School Visit

One purpose of the previous post was to describe the in-school visit I made as part of the career-changers program, which I then forgot to include. So here it is, in a post all its own:

I went to a school where most students are "at risk" kids... low income, often single-parent households, etc. My assignment was to shadow a teacher throughout her day, and deliver a 15 minute presentation to one of her classes so that she could assess my ability to interact with the kids, my "front of class" presence, etc. That went fine. The fascinating part was my observations of the classroom when I wasn't presenting. My assigned teacher (I'll call her Miss Marple) taught three Algebra II classes (1 1/2 hours each) and had one free period. During her free period, I sat in on Mr. Poirot's geometry class. Miss Marple was enthusiastic, energetic and clearly enjoyed interacting with the kids, respecting them and what they had to say. Mr. Poirot, when I introduced myself and described why I was in the school, spent 10 minutes telling me what a horrible job it is -- the kids are disrespectful, the system is broken, no one can teach anything and no students can or will learn, the pay is terrible, etc., etc. Miss Marple's students were respectful (within the constraints of being 16- and 17-year-old kids), took the class seriously and were clearly trying to learn. Mr. Poirot's students fully lived up to his expectations -- they were disrespectful, disinterested, surly and uncooperative. He spent as much time as possible avoiding interaction -- lecturing on terminology and then an enormous amount of class time on individual work that was essentially the day's homework.

It was the clearest demonstration I could ever hope to have that the teacher is the one who determines how the interaction will go... There's no reason teaching kids can't be fun, involving and rewarding, if the teacher is willing to put in the effort to meet the kids halfway. On the other hand, it can be hell if the teacher makes it so. At least, that was my takeaway. I am virtually certain the program designers didn't set the school visit up in this way to make that point, but they probably should.