Week Four Reflection

I find the Middleton Middle School system to be full of compassionate teachers and faculty members. I have been learning a lot about the school environment and how it is run on a day-to-day basis. The students at MMS are incredibly vigilant and willing to learn with open kind minds. All the staff members have been very helpful to me in my first couple of weeks. During the week, walking the halls of Middleton Middle School has brought me complete joy and happiness. It is everything that I could have hoped for in a school system and everything that I could have hoped for in the realm of teaching. By this I mean that the teachers are all willing to learn knew things that will be more than beneficial to their students; they are more than willing to go the extra distance in order to provide the best knowledge available to all those they come into contact with both fellow teachers and students alike. The teachers have such open minds that it allows for the vast acquiring of any knowledge that comes into their paths. Not only is it beneficial for them, but it is beneficial for their students and their open minds have a way of vicariously spreading throughout the minds of every student. This environment is nothing that I have seen before, not in my years of schooling, nor in my years of interning and observing. I really cannot wait until the day I get my own class and will be able to spread my new found knowledge and learning to the students. I have strived to overcome my own obstacles and I want to instill the lives of young children just like my teachers have done for me in the past. The halls at MMS have brought back memories of going to middle school ten years ago. I still felt as if I was thirteen again. It has allowed me to relive my youth to the fulfillment of understanding how to use those experiences in order to better the experiences of the children that I am influencing now. It allows me to recollect being at that age while combining my years past of wisdom and my lifetime thus far of knowledge and training to better all those who I come into contact with.
During the week, the students started working on the Kids Discover Incas: Scavenger Hunt worksheet on Tuesday. The students had to read a magazine called Kids Discover Incas for three class periods to get an overview of the Inca culture. It was the student’s job to fill in the scavenger hunt worksheet as they followed along during the reading on the magazine. The magazine and scavenger hunt were finished on Friday followed by a video on the Inca society. The students followed directions very well this week as I started to use the board more to help thoroughly explain tasks.
The greatest learning experience of my week would have to be of that had just happened the Friday before. As I was out watching the students play dodge ball, a particular student chose to make a decision that would influence the rest of his school career. He chose to deliberately wind up the dodge ball and throw it directly at the back of my head. I asked two of the other teachers on duty to watch the rest of my class until I could be back to get the class while I walked with the student. I took the student to my mentor teacher to further assist me with the type of punishment that would be needed. The student was asked to put their head on the desk until the period was over. Mrs. Warwick told me to go out and finish watching the class. I brought the class in until the bell rang for school to end. I didn’t get to find out the punishment of the student until I came back to school on Tuesday seeing as I had class on that Monday. I was called into the Principal’s office where I found that they had become well aware of the situation and had begun to take matters into their own hands. The principal had already run the video tapes of the incident and printed out photos for documentation and proof of what had occurred. I later found out the student was going to be suspended for three to ten days depending on the school board’s decision. The school board’s decision might lead the student to expulsion because the incident resolved in the battery of a faculty member.
This experience was difficult for me as well as knowledgeable for me. On one hand, I felt as if I had been disrespected by a student. It was not a great experience to go through something like that as to be put down in a sense of having a ball thrown at the back of my head. On the other hand, it was time for me to learn how to handle matters such as this and who would be critical in the decision making processes and the punishments necessary for given situations. It was something that I had never experienced before and something that I had truly never had cross my mind. It was truly nice to have the support of my fellow staff and to have the support of all those who helped guide me through the situation. This was a learning experience on so many different levels and I will now be able to learn and understand from this situation as to better future occurrences.

Advertisement

~ by joshluth11 on September 28, 2009.