First Week's Synthesis Post

[EDIT: Whoopsie daisy! I thought the synthesis reflections were going into our final product with the contextual factors, learning goals, etc., but upon re-reading the initial document I discovered myself mistaken. Here it is at long last. Sorry for the delay, dear readers.]

Perhaps the biggest discovery of the week, my "Aha Moment," regards the labels that we place on students and only stems from the brilliance belied by the wacky mixed-up-ness of the middle school's class schedule. When I first decided on which of the classes I'd like to observe, my mentor teacher described them as her "most difficult class" and "the class with the most behavioral disabilities." After observing that class twice (once in the morning and once at the end of the day) and another of her classes once (in the early afternoon), I noticed that there was a HUGE disparity between my expectation of the classes' behaviors and their actual in class behavior.

On Monday, I observed "the most difficult class" first and then one of the "more gifted classes" second, and frankly the more difficult class had fewer behavioral interruptions, contrary to my expectations. Not only that, the response to the discussion questions in the first class seemed to be more thoughtfully considered and deeply analytical. I realized that the label placed on the class had colored my expectation of their abilities in a negative way. The labeling of students inherently and perhaps even unconsciously affects the mindset of incoming teachers. Student behaviors can vary so much from day to day and from class to class that such negative labeling proves problematic and insufficient by describing a dynamic group in such a static way. There are simply too many contributing factors to student behavior for the labels to adequately describe the students, but they definitely affect the mindset of the teachers, which isn't okay. I'm sure I won't be able to fully avoid such labeling at times when I become a teacher, but I'll certainly do well to keep in mind what I saw this week. Truly, any group of students has the capacity and the ability to live up to expectations, but only if you set those expectations high enough.

When I returned on Tuesday, this notion was cemented. I again observed the students in the "most difficult class," but this time I saw them as the last class before school ended for the day. Students I had seen acting like perfect little angels the day before were now fidgety, talkative, and otherwise disengaged from the instruction for the day. It was as if I was seeing a completely different group of students. Despite this, though, the mentor teacher eventually got through to them [not really sure I like that phrase, but I can't think of another descriptor at the moment], and they mostly finished their assignments for the day. As the bell rang, the mentor teacher and I were talking about some of the behavioral issues that had occurred throughout the period. Suddenly, I became aware that the students hadn't moved from their desks when the bell rang. Seeing the surprise on my face, my mentor teacher looked to the class and said, "Somebody tell Mr. Hatch why you all haven't left yet." To which the class responded with a mixture of 2 different responses: 1) "Because we know better," and the vastly revealing 2) "Because the bell doesn't dismiss us, you do." There's no class that can't be reached. You have to set expectations high, keep them there, and help the students along the way. Negative labels and low expectations be damned.