Teaching Observation #3

Class Procedures and Rules
Brian Harmon Algebra 2 and Mr. Halseth Algebra 1
at Sheldon High School

Quick Description of School and Classrooms:

Sheldon High School (SHS) is located only a few miles from Monterey Trail High School (MTHS), which I wrote about for observation #2.  However, there are  a lot of differences between the two schools.  Sheldon is an established school with the normal ratio of 9th through 12th graders (MTHS was a new school and only had 9th and 10th graders), and Sheldon has a much larger and more crowded "feel" than Monterey Trail did.  On top of that, the buildings seem a little nicer because of the brick facades, and of course all of the shrubs and trees are more established, which makes the school seem a lot less barren.

The students are different as well, with a significantly less ethnically diverse mix.  Ironically, even though there was a lot lower ratio of African Americans and Hispanics, it was only in Sheldon that I saw students sporting the "jeans around the knees" look that was first started by the gangsta rap culture.  My guess is that Sheldon serves a higher income population than Monterey Trail does, and so gang dress is accepted as more of a fashion statement by middle class wannabes as opposed to being an actual identification of gang membership.

The classrooms were organized a little more informally, with the desks pushed together into groups of two or three, with rows between the groups.  This seemed to make the walkways a little wider and easier to navigate.  The desks themselves are actually composed of separate tables and chairs - not the chairs with the small bolted on tables that are common in MTHS and around the Sac State campus.  I have to say that this style of desk looks easier to work on since there is a lot more surface area to hold your stuff.

SHS follows a block schedule similar to MTHS.

Class Procedures and Rules:

Mr. Harmon's Class:  As seems to be standard in all the math classes I have observed so far, the teacher started out each class with an "Opener", which was a set of math problems projected at the front of the classroom.

The teacher didn't put a lot of effort into bringing the class to order before the announcements were made after the bell.  This seemed to me to save a lot of energy since all the classes I've observed always fall back into disorder during the announcements anyway.  In any case, the teacher seemed less discipline oriented than my prior observations - probably because Algebra 2 is a higher level class and the kids at that level are pretty motivated to get the work done.

While the students did the openers, the teacher put the start of the homework problems up on the white board.  Volunteers were picked to complete the problems.  Students traded homework for grading.

After the homework was graded, the students each grabbed a small white board and started doing polynomial factoring problems on the boards (nice way to save paper).  After the problems, the teacher asked for volunteers to give out answers to the problems.  Volunteers were rewarded with a piece of candy that they were allowed to eat immediately at their desks.  It's amazing how such a basic reward system works all the way up through the higher grades.

Finally, the students were assigned that evening's homework and given some time in class to complete it.  Additional lecture was left out that period because they were at the end of a unit with a test due the next day, and the teacher didn't want to start the next unit yet.  I wandered around to see if I could help with the homework, and very quickly found myself giving the wrong answer to a couple of students for one of the problems.  I guess that was my first lesson at screwing up and trying not to look like a total jackass about it.  I think I might have some more lessons coming in that unit.

In the last few minutes of class the students were wandering about at will and lining up at the door.  Again, I can't really picture that being tolerated in the lower level classes I have observed so far.  After class I asked some quick questions related to rules:

• Selecting seat mates - the students submit a request for location and partner, and the teacher generally grants it unless he thinks a discipline problem is likely.
• The main rule is to respectfully listen when someone is presenting.  Otherwise talking is okay as long as it is not disruptive and does not pull the class off task.
• The hierarchy of consequences for bad behavior starts with teacher proximity as a reminder to stop the behavior, then escalates through bending down to talk, pulling them outside to talk, detention and OCS.
• Mr. Harmon recommended that it is easier to start out with a high level of discipline and relax it later rather than try to do things the other way around (no doubt!).
  

Mr. Halseth's Class:  On my second day of observation, all of the juniors and seniors were pulled out of class to attend a demonstration put on by the California Highway Patrol about driving safety (this was timed to be prior to the junior prom).  From what I could tell, this activity involved two parts:  First, there was some sort of big gathering to hear a speech and see a demonstration of a crash.  Then during the rest of the day they pulled a student out of a random class every 15 minutes to dramatize the fact that a person dies every 15 minutes (on average) from an accident involving a drunk driver.  Anyway, Mr. Harmon's class was composed of mostly juniors and seniors so it was pretty empty that day.  So, he sent me to Mr. Halseth's algebra 1 class to observe.

Mr Halseth spent the first 20 minutes or so of class talking to the students about the demonstration - I guess so they wouldn't be too freaked out later when they saw the 7 foot tall grim reaper walking about to pull kids out of class.

Rather than discussing everything that Mr. Halseth did during class, I think I will use this opportunity to contrast the two teachers:

• Mr. Halseth preferred to do almost all his work on the white board, and never used the LCD projector (Mr. Harmon used the LCD projector quite a bit).  This seemed like a style thing, not something related to the class level.
  
• Mr. Halseth checked in with students a lot more frequently to see if they were picking stuff up.
• Mr. Halseth was a lot more oriented towards going through every step very carefully, never doing a couple of things at once between one line of solution and another.

I think a lot of the difference in teaching style was probably due to the fact that Mr. Halseth's students were less advanced by two years of instruction.