My Observation In High School

I spent my observation under the tutelage of my AP Calculus AB teacher from Ed W. Clark High School, Mrs. Arquette. I observed for two periods of block schedule for a total of 3 hours. It has been five years since I have been to the high school and in her classroom with students that I do not know. I will record the information about my observation in the topics below:
Cultural Learning Environment of the School The socio economic level of the majority of the students at the school is low to middle class. Clark High School is not a private school, but half zone half magnet. Students in the vicinity set to the high school and any student no matter the economic class is allowed in the magnet programs as long as they have the grades for them. …show more content…
From what I have observed the students did get to pick their seating and with that did sit in their assigned seats according to identifiable groups; Asian-American students tend to group together as well as the African-American students. Students of different backgrounds do not really work together or socialize outside of the necessary group work. The room is arranged to match teaching and learning, completely devoted to the study of calculus. Seating and grouping arrangements were created to promote cooperation; unlike when I was in the class five years ago where the desks were lined up in rows, the desks were in groups of four for group learning. There is no specific areas for instruction, the students just sit at their desks and learn from the teacher teaching at the front of the class. The room does allow for movement and flexible group arrangements, especially in comparison to the rows of the desks the class was composed of five years ago. The classroom does function as a total environment, a total environment with the commitment to calculus learning, with every aspect of the classroom meant for the earnest goal of the students receiving college credit for succeeding on the AP Calculus AB …show more content…
Arquette falls in the generic category being a Caucasian educator, but the students she teaches are not majority white. She does not have much influence on the diversity of the students in her nor does she really recognize the diversity of the classroom. The students are just students in her eyes and the diversity of them should not affect the learning outcome of the lessons she teaches. Mrs. Arquette treats all of her students equally, even an African-American student like me did not receive different treatment compared to her fellow Caucasian race. Mrs. Arquette does not differentiate instruction, every student her classroom is the panicle of the top math students in the school so instruction is every accelerated and vigorous. The teacher builds relationships between students by grouping them together for work, and harping that they are to work as a unit for the same end goal. From what I have observed, the students did not conflict with each other, but if the situation were to ever arise in which the teacher would have to stop the students from fighting, she would do so in a peaceful manner to not aggravate anyone further and pass judgment of the situation with no biased. The curriculum used by the teacher does not reflect a multicultural approach, it is a math class in which math is part of every culture. She does not have to translate or work with any non-English speaking students as all of students speak English no matter the ethnicity. It is not very often the