Aaron Josef Kempf
Blog Post 3
Fieldwork – 411
A Return Back, but Far too Soon – 1st Visit to Mrs. Hotlon’s Class
Within my previous blog post I had the opportunity to detail my fears regarding visit 1 to the Mary Holton’s 9th grade English class. After my visit I can confidently confess that of all the times I’ve been wrong, this ranks in the upper tier. The visit was so enlightening and motivating that for a split second, I envisioned myself as a high school teacher after I graduate VMI. Within Journey’s Through Our Classrooms we had the opportunity to read through the educational journeys of both Laura and Alfredo who each learned very differently from one another. I mention this to say that just as these two students have different ways of being motivated and connected with, the students attending the local high school were the same way! No two students learn the same way, and luckily for my partner Casey Marchant and I, we have the opportunity to work with a teacher who not only recognizes this but makes it a priority. A handful of observations I was able to make brought me back to the ideas of Elise when she spoke on educational standards in Virginia. For the sake of blog size, I will share 2 key observations I made and explain their significance to classroom interaction moving forward. Firstly, was the approach of the teacher. Mrs. Holton makes it a focal point of her teaching to engage all students, so regarding the educational approach she used PowerPoint presentation, group work, and videos. This way, if a student doesn’t enjoy one, they are more likely to learn from one of the other avenues. Luckily through all 3 avenues of teaching, all students were consistently engaged and responsive to her lesson. This element of teaching relates to page 82 of Project Based Teaching which explains the importance of “making the most of teamwork” within a classroom. Lastly, I was fascinated that for the entirety of the class time, not one student left the room for any reason. According to reports I’ve heard, the average attention span for a typical student is50 minutes. That means that generally, students will be engaged in a class for no re than an hour! This was not the case at all, as all students remained attentive to the instruction of Mrs. Holton.
I think you picked up on some things that I didn’t, and that is good so we as a unit can have a more well rounded view of our classroom. Good job partner.
I certainly noticed the same thing that you mentioned about all students learning differently when I made my first visit to the high school. It was interesting to see how the teacher approached and worked with each student differently.
Aaron,
I enjoyed your enthusiasm and self-reflective vibe in this post, carrying your journey as a learner from one post to another! It was helpful to see deliberate connections to the reading, and I encourage you to keep finding those bridges between your experiences and our class assignments. You mentioned many of the learning routines discussed in some of your PBL and EL reading, but what exactly was the content engaged that day? What kinds of language/ responses did you hear from students as they engaged? Adding these observations in would help solidify your picture of this Honors 9 English classroom for outside readers.
MaJ Hodde