Middle School Experience

My visit to York Middle School was a great experience. While there I witnesses some interesting teaching strategies, saw the observations of learning theories and saw how the teachers taught while being mindful of the student’s adolescent development. The principal of the school told us that York Middle School has a high poverty rate and that the school’s teaching staff goes above and beyond to help the students. An example of this is the fact that the students are often fed breakfast and dinner because they don’t always receive these meals at home. While on my field visit to York Middle School I noted that elements of progressivism were present. I saw this in a seventh grade history class. Progressivism in a classroom usually has student centered

For example, I noted in the pre-calculus class that I was in that the students socialized often. The boys and the females would often talk amongst themselves quite often. The student’s socializing in the classroom is a clear example of adolescent development as teenagers often start developing friends and cliques during their adolescent years. While the adolescents did often talk amongst themselves they still were very engaged in the learning. More so in the history class than in the pre-calculus class. This is likely due to the fact that the seventh grade history class I was in was more student centered. In the history class the students led much of the learning and was engaged through activities like jeopardy. In pre-calculus the teacher just did the previous night’s homework in front of the classroom and called on students during different steps of the math problem. While the student’s did often socialize they got focused when the teacher snapped at the class to focus on their school work, there wasn’t too many behavioral problems. Overall I picked up some good teaching tips while in York Middle School while observing aspects of adolescent development, it was a great