Classroom Observation Of Mrs. Ledford

This semester I had the privilege to be a teacher assistant at Carolina forest high school. This high school was different from every other high school I have ever been to. There are around 2,700 students that are enrolled in the school. This is very different from my high school because there were only about 1000 students enrolled. When I first arrived at in my classroom, I was greeted by my cooperating teacher Mrs. Ledford. She introduced me to herself and then to the classroom. the students were in the middle of working on an assignment, so I was only introduced my name. Mrs. Ledford then took me to her desk and gave me the standards for the class, so I could see how what she was teaching was helping the students. She then went back to helping
Mrs. Ledford’s class was set up in a way that one would not expect a U.S. history class to be set up. There were no rows of desk; instead, the students sat in groups. Each group had either five to six students and they all worked together. They were assigned seats which made the students become social and meet new people since the work was mainly group based. Mrs. Ledford also had all throughout her room previous students works and posters that really gave life to the room. This was by no means a boring or dull looking classroom. The overall atmosphere was relaxed. Students could have backpacks which were absolutely forbidden at my previous high school. They did not have to wear ID’s or even sit in the chair properly. If the students were working on an assignment, they did not even have to sit in their own chair. That’s if the work was individual work. Even though the class was relaxed, the students still knew to respect Mrs. Ledford. Mrs. Ledford is a strong believer in allowing students to have certain freedoms as long as they did well in class and did not interfere with other
Ledford’s class has developed my character in many ways. One of the most import lessons I learned about being a teacher I learned by chance. During class one day a former student of Mrs. Ledford came into the class and offered to talk to the students. He talked about how he was never the type of student a teacher would want. He told the class how he had over one-hundred discipline referrals and made almost straight D’s throughout high school; however, this changed in Mrs. Ledford’s class. He told the class how Mrs. Ledford was the only teacher that treated him like he was worth something. This lead to a spark going off inside him and he started acutely trying in her class. He ended up passing her class with an A and was never wrote up in her class. Hearing this story really made me think just how important it is for a teacher to be the best role model they could be. This is because you are the adult that these kids will be looking up and the way you act towards them will affect