On October 22, 2015 I had the opportunity to visit Shaker Heights High School. As we arrived to the school, I immediately noticed how large it was. Growing up in a small town, my entire high school only had about 500 students, at Shaker Heights they had about 400 students in each grade. When we walked into the school we were warmly greeted by the staff and taken to the library for a brief meeting with the principals. The library had a very homey environment, kids were sitting on the ground in bean bag chairs whispering quietly and doing work. At my high school it was mandatory that everyone sat at a table with a maximum of four people. I liked that Shaker trusted their students enough that they are able to sit, talk, and work on projects together, because it allows everyone to collaborate and share ideas.
During the meeting, we learned that Shaker Heights was an IB school. I had never heard of IB schooling before then, but it seems like an extremely quality way of educating. We were also informed that the student has a say in whether they participate in the IB classes, AP classes, or regular classes. I really liked that because it gives kids the opportunity to do what they feel the most comfortable and interested in. Once we finished discussing any questions we had about the school prior to visiting our class rooms, we were sent off to a first room assignments. For the Shaker Heights visit I crafted the question: “Do high school teachers use the same level of enthusiasm and engaging activities as lower grade school teachers do? (banking vs. problem- posing).
My first class was with Mr. Schmidt in room 259. I got lost but a student came up and helped me find my way, which I greatly appreciated it. As I walked into Mr. Schmidt’s room I was greeted with a room full of smiles. Mr. Schmidt introduced himself to me and everyone in the class said hello. I felt very welcome and comfortable. Mr. Schmidt was teaching a freshman honors physics class at this time. They had a test the next day so they were all reviewing and going over a review sheet Mr. Schmidt had them do the night before for homework. Mr. Schmidt was very vocal and was engaging every student in the review session. He was asking everyone questions, all the students seemed genuinely interested in the topic and wanting a good grade on the test. Every student in the room was focused and were not afraid to ask questions or speak up when they didn't fully get the problem. I really admired that, because in high school often times I felt that I couldn’t ask a question because I would look “dumb” or be made fun of for not understanding. Everyone in the classroom was very comfortable with each other and showed respect anytime someone else was speaking. Mr. Schmidt asked the class after every concept if there was any questions or concerns, most of the teachers in my high school didn't do that because they wanted to get through the topics and move on. I liked that Mr. Schmidt took into account his students’ needs more than whether or not he got through his lesson plan fast enough. Mr. Schmidt also used a lot of real world connections and analogies to his problems that the students could relate too. I definitely would say that Mr. Schmidt used the same, maybe even more enthusiasm as grade school teachers do. I think this is an important quality to possess, because I found that as I got older, my teachers’ lesson plans got more boring and less interactive, but Mr. Schmidt did not at all. I would have loved to have him as a teacher and really enjoyed shadowing him!
The second class I visited was Mrs. Mazzie in room 222. When I met Mrs. Mazzie I got the sense that was very soft spoken and caring. Mrs. Mazzie is a Spanish teacher for all grades and at any levels. I am minoring in Spanish so I was really excited to find out that I was going to shadow a Spanish teacher! She made me feel very welcome and was interested in knowing about my interests, my high school, and how college was going for me. It was nice to see how much genuine interest she had in getting to know me. When her class came in they took their seats and were studying quietly amongst themselves - she explained to me before they came that they were taking a quiz today. Since they were taking a quiz I wasn’t able to see the regular class room environment, but Mrs. Mazzie explained to me some of the daily tasks that she has all her classes do. She showed me a paper that is called “Daily Warm-ups”, the daily warm up had a new question on it every day, dealing with something they had learned yesterday to refresh their memory, a blank line for what the student hopes to achieve that day, and then a rating scale from 1 to 10 that the students fill out once class is over, based on how well they believe they performed that day. She also explained to me some of the games they play like Spanish Battleship, which they use to help memorize vocabulary and verb tenses. I thought was a really good idea, because it was fun and helped the students learn something at the same time. I was only able to stay in Mrs. Mazzie’s room for 15 minutes but I could see that she had a very open and fun classroom environment. Although I didn’t see her actually teaching a lesson, getting to know her for those 15 minutes, gave me the impression that she was a very hands on/interactive teacher. She stressed the importance of having fun but learning, which is important for all teachers to find a balance in no matter what the age of the students are.
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