Mini-Ethnography

ENG-101
27 September 2013
Mini- Ethnography Assignment #2 I recently sat in on Mrs. Czerneks upper history level class on Friday September 27. When I first entered the class room at 9:45, I was shocked to see 6 students already here 15 minutes early. The 6 students that were in the room were sitting down so I decided to note their desk selection. Two of the students were in the back, the other two were in the “T” section in front of the teacher and that last two were all the way to the right of the classroom. 11 students showed up around 9:55 along with the teacher. One of the students gave remorse to the teacher due to fact that he had to miss class for something and that he really liked this class. I was astonished to see that the student actually came to class and told the teacher that he would have to miss; whereas, most students would just not show up or inform the teacher. 13 students showed up around 10:00. The fronts seats are now filled up, I found that quite interesting because you think that would be the row that would fill up first. Also, I came to notice that the majority of the students were sitting right in front of the teachers desk in a 3x4 cube of students. 10:02 class started and the teacher put notes on the board and began her lecture. Out of 29 kids, only two had laptops. One of them were taking pictures of the notes while the other was typing them. Additionally, two more kids were on their cellphones not paying attention at all. Those students were setting in the back row with their hoods up and all relaxed. The majority of the students were taking notes but when the teacher started hinting about some questions that might be on the next test; everyone started writing what the teacher was saying. The teacher would ask specific questions to the class and I found out that the majority of the students that answered back were sitting directly in her point of view or the front row. Some students I saw were highlighting important things while taking their notes. Something that shocked me was that there was a students cellphone that went off in class and the teacher did not get mad; however, the student was a middle age female adult so maybe that was why the teacher did not react. I started watching the middle aged student and saw how she would never break eye contact with the teacher and also she would nod occasionally to let her know that she understands the topic. It took me a long time to notice that everyone that was taking notes had their cellphone setting right on their desk as well. I came to a conclusion that having your phone out on the desk was like telling the teacher “Yeah I will listen and take notes to learn; however, if I get a text message I am going to drop what I am doing and text my friend back instead of taking notes.” Class ended at 10:32 because the teacher got done with her lecture and everyone started packing up while she was stilling talking.