Classroom Observations #1

What surprised you?

          While observing the classroom, I was surprised to see students using Chromebooks to help get examples for the concepts they were learning. My graduating year was the last one to not have these in our schools before the district implemented them into both my middle and high school so seeing these items in action was a reminder of the growing role of technology in the classroom and in children's learning. Now students may not need to go to the school's computer lab to find art references but can instead do so form the comfort of the classroom and with the teacher being even closer to assist.

What did you learn?

          Some things I learned over my brief time in this classroom included:

• The integration and normalization of Chromebooks in a classroom setting
• Student interests played a key role in what they were drawn to draw (One boy was into Fortnite and thus drew poses from the game while a another girl remarked that Ariel was her favorite Disney princess so she used a photo of her in a traced outline for her schoolwork)
• Figuring out what students enjoy allows them to feel in control and open up more (Another boy I sat with was heavily into wrestling which was in part due to his father being a Penn State wrestling coach and growing up in this sport. I started questioning him about weight classes, tournaments, etc. and slowly noticed that his facial expression changed to a more happy look and he began to talk more in a short span of time than he did the entire class period.)
• Students payed attention to the attention they may/may not receive from teachers and can be dissatisfied with them if not given enough help (The students I sat with had negative views on teachers from years before since "they often overlooked us even if we were raising our hands.")
• Fortnite is still a big thing with the youth and has social capital in the classroom (Students talked about their best games and highest kill counts, with the response from a passing student being "people are obsessed with Fortnite!") 

What would you have done differently?

          If I were to do it again, I would have tried to spark more conversation between me and the group I sat with. At first I was so nervous about being back in a school setting and reliving my own memories of middle school that I got caught up in these emotions and was not able to focus on learning about those in front of me. Along with this, I would have liked to question the teacher more about different aspects of the room, their techniques for managing so many kids, time management techniques, etc.