Week 7

Ok, so the truth is I completely forgot to do this and we are now doing a blog for week 8. So, I am backtracking because I have something that I can't forget to write down that really bothered me last week. When I was observing the 4th graders in their specials last Wednesday I was absolutely shocked and appalled by the way the teacher was acting towards her students. To start off with, her class was barely being managed. Kids were running around, taking things from each other, screaming, and not listening to the teacher at all. Rather than correcting the situation, the teacher ignored what was happening and proceeded to talk over all of the students, which didn't solve the problem. The the teacher was talking about landscapes and brought up the artist T.C. Steele. The teacher began to question the class about the artist and as the children responded thoughtfully, she rolled her eyes at them, looking at them like they were stupid, saying things like, "yeah sure", and finally gave up on them. There was no guidance from her and it was really awkward because I don't think the students or myself understood what she was trying to get from the class. The teacher was also asking about some kind of order form that she sent home with the students, and when many of the students didn't have them to return to her, she said very condescendingly, "I knew you guys would do this to me" like it was a slap in the face to her. The teacher also was walking around the classroom and blatantly criticizing her students in front of other students. She walked up to a table of students and said to us "See this young lady here? I wish my entire class was just like her, then my life would be perfect." As soon as she walked away, the other students said to each other "I hate art, she's always criticizing us all the time." She also went around and said things like, "These trees are awful. I'm going to probably have to do a lesson just on drawing trees". I just think that its wrong for a teacher to make any child to feel like they are unintelligent. I also was extremely offended that the teacher was just writing off every student and their response and rolling her eyes. I don't know how that is ever ok to make students feel stupid for sharing their thoughts or opinions. I also don't know how a teacher like that has a secure job during such difficult times for teachers. I guess I was so shocked not only because that was the first bad teacher I had witnessed, but just the magnitude of how awful she was towards her students really made me want to say something. But then of course, I am only an IU student observing her classroom. That leads me to wonder, if I could even do anything about it at all?