A Shadow Study
On
My first observation of Brian
began in his first period class with Ms. Pack, the math teacher. While students were jotting down notes and
participating in class, Brian had nothing on his desk except for his head upon
his arms. He looked very tired, as if he
had been up all night. Ms. Pack made
many attempts to motivate him to do his work to no avail. At one point, when she passed out
calculators, Brian drop his calculator purposely on
the floor. He just did not want to be
there.
Second period was not
different with his science teacher, Mr. Dahlquist. Mr. Dahlquist had Brian
sitting in the front of the class whereas Ms. Pack had him in the back. This class had more students and Brian did
the same as he had done in 1st period, which was nothing. Mr. Dahlquist also
tried to stimulate Brian, but he didn’t want to participate in any
activity. He tried to disrupt some of
the other kids while they were working in groups putting species in their
respective order.
Third period was
planning. Fourth period was social
studies and now Brian was more awake. He
consistently and purposefully made attempts to interrupt class. If he couldn’t provoke the class then he
would begin to instigate problems with Mike, the student sitting right next to
him. I can understand why teachers have
him in the back of the class. If he’s in
the back then students sitting in front of him most likely will not be bothered
by his inexplicit actions. I’ve noticed
that students relatively enjoy Mr. Sheffield’s history class even if it means
ignoring the actions of a few.
Mrs. Taylor’s English class,
I thought was very interesting. Her
teaching style is somewhat intimidating and inspiring at the same time. Understand that I’m not only following Brian
around on this day, but the same kids are with him as well. Mrs. Taylor’s classroom management skills are
very impressive. For example, Brian
began to disrupt another student. Mrs.
Taylor asked him to move with a firm and crisp voice. Brian tried to talk back to her but was
unsuccessful. He tried to make a case
against him moving to another desk by stating that he would just talk to
Chris. Mrs. Taylor assured him that he
wouldn’t. And she was right, because
Chris would have nothing to do with his disruptive behavior. The other students were engaged with learning
about grammar.
The last period of the day
was very depressing to observe. Ms.
Miller is one of the kindest people I’ve met at Ruffner. I think by this day, Brian was just ready to
leave. Ms. Miller is the reading teacher
and struggled to make the subject matter relevant and thought-provoking as she
could. I think Brian’s fellow students
tried to get him to settle down, but it was just useless. Ms. Miller asked Brian to step out of the
classroom and he did for the rest of the period. However, her class used to be a dancing
classroom. There are windows in which
you can see into the hallway. If he
couldn’t continue to disrupt the class from within, Brian was able to make
faces to disrupt students from outside the classroom.
I found out during the 6th
period team meeting that this is Brian’s second attempt at 6th
grade. Mr. Sheffield later told me that Brian
used to be in a full time special education classroom but got tested out and in
now included in a mainstream classroom without an IEP or 504 plans. Mr. Sheffield couldn’t understand how this
student got tested out when he cannot read at the 6th grade
level. School is very difficult and too
challenging for Brian. Perhaps with a
lack of pertinent figures in his life, such as a mother and/or father to be
there for him, that perhaps he feels lost.
Moreover, how do you motivated the unmotivated; the unwillingness for those that appear to just want to give up? This is a tricky question to answer, because as teachers we have to find ways to engage students even if it means those students don’t want to be there. Brian’s a smart kid. He just hasn’t had anything that inspires him to learn.