I did my
observation at Times Squared Academy, a charter school in Providence. The school is located on Fillmore Street,
next to a low income area. It’s made up
of two large buildings which house students in kindergarten up until grade
12. The school is very focused on the
success of its students and trying to inspire them to go on to further
education. On the walls in the hallways
are posters about how to complete the common app, examples of college
requirements, and statistics about the SATs.
Times Squared has a safe and structured atmosphere, with staircases
labeled as up or down and all the students dressed in khaki pants and maroon
polo shirts.
For
some students in the 10th grade, their second class of the day is
Algebra II. Their room on the second
floor is decorated with pictures of fractals, brightly colored curtains, math
posters on solving equations, a giant calculator, and a gold colored cap and
gown. The desks are arranged in two rows
forming a giant U all facing toward the smart board in the front of the
room. Behind the U are two computers for
the students to work with and a large cabinet filled with math books from every
subject the school teaches. There are
twenty two students in this class, most of which are black or Latino. There are only four Asian students and two
white students, who happen to be twin sisters.
The majority of students are also female, with less than ten male
students in the class. None of the
students have any disabilities that are apparent. The students in the room all have varying
skills in the subject but all of them have at least the basics down.
The
teacher greets each student individually as they enter the room, shaking their
hand and asking each how they are doing.
The teacher begins the lesson in the front of the room and stays there
for the majority of the class working on the smart board. She uses the smart board as an endless
chalkboard; being able to move between pages of notes and never having to erase
anything. The lesson is presented in a
question and answer format with the students starting a new topic this
morning. When the teacher asks them to
figure out the answers to four questions at the start of the class all the
students begin to look in the book and write down their answers. Both the boys and the girls volunteer to give
their answers for the teacher to write on the board and they are called on in
equal proportions. Most of the classroom
is vocal whether they are asking or answering questions. All of the students also seem very
comfortable with their teacher. The
students are not afraid to ask her to pause the lesson for a second when they
do not understand something so they can get a better grasp on what is
happening. The only students who did not
participate at all were the twin sisters.
They seemed much shyer than the other students. At one point in the class a girl asked a
question of the teacher. Instead of
answering, the teacher asked the students in the class to raise their hand if
they knew the answer. The teacher then
told the girl to ask someone in the class to answer her question. In this classroom it was not all about
listening to the teacher but about taking responsibility for your own learning
and helping your fellow classmate.
I
think I would feel very comfortable in this school.
All of the children seemed friendly with one another and willing to help
out if someone didn’t understand something.
As someone who greatly enjoys the STEM subjects, the mission of the school
would have been greatly aligned with what I wanted to get out of my high school
education.
No comments:
Post a Comment