Here, There, and Everywhere

For the observation I have been piggy-backing at Colquitz Middle School with Kathy. Our first week was spent mostly observing the music classes. At Colquitz, there are more general music classes than performance groups because of the exploratory program. It is very interesting to see how general music varies from performance based groups such as band or choir.
Perhaps the most valuable thing that we did was observe other classes. I observed/participated language arts classes, PE classes, several art classes, a drama rehearsal, a few clubs, and a social studies lesson. It was interesting to see how differently teachers cope with the same behavior problems or to observe the varied class structures. Talking with each of the teachers, one main topic or “words of advice” always came up: you never end up where you think you'll end up. One teacher's area was originally science and everyone thought she'd be in elementary school, but she's in the middle school teaching art, drama, and a little classroom teaching. Another was a PE student teacher who ended up getting her home ec diploma. One more wanted high school but it turned out that she loved teaching middle school students more. The “lesson” they all wanted us to know is to try everything because you never know what or where you'll end up teaching.
In talking to each of these teachers, when talking about students with behaviour problems, in pretty much every instance, the teacher said that they had behaviour problems but they were really a good kid. That is really important to distinguish – the behaviour from the actual kid. There are reasons why the student is behaving that way, in most cases.
These two weeks have been absolutely wonderful and I find that I've enjoyed my entire observation period completely. My most favourite part about the observation was getting to know the students. Maybe it's because I was allowed to be weird and make expressive faces. Though my practicum will be with a different age group (grades 8-12), I would definitely consider teaching at a middle school.