Quick Intro:
Monterey Trail High School (MTHS) is located immediately adjacent to
Edward Harris Jr. Middle School (EHMS), which I wrote about for observation #1. Similar to EHMS,
MTHS has a block schedule with longer class times and fewer classes per
day - which they must compensate for by having their classes run only
every other quarter instead of lasting all year. MTHS is only in
its second year of operation, and right now they only have students in
grades 9 and 10. They will have higher grades as the current
students advance each year. So right now they only have 927
students, but in two years they will have a student body of about
2000. The students were drawn from 5 of the previously existing
school areas, and the ethnic makeup is about 40% African American, 20%
Asian, 20% Latino, and about 15% white. We learned all of this
from the principal, who was kind enough to spend half an hour or so
talking to us about the school. Since it is so new, the school
seems very clean and in good maintenance.
Beginning
of Class:
Like the algebra class that I observed last week, the teacher started out each class with an "Opener", which was a math problem projected at the front of the classroom. The teacher tried to bring the class to order pretty quickly after the starting bell (in fact she put a lot of effort into getting them organized even before the bell), but the announcements that come after the bell rings seemed to cause the class to lose focus again.
Also at the start of the class the teacher had daily objectives displayed on the center screen using the classroom LCD projector. She encouraged the students at the start of the class to write down their homework that was going to be due the next day right at the beginning of class.
The second session that I attended of Miss Hitchcock's class she had a little more trouble getting the students to sit down and get started. She started a countdown to five and then started naming people who would have to stay late after class (the students who had to stay late stayed less than a minute or so). I noticed that sharpening pencils seems like a pretty popular delaying tactic for the students, which makes me wonder if requiring mechanical pencils would help productivity a little bit.
Class Closure:
To close the class Miss Hitchcock reminded the students of their
homework (which they were asked to copy at the beginning of class) and
reminded them about her study hall hours (she stays late once a week
for a study hall). Class closure was pretty brief, but I figure
with the highly structured routine of a math class there isn't too much
point in belaboring the same pattern every single day.