Miss Hedpeth Observation

The Withlacoochee River Park lies on four-hundred and six acres of land, however, the area it is essentially part of is much larger system known as the Green Swamp, a 560,000 acre area that supplies a massive amount of drinking water to our state’s population. In addition, the swamp provides habitats for a plethora of Florida’s native wildlife, including alligators, white-tailed deer, and black bears. The Green Swamp is also contains one of the largest cypress swamps in the state of Florida, meaning Withlacoochee River Park is a highly important ecological asset to Florida’s natural environment.

Education is widely known for being about excelling in the classroom and constantly improving. Each year, it is expected that students will have harder coursework with more specific criteria and get higher grades than the previous. At least that was always the expectation at Champion High School. Unfortunately, Ms. Heather Fetterman did not get the memo. As a ninth grade English teacher, she taught me nothing and I feel less intelligent after her class. Leaving her class every day meant another misunderstanding that could not be easily resolved, rooting from her inappropriate behavior and lack of professionalism. There are so many ways she could have helped as our teacher, but chose not to. She often attempted to behave as a friend

“Run!” Colt yelled between pants. Hester sprinted towards her brother trying not to lose sight of him through the maze of darkened alleys, looking to devour anyone who dared to enter. She silently thanked her running coach as she weaved in and out of streets, as it had always come in handy during these times. Hearing the angry curses from the guards, Hester quickened her pace and suddenly came to a stop in front of a thick blackberry bush. With her free hand, she pushed back the plant, trying to ignore the stinging as thorns tore into her skin. She crawled through a small opening in the fence and quickly caught up to Colt. “You took your time didn’t ya?” he teased. Hester ignored his comment. “Do you think we lost ‘em?”. “I have no idea, but

Love is a major theme in almost every novel and is one of the key characteristics in many plots. Love can affect a character's decisions, emotions, and overall actions which is what makes it one of the most influential themes. That is why I chose love for my theme because it is present in everything people do. Love is an impactful theme in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, A Patchwork Planet by Anne Tyler, and The Awakening by Kate Chopin. The Great Gatsby showed the theme of love in two significant ways.

Mr. Wray was the first teacher and the only male teacher I observed. The class was a 7th grade Social Studies academy class. Throughout the observation I noticed he really cares about his students. He took his time going over the topic of discussion, and when some of the students couldn’t catch on he stopped to help the individuals. His class was very well behaved. The only time I really noticed any of the students socializing were when Mr. Wray put them in groups to complete a study guide. The second teacher I observed was 6th grade teacher Mrs. Dunn. She was teaching English to her students. She went over verb phrases and helping verbs throughout the class. I noticed whenever she asked questions quite a few of the students participated by answering. Mrs. Dunn had a positive attitude throughout the class period. I felt she truly enjoyed all her students and treated them the same. Even when some of the students didn’t answer questions correctly she didn’t make them feel dumb. She would just tell them good try. I could tell her students really liked her as a teacher also. The last teacher I observed at Westside Junior High was 7th grade Science teacher Mrs. Dugas. This lady came off as a very strict teacher compared to the other two I had observed. Her students were very talkative, which only made her become more annoyed when having to fuss at them. At the beginning of class the students had a bell ringer to complete. On the particular day I went the bell ringer

The Scarlet Letter, a story of Hester Prynne and her paramour, Reverend Dimmesdale, and her malicious husband in pursuit for revenge, Roger Chillingworth. The novel begins in the Puritan society in Boston, Massachusetts, during the 1640’s. The town first ostracizes Hester because of their strong religious beliefs. Hester is then faced with an immense struggle against the town and Roger Chillingworth. Through this struggle she is developed into a heroine, or a woman admired for her courage, achievements, or noble qualities; although she is not the perfect heroine because she starts her journey at the lowest point in Puritan society, in sin. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne overcomes the Puritan community and Roger Chillingworth to defy adversity and become a heroine whom everyone to admire.

For my Field Experience I chose to observe at Krahn Elementary which is a part of Klein Independent School District. After my approval, I was assigned to four teachers and their classrooms. I observed at Krahn Elementary on six Tuesdays between 15 September 2015 and 27 October 2015, and more or less followed the schedule that was given to me by the Assistant Principal Ms. Shannon Strole. From 8:30 am to 9:15 am I observed Ms. Judy Burkes, who is a third grade Math and Science teacher. Her classroom is comprised of twenty students which range from average to below average learners and a student with ADHD and another with autism. For most part of my observation, M. Burkes had been working with her students on fractions and multiple digits addition and subtraction. From 9:15 am to 10:30 am I observed Ms. Lisa Parker who is a Math co-teacher and resource teacher at Krahn Elementary for grades K-5. During my assigned time, Ms. Parker usually joined Mr. Duru’s fifth grade class of twenty three students as a co-teacher and when required would pull out a group of six students after initial instructions from Mr. Duru and would teach them the concepts separately at a slower pace. This particular group of students with special needs was mostly seen to be focusing more and more on mathematical word problems. These students were students with Learning disabilities, behavioral issues and one of them was a student with ADHD. From 10:30 am to 11:15, I was with Ms. Janice Bluhms, who is a

Cheryl Rhea of Hattieville, AR, a high school teacher, was asked if she liked her current career. She responded with “Yes, I love It!”. When asked if she enjoyed working in the high school, she replied with the same answer, “Yes, even more so!”. I then asked Mrs. Rhea what was her favorite part about her job. She replied with “I enjoy it all.” After I asked Mrs.Rhea about her favorite part of her job I then asked her what her least favorite part of her job. She replied with “Putting up with students that don’t do their work.” After a pause I asked her what made her want to be a teacher, she replied with “Honestly just to be off in the summer.” The next question I asked her was what is her biggest challenge working with students was and she replied with “Trying to get students on task.” I then asked her to explain what she meant by this. Mrs.Rhea then replied with “It could be anything, from a student not doing any work to two students talking.” Out of curiosity I asked if she had ever had to send the whole class to the office. She laughed and replied with “No.” I also asked at this time what kind of technology does it take to run the whole class.

In Tuesdays with Morrie, Morrie felt like as you age and begin your life you don't think about always enjoying life and living to the fullest. Morrie lived his life to the fullest and he's life with aging. As Morrie aged he saw how much he enjoyed his life. He also wouldn't want to go back to his young age and relive it. As Morrie told mitch, "I had my time in my thirties, now it's my time to be seventy-eight. Morrie wasn't upset to age he enjoyed it. Morrie enjoys because he gets to look back and see all the things he accomplished and all the memories. He has so many so experience he doesn't want to take back. Morrie has embraced aging. Morrie had lived his life to it's fullest potential. Morrie realized he was going to age and just had to

Mrs. Beebe pops out of the classroom at least once or twice a day. During this short time, you can always find Charlotte quietly sitting at her desk, doing homework, or reading. She doesn’t goof off or talk. She reminds others, in a very kind and polite way, that they should sit and either read or do homework as well. After recess one day, most of our class was talking to one another when Mrs. Beebe was out of the room. Charlotte was wordlessly sitting at her desk reading. She politely told us we should quiet down and do our work. Charlotte not only showed integrity by sitting and reading mutely on her own, but by also reminding others what to do as well. When we are working, Charlotte doesn’t lean over and talk with her neighbors, she just sits there working in

I observed at a daycare called Children's house, I have observed here before and I know the teachers very well. I interviewed a teacher that was formally called Ms. A now called Ms. C who has been working there for 10 years. The Children's house is a private, suburban daycare with 20 children. The room that I observed in is a 3 to 5 year old room. Ms. C had a lot of 3 and 4 year olds. 7 of her children are 3 year olds, 11 are 4 and only 2 are 5 year olds. in her classroom she has 4 children with speech problems and 1 child with a development delay. She has an aid named Ms. M who works with her during the day. Ms. C tries to make their jobs equal, Ms. C teaches lessons and Ms. M teaches other lessons. While they are at center time they have one teacher work on a activity and the other teacher will drift around and insure that the children are behaving well and are out of harm's way.

I observed Mrs.Delks classroom and right away I noticed that she and her classroom was very welcoming. Her classroom was very organized every day and you could tell the students really respected her. The children never back talked her and even at times when they did have time that they got in trouble for something she never had to yell or made them feel unfordable. You could tell that there was some type of love/trust relationship she had with her children. During the days that I was able to visit her classroom she had a student teacher at the time. She was very upfront with me and she told me that having help from her student teacher helped her out a lot. She said it was very hard to do everything on her own every day.

I also realized that I needed to read more into classroom management. I noticed the teacher had withitness since she could conduct a reading group while watching and listening to the other 5 stations of students scattered across the room. She was able to read the book out loud to the class while noticing the students’ behavior such as a child who had put a rock in her mouth. The teacher calmly stopped reading and told the girl to spit the rock out and throw it away while exclaiming that rocks are not intended for our mouths or eating. Then she began to read again. I did not even see the rock from where I was

Some teachers have up to 30 plus students per class and up to 6 or more classes each day. This can pose a challenge with the teachers on how effectively they can work with students on a one-on-one level. Unfortunately, a situation can also arise in which the teacher does not necessarily bother with teaching students and are not bothered if they begin to fall behind.

After I had settled into the room, I was asked if I had my own lesson plan by the long-term substitute teacher. However, it was interesting to hear this person in addition to the teacher helper sitting at an "intervention table" elaborate on how the second graders in the classroom were at a lowest level of the second grade. The lesson for the day started by the substitute teacher revolved around learning numbers 1-30 and the the letters of the alphabet, finding a word for each letter. In the middle of the day, a new person that was described as the new long-term substitute teacher was introduced and she began a separate lesson. She proceeded to leave the school after a couple hours, and the english lesson returned to the repetition of letters and associated words. Although these lessons may have been distinctly reading and English, the entire schedule felt disorienting. The class felt more daycare with enrichment than a space with the explicit purpose to educate. In spite of all of this, I recognized that they care and want to see their children succeed as opposed to seeing the work as a job