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Terri McCoy

Dr. Ellis

Education 2301 .200

February 28, 2018

Observation

My observation was at Sulphur Springs High School, in the science department with Mrs.

Katelyn Black, who teaches Chemistry. Her students are 10th and 11th graders, the majority of

them are PSP (or average) students with some exceptional students as well. In Sulphur Springs

High School there are two other Chemistry teachers in the department, one of these teachers

instructs both the PSP students and the college prep students, another has the advanced

placement students. Class content and timing is decided through the department. The three

teachers in the Chemistry department follow along the same schedule of TEKS and class content

and are able to lean on each other for support and ideas for their lessons.

I have learned a lot about how I want my own class to be structured from observing in

Mrs. Blacks classroom. Her classes have about 10 to 20 minutes of lecture time first thing then

the class breaks off and works in Project Based Learning (PBL) groups where they expand on the

knowledge gained during the lecture time. In her lessons she brings up real life situation’s the

students can relate to and highlights the parallel between them and chemistry. On top of the

required content, Mrs. Black is teaching them skills and knowledge that they would not

normally receive in a Chemistry class. The students have to learn to be autonomous during PBL

which is an essential skill for young adults to have. Mrs. Black said some of the students thrive

during this time and some of them do not because they work better with more direction and
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structure. Even though some of the students struggle during PBL’s she persists, while helping

the struggling students learn how to be autonomous and succeeded during this phase of their

learning, and hopefully retain their new skills throughout their lives. The interaction between

Mrs. Black and her students was always positive. Even if one of the children was being

disrespectful or rude, Mrs. Black never raised her voice, she calmly asked the student to step out

in the hall and take a moment, then come back in again with a better attitude. Her technique

worked perfectly, the student came back in class laughing and class resumed with almost no

interruption.

Mrs. Black utilized both the philosophies of progressivism and essentialism in her

classroom. Her lessons were given in a combination of a teacher-centered, and student-centered

teaching styles. The combination of all of these different aspects worked together to insure the

success of her students. The lecture portion of her class where she introduces the new content

for the days lesson which appealed to auditory learners. The students would then begin work on

their group projects that correspond with the lessons. Group work on projects ranged from

completing assessments over the added content, to creating a poster of the last week’s material,

to a continuation of the section’s final project. These projects catered to both kinesthetic and

visual learners.

I would like to implement many things from Mrs. Black’s teaching style into my own

when I begin teaching. The first being the positive way she interacts with her students and the

calm way she deals with the rambunctious and disrespectful. The second thing I would like to

implement is the way she creates new seating charts every six weeks. She tells her students that,

“I do not get to pick who I work with, so neither do you.” In this way she encourages students to

interact and get to know people they would not have chosen themselves. I would also like to
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utilize the way she chooses groups based on a questionnaire handed out to the students for the

PBL so there is a diverse skillset in each group. The aspect of her teaching style that appeals to

me the most is her use of the PBL groups in her class to expand off the knowledge given during

her short lectures. The students seem to gain so much knowledge in Mrs. Blacks classes and at

the same time have fun. It is easy to see the students are really invested in the content of her

lessons and are learning much from them. My experience in Kaitlyn Black’s classroom was

wonderful! I am even more excited to begin my career as a teacher now than I was before this

observation placement!