Beachwood Education Field Blog

After going to Beachwood Middle school I was very shocked from the initial feelings I felt after walking out to the bus. The first class that I was placed in Mrs. Norton's 6th grade spanish class while they were having a "fiesta" in the cafeteria. The kids were very rambunctious and energetic. Many were running around like ants and had a hard time listening when she had told them to sit down and wait patently for the rest of the food to be made. While some kids were helping Mrs.Norton scoop avocado for the guacamole, others were arranging the food that they had brought in. I was very impressed to see what a generous amount of food they had brought in. It looked like the kids were very excited to share and to eat this meal! Although, it was very loud in the cafeteria there was one experience that was very hard to watch. There was one boy that would not listen and was screaming and shouting rude comments at other kids and encouraged his friends to toss the bags of chips around with him. Mrs.Norton had to furiously yell at him at the top of her lungs and make sure that he sat right next to her and was the last to get food. In addition, I heard a few girls sitting at a table laughing at him and making fun of the boy. This really upset me and reminded me how much bullying can occur in middle school and what a difficult stage of life it is for these kids. I think it is safe to say that at this age many are trying to find out who they are and could have many insecurities due to the pressure of wanting to fit in. Another thing I had noticed was that the classroom had a lot of diversity and and they seemed to interact equally to one another even though there were cliques of girls. After observing this classroom I had felt personally that I may not enjoy teaching 6th grade but can not base this opinion after only one experience.

My second placement was in Mr.Smith's 8th grade english class. Right away I had noticed that a lot of the kids seemed very mature and focused. Mr.Smith started talking about recent projects and assignments which had clearly shown that he expected a lot out of his students. Throughout the whole class they went over their vocabulary homework and many of the kids knew some very hard and difficult words to comprehend! Although they were just going through the book, Mr.Smith made it interesting and fun with his powerful voice and even made the students a bet for extra credit if they could get 20 questions right in a row. He made sure that every kid had rose their hand and had encouraged a few that were shy at first to do so. Overall, his enthusiasm about english made me even more excited to teach english if I do so in the future. By observing in his classroom, I feel like I am leaning towards the older side of the spectrum of kids if I were to be teaching middle school in the future.