LARS+Journals

__**Journal 1**__

Yes, Mr. Sharpsteen and I first met Mr. Broze on 11/28. We went there for basic information and hopes of planning time to teach and be a part of his classroom. He came off as very laid back and had a lot of insight to share from his experiences. When trying to set up a specific schedule he opted not to. He said that we should come whenever we can and if we show up at the door he’ll be ready for us. We informed him that we needed to teach three lessons and he said that would be great. He has his lesson plans pretty set and so we would work into his. He thought we should just watch him teach the first two hours or so. Then we will just take over the information and teach the rest of the hours. We did not receive any information from him, but we did give him our folders for him to plan accordingly on evaluating us when we teach. He said to continue to contact him via email. He left a great first impression and I hope I did the same on him. I left very excited about the opportunity to be in his classroom.

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__**Journal 2**__

From my observations, his classroom management is build off a respect for him as a teacher. Small disruptions are either put out be a quick comment asking the students to stop or he will play off of the disruption and tie it back into what he is doing. When I asked if he discusses classroom rules at the beginning of the term, he said no. They are simply set and from what I can see, his class does really well at following them. He seems to be very comfortable staying on his toes and I did not notice any potential for problems.

My first day in his classroom was the class set up for group work. He numbered students as they walked in the door and had groups of desks numbered. He lectured briefly in review and then the students worked together on a worksheet covering vocabulary for the chapter. I saw both formative and summative forms of teaching. He uses vocabulary words from the chapter as review during every class period. Also, my first day the students worked on a worksheet together. Later in the week he did a short 10 point vocab quiz to see where everyone was at. While grading assignments I noticed that the students get points for “daily work,” individual homework assignments, and the usual quizzes and tests.

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__**Journal 3**__

Mr. Sharpsteen and I got our first opportunity to lead a class last week. Mr. Broze has said all along that he would throw us the reigns, but would do so by teaching the first hour, letting us observe, and then having us continue the same lesson for the subsequent hours. Our first time leading the class was the day before a chapter test and running the review game for the hour. We followed almost exactly what Mr. Broze had modeled and I think succeeded. We had no student issues or things that went wrong. Mr. Broze was still there to help control the class and did so, leaving classroom management necessities minimal. I think that we lacked some of the insight that Mr. Broze had to offer with student connections and knowledge of what and how he had taught the entire chapter. But Mr. Sharpsteen and I still knew the information and succeeding in covering more ground, according to the game, than Mr. Broze was able to.

I think the game was a good example of formative assessment, giving the students a great opportunity to gauge their position for the upcoming test and to catch up on knowledge missed or still unknown. Plus I think the students really enjoy the opportunity to learn in this setting.

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__**Journal 4**__

Today was more of the same. Mr. Broze led the class through the first hour of Geography, and we followed up with the next. Today we went over the test results. We did so questions by question, answer by answer. Next we did a quiz of content covered in previous sections to gauge how much people still remembered and to remind them that all information is a base that more will be added onto. Understanding of terms in content from previous is vital to information coming up. It was a strong form of formative assessment. Students corrected their own quiz and were collected. Each of these items were heavy in discussion and relied on student contribution. Again, Mr. Broze’s insight into things we don’t know about the students and prior lesson would have helped, but also, Mr. Sharpsteen and I did well.

My only complaint thus far is that I have yet to feel like I am in a full teacher role. I guess I understand that that feeling may not come during this experience, but Mr. Broze’s presence is definitely felt by me and the students. It almost takes away the credibility of Mr. Sharpsteen and me as the teachers/leaders of the room. And sense we are just copying what Mr.Broze had modeled, it is tough to make sure we are doing things with the same detail that he wants. Mr. Broze is rightfully so protecting himself and his students from falling behind, but I think when we get to write our own lesson this week, the atmosphere and feel will be very different.

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 * __Journal 5__**

For our final lesson, Mr. Sharpsteen and I got the opportunity to build a lesson on our own. There has been new required material added to Mr. Broze curriculum pertaining to economics. He had a couple sample lesson plans that he allowed Mr. Sharpsteen and I to build off of. He had never taught this before in his Geography class so we go the opportunity to be creative.

We ended up using one of the sample lesson plans and modifying it to fit more of a co-teaching model with the both of us being in front of the class. We did a story type of example to help bring home the ideas of the vocabulary terms that we needed to teach. We had 8 words to teach; credit, collateral, competition, demand, lien, market, supply, and economy. Our example built on the parts of a pencil that Mr. Broze started the day prior and we continued we our own Pencil Economics.

We had planned in our lesson, to teach the entire hour, but arrived and Mr. Broze informed us that he needed to finish his lesson first. I was concerned that we would be short on time, but I don’t think I could have worked out better. He finished his lesson from the day before in about 15 minutes and we jumped in and finished the class with a perfect amount of time. From the couple of worksheets that I have gotten to see so far, it looks as though the students really understood what we taught and learned. I am very happy with the results of our lesson and so was Mr. Broze. Success all around!

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__**Journal 6**__

I must say, I had nothing short of an incredible experience. And to add a pinch of maybe negative honesty, I actually low expectations. But to maybe frame this better to make it sound less negative, I was super excited for the opportunity to be in the classroom. The chance to spend time with students and watch another teacher in action just seemed awesome. My low expectations were in that I didn’t think the amount of time allotted for us to be in the classroom would have as much influence as it has. As it turned out, with the asset of an awesome cooperating teacher, my minimal 30 hours spent in the classroom proved to be very efficient and rewarding!

As I have mentioned in previous journals, I think I hit the cooperating teacher lottery with Mr. Broze. He right away took Mr. Sharpsteen and I “under his wing” and provided with insight that we could really only get from an active teacher like himself. An added bonus was that his enthusiasm with his students was so contagious it made going to just observe fun. Beyond his insight and enthusiasm, he did not shy away from giving us the opportunity to be teachers in front of his students. We weren’t exactly given a huge amount of creative leeway, but the experience just being in front of 30 twelve-year-olds was still tremendous.

It was also really cool to see his perspective on teaching and relationship with other teachers and administrators. His priority was strictly the students. He didn’t eat lunch and in his 13 years at DMMS has never been in the teachers’ lounge. He didn’t want to be associated with the unprofessional conversation that some teachers may practice. I never really got the opportunity to talk to other teachers while there to see their perception of this, but that was what was cool about Mr. Broze. He wasn’t there to make friends and worry what others thought of him, just to do best by his students. I think Mr. Broze has probably stepped on a few toes or so, and I don’t totally know if what he did was the ‘right’ practice of a teacher, but I loved seeing that approach towards colleagues!

My final thought is that of subject based. If I had to pick a favorite subject to teach within social studies, Economics would still be number one, but Geography has always been a close second. One motivation for heading the Economics route has always been somewhat of a selfish one. Geography is not traditionally taught at the high school level. It does happen, but my understanding is that it is not common to be offered in high school. I don’t want to say that I am afraid of middle school aged students, but I didn’t get as excited about the opportunity to teach that age. After my time in Mr. Broze 7th grade class, a lot of that went away. I would jump at the chance to teach a class similar to the one I was a part of.

In summary, or overall, I don’t think the experience could have been much better. Mr. Broze did give us the vibe towards the end that he was ready for us to be done, which was somewhat disappointing, but at the same time understandable. Mr. Sharpsteen and I were guests in his classroom and have the potential of taking away from his plans for his classroom. As guests, we didn’t want to overstay our welcome and show our appreciation by heading out. It was an awesome time. The kids were amazing and the whole experience just fueled my excitement for the years to come!

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