Field Blog 1: Mayfield Middle School

Going into Mayfield Middle School for the first time I walked in with a question to think about while I was examining the class. The question was how do students in Middle School act now compared to when I was there? The answer I received was not the answer I expected. I noticed many things from my visit of this school. The first thing I noticed is that the students at this particular Middle School seemed more calm and settle compared to how my class acted when we were in Middle School. Another thing I noticed is the teacher whose class I was examining used something called a "marble system" he didn't explain it to us, but from the looks of it when students act well they get marbles and their score on the board goes up. If the students act up and talk when they are not supposed to they lose marbles and a possible prize is lost as well. I feel like this was the teachers way of getting his students to act mature and appropriate. If they can do that they are rewarded. The technique this teacher used was smart. One final thing that happened was the students received their test scores back from a previous test they had just taken. If the students got over an 88% on the test they were rewarded and had their name put on a special board. However, if they received a score lower than 88% nothing happened they were just told to do better and try harder next time. In conclusion, after sitting in on a 7th grade science class I have figured out many new things about what goes on inside a Middle School classroom. However, I still think that Middle School is not the place that I want to be teaching at in the future.