CCHS 04-07

On Friday, April 7th, I spent time in Mrs. Johns' class. Many of her students were present, so the classroom was quite full. In addition to the increased number of students, there were 4 mentors in the room. Mrs. Johns expressed that this was a great day to have lots of help because her students were going to be working individually on assignments and may need help or encouragement.

Her students were working on activities that incorporated economics into English. While some students were catching up on previous assignments, many of them were working on one of three options that Mrs. Johns had given them: a 27-minute video on economics with a three paragraph response, or a choice between two articles price elasticity, an economic principle.

During this time, I got to work with many different students on many different tasks. The economic feature to these activities stretched my knowledge a little bit, which caused me to think on my feet a little more than usual. The students were unclear on the concept of price elasticity, but with a little help from Google, I was able to direct them. In reading the articles, the students had to fill out two sheets after the read: a summary of the article in which they listed the title, author, tone, etc. and a list of three economics problems that were based on the information that they learned in the article. This day stretched my ability to adapt and work with many different students at one time, and I had to learn to manage many different people in my mind. I would work with one student for about five minutes, another for three minutes, and then I had to take a scan of the room to see who was in need of help or just a little encouragement to get their work done.

This visit also challenged my ability to adapt when the information isn't the most familiar concept for me. Though this will probably not be a problem in my own classroom given that I will be choosing my own assignments and lessons, but it is still a great skill to work on as a future educator. Learning quickly was very important on this day, and I believe that I was able to adjust my expectations relatively quickly. Each time I visit CCHS, I learn something new about teaching and the theme of this visit was certainly flexibility.