Janelle's+2nd+Journal

In our first week of being in Mr. Groebner and Mr. Perron's classroom, Jon and I had the opportunity to observe. While they had to watch a movie for the week to compare it to //Jenna Fox,// it was easy to see the kind of environment the two ran. One classroom management tool we noticed they use is the use of time in the classroom. They always started class when class was supposed to start, and barely left any time at the end to work on homework. They also seem to have an open discussion for everything that is said, so there is no disrespect between the students. If you have an idea, for example, say it, and if it's wrong, then the rest of the class will help steer the person in the right direction. This was evident in the discussion with the comparisons between the movie and the novel.

As for having problems in the class, Jon and I have had the opportunity to sit in with the other teachers in the academy to listen in on their meetings they have each second hour. They discuss the problem kids and how they go about helping them and what they are doing to help them. Most of the time, it is just discussion on what the kids did and how it was resolved, but sometimes, they do touch on if the child had a meeting with the academy teachers, if disciplinary action was involved, et cetera.

When it comes to group work and how the teachers manage that, the teachers only make sure that the students are on task and understand what is being discussed. The types of assessment we have seen the cooperating teachers use is mostly formative. While comparing //Jenna Fox// to the movie "AI", they had questioned the children on what was similar in the movie to the book, or what the differences were in each piece. One teacher (usually Mr. Groebner, although Mr. Perron has been in the front a couple times) will be up in the front of the classroom asking questions and listening to the answers of the student, while the other is either going beyond what the student said and helping them analyze what they had noticed, or answer individual questions that come about throughout the classroom.

As for their opinions on the MCA II, Mr. Groebner had actually expressed frustration about how the academy meetings were run when talking to us. Like I have stated, they talk about the students that give them the hardest times while not focusing on making the classroom environment better, or how to improve their scores from tests for the students. He had stated that it would be nice to have a meeting where they focus on how to help the students study for the MCA II, and how to help their grades out instead of focusing on the students that are ruining their classes from time to time. He'd rather have a collective academy focused on helping the academics of the students instead of the disciplines of their students.