of the different shapes which they broke the irregular shapes up into.
One thing that surprised me during my observation was seeing the different mannerisms the students showed throughout the day. They were all super excited – and somewhat confused – to see me standing by the doorway in the morning, but the excitement quickly gave out to clear exhaustion when the time came for class to start. I felt like, collectively, it was a completely different class than what I come to in the afternoons. After the first mood change, it was almost like an energy roller coaster for the rest of the day. They would all have so much energy after specials, and then come back from lunch exhausted again. It was definitely difficult to keep them on track with all the varying levels of energy.
I definitely gained an appreciation for how tiring it is to be an all-day teacher. By the time specials rolled around, I was totally ready for a short break in the day. The same thing happened again at lunch – I felt like I needed to get off my feet. It was funny for me to eat in the teachers’ lounge, because while I have been inside it many times before, it still seems like it’s off-limits, especially when there are teachers eating inside. It was also super entertaining just to listen to the conversations all the teachers were having.
All in all, I had an amazing time and this experience has solidified the idea for me that I definitely want to teach when I grow up. It was so fun to just see the students change throughout the day but always give it their all. I loved seeing the different ways their brains worked compared to each other and compared to themselves at different parts throughout the day.
One thing that I loved was getting to see Math Workshop. I had only seen the students doing math one other time this year and it was extremely cool to see how their minds worked during math. Their minds are all incredibly creative, which I get to witness every day during Reader’s Workshop, Writer’s Workshop, and inquiry, but I loved seeing how they incorporated that creativity into their Math Workshop. They worked on finding perimeter and area of different irregular shapes as a challenge question at the end of the warm up, and I loved seeing them try to work out what they could do to find out the dimensions of the different shapes which they broke the irregular shapes up into.
One thing that surprised me during my observation was seeing the different mannerisms the students showed throughout the day. They were all super excited – and somewhat confused – to see me standing by the doorway in the morning, but the excitement quickly gave out to clear exhaustion when the time came for class to start. I felt like, collectively, it was a completely different class than what I come to in the afternoons. After the first mood change, it was almost like an energy roller coaster for the rest of the day. They would all have so much energy after specials, and then come back from lunch exhausted again. It was definitely difficult to keep them on track with all the varying levels of energy.
I definitely gained an appreciation for how tiring it is to be an all-day teacher. By the time specials rolled around, I was totally ready for a short break in the day. The same thing happened again at lunch – I felt like I needed to get off my feet. It was funny for me to eat in the teachers’ lounge, because while I have been inside it many times before, it still seems like it’s off-limits, especially when there are teachers eating inside. It was also super entertaining just to listen to the conversations all the teachers were having.
All in all, I had an amazing time and this experience has solidified the idea for me that I definitely want to teach when I grow up. It was so fun to just see the students change throughout the day but always give it their all. I loved seeing the different ways their brains worked compared to each other and compared to themselves at different parts throughout the day.