February 19, 2017 - 23:59
My placement is at a STEM bases high school in West Philadelphia. I am in two Math classes, Algebra 2 and Calculus. Although the same teacher teaches both classes, the difference in the atmosphere is striking. The Algebra 2 class is the first class of the day. My first day was a half day so it was hard to tell if some things happened because the day was shorter or if it was apart of a regular daily routine. The first thing I noticed when I was in the class was that a student was writing the period time blocks from the teacher's laptop onto the board. I thought it was interesting because at my high school, everyone knew the schedules inside and out especially the schedules for half days. Once I was settled in, I sat down at a table with four other students with the handout that was given to the students. A few minutes passed and one of the students asks me which grade I'm in. I told her that I was a sophomore in college which was a shock to her because she thought I was in high school.
The Algebra 2 class was full. By full I mean that evey desk had at least two students sitting at it. At times the teacher whom I am going to call Ms J, had to ssshhhed the class. Sometmes I didn't understans why because compared to my high school classes, the class was fairly quiet. There might have been a couple students quietly whispering but nothing really noticeable. Another thing that I noticed was that this class involved a fair amount of collaboration not just between students but also with the teacher. The class was working on a worksheet and before and after each section is completed the whole class discuss what the goal of the section is and eventually the results from each section. I thought that it was a good strategy because it allowed the students to work by themselves while also collaborating with each other. The only downside to this was that some questions on the worksheet were incredibly vague even I did not know what it was asking. It could be really confusing if the question you are trying to answer is not really direct.
The second class, calculus, was a 180 from the Algebra 2 class. At first I didn't even recognize that class had already started becuase they were so little students in the class. This class was fairly independtly run by the students. Almost all the students were on their laptops. I almost didn't recognize that Ms J was still in the class because she wasn't being used by the students. They were all working on their own. There were these two students who I am going to call John and Jake. John and Jake had a presentation that was worth a large portion of their grade but Jake was missing in action until another student found him. When John and Jake tarted their presentation, I knew they were not confident from their demeanor. Jake was flustered and John was stressed. Although I learnt a little, I noticed that they were having a hard time explaining why the things they are saying is true and Ms J was questioning them to see how much they really understood. it was not the best presentation that I have ever seen but I had some advice for them. I told Jake to try teaching the content to himself becuase onece he can teach it to himself then he can teach it to anyone else and he really seemed to understand what I was saying. I think he realised in that moment that he didn't know how to explain the content to himself so he was having a hard time explaining it to the entire class. Ms J stated her disappointment to them but I understood why it was so hard for him to explain.