Middle School Week Two Reflection

This week the students were finishing up their Socratic seminars. We were able to see this done in three classes, with two being AP classes. The coolest part about seeing this done in three classes was that all classes readily participated. The students were engaged and excited. They were completing the seminars in a complete student driven learning environment. The third IP class was given a lot more scaffolding in terms of Costa’s Level of Questioning and guiding with the questions their groups developed. As far as the seminar piece these students still completed the seminar in a student driven manner. The engagement was like nothing I could have ever thought of in my mind. I expected the students to complete the task because they had to, not because they WANTED to!!!! What an amazing thing to witness as a teacher candidate! Seeing this lesson played out, in all honesty, made me yearn for my middle school certification. 

On Friday we were able to attend, along with the sixth grade classes, a presentation done by two Aquatic Veterinarians from Mystic Aquarium. The presentation allowed the students to see the daily activities and encounters while working at an aquarium. Besides the presentation being really fun and informative, I was able to again see excitement and engagement amongst students. This provided more fuel for my middle school fire. My biggest takeaway from this experience was hearing students answer questions and seeing their teachers’ facial expressions. The teachers were proud! Even a few teachers stated that they had not known that information themselves. It was awesome to see how proud these teachers were, but it was humbling to see them admit to their students that they did not know the information even though the student had. In that very moment my thought was “That’s the kind of teacher I want to be”. I want to feel proud of my students for their knowledge and greatness even if it means they look smarter than me, because quite honestly they should be smarter than me at times. The dichotomy of teacher and student should be one that is on equal playing fields with each providing the other with something to learn!