My trip to visit Maury River Middle School was best described by surprise in the best possible way. From the onset of our visit, we were taken aback by the building itself. The newness, the design, and most surprisingly the teacher’s pride of the facilities. The first comment made while we signed in was for us to admire the aquatic inspiration and details embedded into the school itself to pay homage to the Maury River itself. Once we got to our class, in which the students where purposefully rearranging the desks into a round table, we took our seats. The teacher had brought breakfast for all of her students and insisted that the students eat, something that showed a level of care for her students that I had not expected. There is a project-based learning poster hanging in the back of the class, displaying student’s quality work as what I can assume to be for inspiration for whatever the students choose as their project to tackle. The teacher went on to explain how all of the students had applied to be there and went around asking what all the students wanted out of the future project in their class charter. Their collective responses can be summed by one student’s answer, “serious yet fun”. They enumerated what makes something fun to them. This could be summed up by confidence in a project and working together. I was surprised by the affluence of their answers to what would make a school project fun. The teacher kept encouraging them to speak up in their answers, something that I felt would serve to boost their confidences. Through all of this, I had assumed that this group of students where the best the middle school had to offer. I had thought that they had applied and stood out academically among their peers. It was not until the end in which the teacher confided in us that these students where actually students who all were struggling readers and had a host of other academic challenges. Students who did not volunteer information in other classes willingly who felt like they could contribute within this environment. This environment demonstrated many of the key EL education design principles, specifically the responsibility for learning. To them, the work they were doing in this class went beyond just schoolwork to them. It was learning in their own personal and collective learning together. They were truly unexpected scholars.
I felt a very similar experience of flashbacks. Good post.
Sam, thanks for sharing. I enjoyed reading about how excited you were about your visit and learning about how the classroom seemed to operate.
A heck of a surprise it must have been to learn that these were actually the kids who weren’t strong readers! This enforces the idea that you can’t judge a book by its cover. I have a great appreciation for how open minded you were going into the visit and I think this will allow you to observe many aspects that other people may miss out on.
Your post shows the potential of EL learning and its ability to get engagement from students. It is telling that the students want to contribute, since they have a choice now.
I enjoyed how you noticed the details of the environment and how it related to Maury River, because I didn’t even notice that. Additionally, it seems like you focused on your teacher more so than I did which offers another interesting perspective.
I had completely forgotten how the students’ teacher was constantly encouraging them to speak up. This visit also surprised me about how much a class or project could impact students, not only educationally but also help build their mental strength.
Sam, What a nice theme to choose for your observational post; for me it brings up the idea of self-efficacy, or the perspective we have towards our own learning. It seems that all the pieces were in place to support such a perspective. I did wonder a bit more about the content of the session-what was their focus, and why? It’s also helpful to name your teacher and the age of the students to create context for the reader.
MAJ Hodde