Pruitt+Brown

My first observation, I was placed in Ms. McCarthy's 11th grade Algebra 2 class Asheville Christian Academy. There were eight students in the class. This was the teachers first year teaching and she was my age so it was interesting talking to her in between classes about her first year. The teacher an the students were on a respectful basis, very seldom did she have to stop the class to tell the students to settle down. She communicated the subject matter slowly and clearly taking timeout to answer and questions the students had. I thought this was good since the class was not an honors class. The students were very polite taking time after class to shake my hand and introduce themselves. I appreciated the uniform dress code, I think that most schools should have a uniform, since it takes a major piece out of the social hierarchy. I enjoyed my visit to this school and look forward to visiting again.

Observation 2 ACA: Mr Faust AP calculus class consisted of 6 seniors this small class moved at a rapid pace. They were preparing for the AP Calculus exam, this class room was well structured with a good deal of time for questions given. The subject matter seemed difficult for most of the students so time was taken to go over each problem step by step. I noticed more math related materials on the wall than in my previous class room.

Observation 3 ACA: Today the upper School Classes were going to a peep rally for the basketball team. I was shifted to a middle school Spanish class. I speak no Spanish and with it being Friday they were practicing their Spanish conversations. The students seemed to be very talented speakers as they were not allowed to use their dictionaries as the teacher would ask them questions and they would answer in front of all other students. If the students could not answer they would have to sit down in their seats and write certain bible passages in Spanish for the remainder of the class. I did not like this style of learning as it truly isolates the weaker students from the rest.

Observation 4 Carolina Day: This private school varied greatly from ACA with very little dress code and more relaxed learning atmosphere. As I entered the AP Calculus class room I noted the seating arrangement a U-shape with the teachers seat in the center of the U. The students seemed to like her as a person but not so much as a teacher. It seemed as if she had to really push them to get an answer to any of the problems on the board she had to walk them through most of them. They were learning the basic definitions of integration, all the examples done were real world application problems. These type of problems were chosen to keep the students attention. As just doing pure mathematical examples may bore the average high schooler and of course the most common question asked to math teachers "were will we ever use this". This class moved much slower than the AP Calculus class at ACA the class was also much larger with about 20 students.

Observation 5 Carolina Day: I missed this day due to an excused leave

Observation 6 Carolina Day: Algebra 2 Ms. Hardy's class started with problems on the over head to be done before class was started. This is an excellent way to quiet down the students before class started, these problems were then discussed. I noticed that 2 walls in the class were completely covered in math related materials, mostly geometry and application posters with lots of colors. The other two walls were more related to students and school events with pictures of students on field trips and sporting events. The teachers was teaching the students more shortcuts to the functions than true explanations. The students were completely lost when the teacher presented the variable V "sub" n they were having trouble understanding that this was one variable and not V*n. The teacher seemed to get frustrated and told them that in the function Vn = P(1+r)^n that Vn was used instead of V, no clear explanation of why was given. I feel she could have mentioned that V stands for velocity in most subjects so we use Vn with interest to avoid confusion. More confusion with little explanation ensued over the notation for LOG and LN the teacher seemed to be unwilling to spend the time to break it down and explain the reason for the different notations.

LT 4/16

Observation 7 The Asheville School: Beautiful campus was my first thought as we entered the school. We were well accommodated the principal was waiting on us to escort us to our classes. The teachers had been to we were coming unlike some of the other schools. I hold a great appreciation for the order that seemed to be held at this school. I was placed in a freshman geometry class, they were discussing coordinate geometry, calculating distances using the Pythagorean Theorem. This was a very fun teacher, great speaker the class really seemed to like her as she allowed them to be so involved in discussions. Eight students in a smaller classroom, decorated with large and complex 3-D geometrical shapes. Most work was done on the overhead with plenty of examples. The students were pushed to answer these questions aloud. I was impressed by the students ability to detect the Pythagorean Triples so fast.

Observation 8 The Asheville School: Thrusday visit same class as yesterday. Geometry started with a group review of homework. The class was studing the distance between two points using the facts they had learned the previous day. The students were encourged to come to the overhead and answer questions in front of the class. The second class I went to was AP calculus it started with a discussion of differntial equations to help prepare for the AP exam. Teacher was very energetic and voicetrus. Small room with 9 students, they studied chemistry applications such as finding half-lifes. Groupwork was done in groups of three the teacher cut on bluegrass music while they studied. The students worked well in groups. The class was fasted paced but the students didn't seem to mind.

Observation 9 The Asheville School: This was my final day at The Asheville School at lunch the head math teacher and I had a good discussion about teaching policy and math learning disabilities. The teacher did not have a class this period and we went to his room and discussed teacher and classroom setup further. I then observed a precalculus class; this was the day before spring break so classes were only 40 minutes. The teacher gave a quick example of each type of problem the allowed the students 10 minutes to get started on their homework that was due the day they got back from break. The class had eleven students who did there homework as fast as possible in order to have less homework over break.

Observation 10 Asheville High School: The school had beautiful old campus with great building architecture. First thing I noticed as I took my seat in Mr. Burdetts 10th grade Algebra class was the intense heat I guessed it to be approximately 74 degrees F. All twenty-five students were silent studding, some had their heads on the desk others worked in groups and two girls were applying makeup. Large signs on door "No food, drink, cell phones or Headsets." I counted three students with headsets on. They were preparing for a test later on this week. The teacher did one example problem for each topic on the board. Near the end of class the teacher showed the class how to work the problems on the calculator.

Observation 11 Asheville High School:I returned to the same class I had observed last week. When I walked in the same silent study time was going on. The teacher walked around the room to see check the students work. They then worked through a couple problematic problems on the board step by step. Once the teacher did the examples they returned to silent work time while he walked around the class this was a good way to keep their attention. The students waited in their seats when the bell rang for the teacher’s permission to leave.

Observation 12 Asheville High School:For my final observation I was placed in a Geometry Class. I got there just as she had finished her lecture about trig. Functions. Once again it was time for silent studying; this seemed to be a trend in the larger public school classes (24 students) as I had never seen it at the private schools. At least three kids were listing to their iPods while doing work; the teacher did not seem to mind. I was given a textbook to skim through. I saw it was a good text full of pictures and an application on nearly every page; the book was ten years old. The teacher walked around the room answering questions. Also some of the students helped each other with the problems. She had all of her personal class rules on the board. As it neared time for the bell the students became restless and began to pack up and move around and talk.

LT 5/15