Reflection On Observation Of A Clinical Teacher

The first day I observed at Clay High School, I knew that the learning environment would be hostile. The day happened to be the end of the third quarter and reports were being sent home. This meant that my clinical teacher felt the need to have students review their grades. He printed out everyone’s gradebook records, and had the students check and review their term grades. What I didn’t expect was for him to randomly call on students and share their grades. I found this to be extremely violating and degrading to the students. There were some students with low grades, who had been forced to talk about it, while others were praised. The teacher would openly praise and shame the students. I honestly did not see the point in this exercise. Overall, I felt that it cultivated a negative atmosphere for the students. With this being said, I feel that my teacher lacks in fostering an emotionally safe environment that reinforces a positive, well-managed, and productive class period. My clinical teacher lacks in providing his students with a safe environment that reinforces a positive class period. Repeatedly I have witnessed a shaming …show more content…
He’s been teaching for thirty years, and teaching remediation is never easy. However, I have observed many techniques, which I would not use within my own teaching experience. Even if I am tired of my job, or burning out, it would be my priority to do more than just provide a lesson to students. You can try to teach students grammar, how to critique writing, and help them develop literacy skills, but you have to reach them in order to make a difference. It is important to provide positive feedback, foster an emotionally safe environment which reinforces a positive, well-managed, and productive class period. Hopefully, by experiencing this class at Clay, I will learn better ways to approach this task, or at least how not to approach