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Cynthia Berg
Dr. Ellis
EDUC 1301.200
4/29/2015
My Public School Observations
Because I had negatives experiences growing up in public schools, I was apprehensive
about entering the field experience. This time my experience was completely different. I
expected crowded classrooms filled with noisy, disrespectful students and harried teachers who
had lost all patience years ago. Instead, I found students actively engaged in the learning process
and teachers interacting with them almost as equals.
I observed several at Honey Grove High School in the Language Arts class. Mrs.
Whitlock is the teacher for the sophomore and senior classes, both regular and pre-advanced
levels. She uses several techniques that I found very interesting and she said are quite effective.
For her vocabulary lessons, she has her students pick a word from the vocabulary list and
research it. They give sentence clues to the class to allow the class to determine what the word is.
They may use the example sentences in the dictionary or come up with their own so that the class
plays a form of the game, Taboo. They can also act the word out like Charades which the
students really enjoy. Some of the students even used the dry erase markers to draw on the board
like Pictionary.
To get the students involved in cultural events, Mrs. Whitlock uses a technique she calls,
Round Robin. She has the students pull their chairs in a circle and she reads a scenario from
their assigned reading and then asks some compelling questions. Each student is given the

chance to answer or pass on the question. All answers are considered equal and the students are
assured that there are no wrong answers. For book reports Mrs. Whitlock allows her class to
break into groups and they are given two to three weeks to read the book and meet as a team to
come up with an interesting way to present pre-assigned sections of the book. To prepare the
students for the Texas state mandated tests, she uses the approved work sheets and the students
work on them individually, then are given time to critique or discuss their answers in a group.
Then they are scored in class.
I was given the opportunity to observe the other Language Arts class. I sat in on the
freshman class. These students were much more noisy and disrespectful. Their teacher had a
harder time getting their attention and she had to keep projecting her voice. I was grateful for the
opportunity to observe her class though. It was an educational experience for me to see how
different teachers taught and how they managed their classrooms. There were a few minor
disciplinary problems but they were handled impartially and respectfully.
I really enjoyed watching the students learn and present their assignments. Mrs.
Whitlocks method of teaching was to keep the students engaged using various learning
techniques. I plan to implement several of these in my classroom. My favorite technique was the
Round Robin technique that she used to connect the students reading with current events. I
will use that technique as I found that it really caused the students to think about how actions can
effect and impact their lives as well as society.
I think the technique of breaking the class into groups for the assigned reading and letting
them act out pre-assigned sections is very effective in giving the students a visual context of the
assigned reading to reference, and I plan on using this in my classroom. I also like the various
games that they played to learn vocabulary words. These games helped the students learn the

spelling, pronunciation and meaning of their vocabulary words and I plan on implementing these
tools in my classroom as well. They also helped the students broaden their vocabulary and their
understanding of their reading assignments. I will also use the work sheets to help prepare my
class for the state mandated tests. They seemed quite effective in presenting the material to the
students as well as giving them preparation for the format of the tests.
Overall, I really enjoyed my observation experience. It was completely different from the
public school experiences I had as a child. Comparing the two experiences allowed me to see all
the opportunities that public schools have to offer while understanding the challenges that may
have to be overcome in my career as a teacher. While I understand that there are some really
great school districts to work in and there are some very bad districts to avoid, I am encouraged
and excited to start my career as a public school teacher. As I learn and grow in my education, I
am looking forward to taking what I have learned and applying it in my classroom. My
observation experience has made me confident about my career choice and I look forward to my
career as a teacher.