public school lessons

One of the requirements to begin a teaching program in CA is to observe a public school classroom in the subject you wish to teach. I spent 10 hours observing two middle school science classes at the EPA charter school. It was an experience I’m still internalizing for a variety of reasons: how different it is from my current job, the lack of technology, the fact that middle school brains boggle my mind. There were a couple of interesting lessons. As part of their school day, the boys and girls separate and participate in an “advisory” session, where they talk about broader life issues, like peer pressure and family dynamics. One of the activities for the advisory session was to assess risky vs. safe behavior. I talked to one group assigned to draft a course of action for a teenager contemplating withholding information about a weekend party from her parents. When I asked one of the students what he would do, he said he’d tell his parents about the party “because the bible says to obey your parents”—an important lesson for my own possible future child-rearing. Another phenomenon I’ve noticed is a fashion trend towards the “bubbling” of pants. It is done in the following way: the girls pull up their pant legs to about mid-calf and then adhere a rubber band to the bottom of the pant, letting the excess pant fall down their leg, thereby creating the bubble effect. Also, girls will gather up their excess shit material on their backs, and tie it with a rubber band. It all looks ridiculous, but being a product of the 80’s, who am I to judge?

The most important lesson I’ve learned is that middle school science is a lot like DIY projects or crafting. Being in public/charter schools necessitates thriftiness and the creativity to teach lessons with common items (genetics with ordinary beans or acidity with cabbages!). It’s kind of cool to design projects for 25 kids with a $10 budget. And because this isn’t ground-breaking science, it was really entertaining. I have to admit, though, that comparing a kidney bean to an egg and a white bean to a sperm seems a bit dangerous in terms of future conceptual knowledge.