Master Teacher Reflection

           After finishing up student teaching, especially the five weeks of teaching full-time, it was good to be able to leave my section of the building during the last week to go and observe other teachers at Goshen Middle School who are known for being “masterful.” At the beginning of student teaching, I had been fortunate enough to be placed with a wonderful teacher, Ann Carboneau, from whom I learned many teaching and management techniques/strategies. Ann is definitely artful in her ability to have control of her classroom while still making strong personal connections with her students and teaching content in a way that is accessible. After observing six other teachers during the last week, I came to the conclusion that having control of these three aspects of teaching (enforcing good management, making personal connections with students, creating accessible content) is key to being a “master” teacher, as these were the areas where the teachers I observed excelled, and thereby had successful classrooms. Through analyzing these three attributes, then, I was able to learn a lot through my observations.

            Two of the teachers I observed, Bria Carboneau (6^th grade English/Social Studies) and Brenton Fish (7^th grade Math) had great management over their classrooms. With the new 6^th grade schedule this year, many of Bria’s classes are about two hours long, which, according to her, can get really tedious for her students. However, the class that I observed of Bria’s was able to accomplish a lot in this long time-span because the students were focused on what they needed to be doing and knew what was expected of them. Because of this, Bria didn’t have to spend a lot of time giving instructions or telling students how to behave. There were a few times when she had to inconspicuously redirect a student to get back on task, but this didn’t happen very much. Brenton’s classroom also had good management as students were on task throughout the entire class period and also knew the established routines of the classroom. Class began right on time, as students were seated and checking the answers to their homework from the previous day when the bell rang. Students also knew how to take notes and regularly volunteered answers to the questions that Brenton asked throughout the period.

            A second attribute that most of the master teachers I observed excelled in was making strong personal connections with their students. I thought this was especially the case with Terry Hussey (8^th grade math). As I entered Terry’s class, the atmosphere seemed to be really positive, as students were sitting in groups and conversing as they got out their homework to review for the day. Throughout the review, students seemed to be engaged in the material and weren’t afraid to ask clarifying questions. In observing this, it was easy to see that Terry’s students weren’t afraid to ask for help, and also liked to show her their successes (when they had completed a tough problem correctly).

            Finally, a third characteristic of master teachers that I found was encompassed by those I observed was the ability to make the content they were teaching relatable. I specifically thought that this was a trait of Angela Stoltzfus, a teacher of Read 180 (an additional English class) at GMS. Angela’s classroom was very organized, and students worked at various stations throughout the class period, rotating every 15-20 minutes. At one station, students conducted group reading with Angela, where for the story they were reading she questioned their background knowledge by seeing what they knew before they began reading. When some students weren’t able to answer questions such as “What is poverty?” Angela proceeded to explain it in a way that students could understand and relate to, which then helped students to comprehend what the story was going to be about.

            All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed my opportunity to once again become an observer in a classroom, soaking up the techniques/strategies of master teachers that foster a successful learning environment. As I talked about in this reflection, some of the key components of fruitful classrooms that I have gleaned from my observations, and also from having taught in my own classroom, are having good classroom management, connecting with students, and making content relatable. However, I also realize that implementing all of these aspects of teaching is very difficult, and takes time to master. These elements, though, are the ones that I hope to master in my future classroom, in order to create a successful learning environment for my students.