Our Experience in General

EDFD class...Educational Foundations...I enjoyed the class but not the way it was structured, and it was not due to our instructor. Just like anything else that goes wrong, the scheduling for our observations to visit Arts High School was a disaster. I'm not talking about the other students experiences, rather I will just speak about mine. Why did the administrators in the department drop the ball? Why did they put the burden on our instructors back when it wasn't her responsibilty to begin with. It's typical Montclair State University, implement it and fix it later. Well later, in this case was too late.

I'm kind of a quiet guy, very reserved, but when something doesn't go the way it should, especially when specific instructions are given, I tend to have to open my mouth. I was all ready to yell at our professor until I found out it wasn't her fault. And by the way, If you read this, again, I appreciate your efforts, but DAMN Montclair State!!! If you require visitation during the semester, don't hold off on it until the ending of Oct - beginning of Nov. This all should have taken place in Sept. Students have other obligations outside of class. Ummmm....a job, other classes, another job, in some cases kids, parenting responsibilties, the list is endless....I lost two additional days of work because Montclair dropped the ball.

I hope that they use this as a learning experience and fix it for next semester. I feel a little bit better now, I got that off my chest.

Visit to Arts High School

I went to observe this past Monday at Arts High School. It was an interesting experience. There are few differences from Arts compared to a public school. I like the idea that the class sizes are smaller. The students were more attentive to what they were doing in class, rather than what they did on the weekend. The students really seemed to care a great deal about what they were learning. The teacher had them fully engaged in the material. One of the things i didn't like was block scheduling. I was in a math class observing and the students were well behaved, but i have heard from others that have observed in other classes and it wasn't exactly that way. Arts High School is a very unique school. Some of the most talented students in the city of Newark attend it. I would like to see one day were the students that graduate from Arts become very successful.

Students of Today

The students of today’s generation are something else. I sit back and listen in the classrooms of my local high and wonder if I was like that when I was there age. You can learn alot about who your students are if you take the time to listen. I find that the experience that I am getting from being a substitute teacher three days a week in different classrooms is quite rewarding. From time to time, on a free period, I would go and visit a class where I was a sub and see how the students interact with their regular teacher. In some cases they are completely different and in some there are the same. I have been exposed to some teachers that get their point across in a weird way. I am starting to learn that it is not so much about the content of the course; however, it is keeping the students interested in and disciplined enough to want to pay attention.

I am now in college and attend full-time. I have been attending college for numerous amounts of years and find that college can teach you all there is to know about what to teach, but it can’t teach you how to command the students in the classroom. It doesn’t, and I don’t think it can, teach you how to deal with certain situations or scenarios. College doesn’t teach you what to do if a student is out of line and that student needs to be disciplined in some fashion, where the student doesn’t benefit. There are alot of things that school, college, and your peers can teach you, but there is no other lesson better that is available like first hand experience.