Journal Entry #4 (C&I 426-01): The First Meeting

On Thursday I met Mike Plautz, my observing teacher for my 300 field experience. It was nice to be in a school environment again; anyone who knows me knows how much I enjoyed my 200 field experience. I will say, though, that Hellgate Middle School is the most maze-like center of education I have ever been through. I'm sure I'll decipher the layout in time, but for now it's a little bit intimidating. Anyhow, enough architecture.

I don't feel like I was able to get a good feel for Mr. Plautz's classroom in the time I spent there. It was an early out day, and the classroom activities consisted only of announcements and finishing up the rest of a documentary the class was watching. I got to introduce myself to each of the classes and observe Mr. Plautz as he reviewed the previous section of the video everybody was watching, which dealt with the last mass extinction event about 13000 years ago.

I could see that Mr. Plautz is an effective teacher, and knows what he is doing. His students were all very well-behaved, but when they became distracted by side conversations, Mr. Plautz was able to refocus them (with a short verbal warning, usually just saying the offending student's name) without his lesson being derailed. As for his teaching style itself, though I haven't had much of a chance to get a full picture, it seems fairly effective. He tends to ask a lot of questions and promotes class discussion.

One part of the day that struck me was when a child asked if the meteor that possibly caused the extinction burnt off all the hair of the mammoths and if that was where elephants come from. Instead of just saying "no," Mr. Plautz took the time to follow the child's train of thought and help him reach a more correct conclusion. To answer the question, he asked in turn if two parents with tattoos had babies with tattoos, and the kid answered no. He then said we'd discuss that particular topic later in the year, and we moved on to the movie. I definately look forward to observing Mr. Plautz, because I feel that there is a lot he can show me that will help me improve as a teacher.