They're so small!

Today I went to observe a classroom in Pleasant Grove. I was so excited to be there! The teacher was great and the kids were so fun. Aside from letting us go through his handouts and take the stuff we wanted, he was really friendly, very optimistic, and actually really honest about the pros and cons of teaching.

When we first got there, we talked for a little while with him and he kind of told us what would be going on. We met the other teacher who is in charge of the wood shop, but was launching water bottle rockets today. He invited us to come out and watch. We didn't make it out there until the second class.

Mr. Frey was really good at demonstrating all the skills from the Wong book. He praised the students, had high expectations for them, didn't interrupt the class to discipline an active student, and was very patient with the students who didn't quite catch on at first.

A student in a wheel chair came in about 5 minutes late. I expected there to be a huge commotion with moving chairs around and I thought the students would lose focus. None of that happened. The only interruption was when the student's TA needed a place to sit. Mr. Frey, almost in passing, asked his classroom TA to get a chair for her. It was almost as if nothing happened in the classroom to distract the students. Pretty cool.

I noticed that Mr. Frey obviously had really good classroom procedures. As the students walked in, they each turned in their assignments to him and were at their desks ready to start class when the bell rang. Even after being sick for the entire week (this was his first day back), the students were right on schedule and he praised them for being so good for the substitute teacher. Most of the students were quietly listening to instructions and all of them were excited to go use the computer lab and make bridges on the software they've been working with.

It was a very successful class period and all the students stayed on task. Everyone had a positive attitude except for the students who got frustrated because their bridge wouldn't work, but that's probably normal. As soon as they figured it out, they kept going to try to get the cost of the bridge as low as possible. It was actually pretty amazing to see how involved they all were and how much fun they were having.

Mr. Frey was a really great example of how teaching should be done and even offered to let us come in and teach for a day sometime if we feel like we want/need the experience. He said that some teachers get annoyed when new teachers come in with almost no experience, just because the way the system is set up. Basically, there is student teaching for a semester and then they let us loose.

In the seminary teaching program, we get 2 weeks out of the semester to go teach one period per day. It's great experience. I think it would be kind of fun and great practice to do that in our program as well. Is it possible?