My Teaching Placement

It has been a crazy few weeks since my last post. Between a vehicular collision occurring in Columbus, Ohio in August, to my best friend getting married on Saturday, I have had my fair share of experiences. In the midst of these happenings, is my student teaching assignment in an actual high school in Michigan!

I have been paired with a Teaching Mentor and it has been a blast so far. The classes that he will be teaching (some of which I will be taking over next semester) are three freshman Civics/Economics classes, APUSH (United States Government), and AP Government and Politics. He has a tough love approach to the students. As I observed how the class was managed the first day, he mandated that all bags and personal belongings must be placed in the front of the classrooms (this includes cell phones, purses, etc) and that students are only to bring a pencil and paper/notebook to their seats. And if there was a worry as to the safety of expensive items such as phones, calculators etc, then the students were advised not keep them in their lockers! This is just one example of the classroom management that I had observed.

He began the class with big bolded letters on the whiteboard "YOU MUST PASS THIS CLASS TO GRADUATE." He followed this up with statistics, saying that one in three of them statistically are not going to be able to graduate. He went on to explain that if they fail this class, they will be back next year to take it again as it is a required class for graduation. He impressed it upon the students that they needed and were able to pass this class. At this point, he launches into an explanation of how he will help them. In his explanation, he kills two birds with one stone. He explains the structure of the class which will help them study for the test.

So an ideal class that he has laid out looks like this: Without the teacher needing to say anything, students walk in and immediately place all their belongings except a pencil and paper in the front, find their assigned seat and begin to furiously copy down the questions and vocabulary words. -- And that was exactly how my second day in school was like, these students caught on fast.

The high school is a very interesting, there are striking disparities throughout the school! One can see their priorities by observing what is around in the school. There are Smartboards in every classroom, yet the computers are not so up to date and thus lag when playing videos and opening programs. They have a very very beautiful library, which contrasts with their bathrooms which look like they were last renovated in the 60's! While every classroom has a Smartboard, each teachers' supplies for the year consist of two yellow notebooks, and two boxes of pens.

Nevertheless, I have my own ID, keys, and desk! I am still adjusting to students calling me Mr. Tan. I will be sure to let you all know when I get used to it.