Being the Teacher's Shadow

Today I went to Portage West Middle School and shadowed an English Language Arts teacher. She is primarily sixth grade but also teaches one class of seventh graders. 

When I arrived at the school I signed into the office, found the teacher in the computer lab. She was excited to meet me and ready for questions. She talked a lot about her decision to become a teacher. She was unsure of what to do, went to KVCC for a few years, then came to WMU and started to study business, learning shortly that it was not for her. Then she took a career exploration class which helped her to realize that her good influences were within the school system. She had had a great English teacher that had opened her eyes to really loving English. When she became a teacher, this same woman became her mentor within the school in her first years. She has been teaching now for fifteen years! I asked her a few more questions, but I want to save them for my paper :)

The first class was called six plus, which was basically the regular English class. She has this same class first and third hour, which I found very interesting, so that they can have a break from the class. (To keep them engaged!) They were working on grammar such as the use of commas and were typing a novel. This was a biography of someone over the age of thirty that they had decided to interview and write about. The finished product will have six chapters and is a project that takes quite a long time in sixth grade. I got to engage with the students, helping with formatting and spelling. This definitely was exciting for me, although I wanted to take over the class!

One huge difference from the middle school I attended was the diversity. There were many different races, languages, and types of children. They all got along, respected each other, spoke in different languages to each other, and I was intrigued because this was not normal in my school years. 

I also sat in on a class called FLEX, which is a reading program for kids that need extra time to work on their reading skills. There were only seven students because after you meet certain credentials, you graduate out of the class. The teacher set up three stations: one with her, one with a teacher aid, and one for an online reading program. The students spent about thirteen minutes in each station to work on fluency, speed, and comprehension. I really enjoyed working with these struggling students because it was rewarding to see them improve even within the hour.

Lastly I sat in on a class with a teacher that was new to middle school, but had taught at an alternative high school for eighteen years. We did not get any time to chat, which I would've loved to. In this class sixth graders were starting to read Esperanza Rising. They had learned a little background on Mexico and talked about a painting. Then she handed out a paper that had personal questions that would later come up as they read the book.

Overall my day was a great experience. I would love to do it again, and I am so excited that this will be my future career. I cannot wait to see how much of an impact I can make in students' lives, no matter how big or small. :)