reflection

							                                                                                        Reflection 1


       During January term I took a class called Introduction to Teaching 111. Never had I

come to expect what I experienced. The class required that I drive from North Manchester to

Northwood Middle School in Fort Wayne, every school day for two weeks. To save gas I drove

with Zach Norris each morning beginning at 6:40. When we arrived I did not know what to

expect. I had heard of bad reputations city schools would receive and I was not sure if I wanted

to be in such a place. Once I walked into the school everything changed.

       The first day at Northwood the first thing I realized was how well behaved most students

where. When I was in high school I had the opportunity to take a course called Cadet Teaching.

This course allowed me to go into a school and classroom setting to check it out and see if I

actually enjoyed teaching. When I first arrived the kids where behaved, mainly because I was

going to be there for six months and they did not know how to react to this stranger in their class

room. After a few weeks they eventually warmed up to me and showed their true personalities.

These students really were wild and at times hard to deal with. Since the teacher I was with was

retiring, he gave me a lot of responsibilities to show me how to teach. That class showed me

how much I like teaching but it also gave me a view the middle school students are to wild for

me. Now back to Northwood. As I stepped into Mr. Auer’s seventh grade class I noticed

something different. The kids were much more controlled. They listened to everything Mr.

Auer said without fighting it or talking back. I also noticed that about every classroom I walked

into. The students in Northwood were better than I thoughts they would be.

       The classroom material was less than desirable from the point of an observer. All the

students did for almost two full weeks is read a book about Vietnam. After reading the book

over five times a day it got a little old. The book was about a Vietnamese family that needed to

escape. The book goes through their journey out of the country and ends with them heading to
                                                                                        Reflection 2


the airport for a flight to America. One of the cool things of doing this assignment is that Zach

and I got to work with three ESL students. These girls knew very little English. As we worked

with the girls I noticed a vast improvement from the first week and the second week. These

girls must learn quickly if they want to do well in school. They have done just that in the two

weeks I worked with them.

       Mr. Auer gave a bunch of good advice for teaching that I had never known before. He

gave a trick on how to get notes to parents, put letters into blank envelopes. He also shared how

to deal with parents and how to keep them happy. There are other classroom management skills

he shared. One of which was the fact that we need a sense of humor to keep the kids in line. Mr.

Auer reiterated this point on my evaluation form. Also very good rules help keep students in

line. The major rule that is used in Mr. Auer’s class room is, do not disturb. Mr. Auer’s many

years of teaching is a great source of inspiration when wanting to become a teacher.

       This experience of going to Northwood Middle School has corrected my assumption

about urban schools. The bad rap of urban schools has mislabeled just how good they are and

how hard it is to teach at a school such as Northwood. Introduction to teaching is an experience I

will always remember and take with me in my teaching career.