Villarreal 1

Jessica Villarreal

EDUC 2301.200

Dr. Ellis

5 May 2019

Observing the Masters

Oprah Winfrey once said, “A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside

yourself”. Students are required to observe 16 hours in a classroom setting to help prepare them

to teach their own classes. For my spring semester, I observed at Chisum Elementary school in

Paris, TX. The class that I observed was Mrs. Bush’s 4th grade reading class, although there was

one day where Mrs. Bush’s students were testing and I observed Ms. Howard’s 4th grade math

class instead. My experience at Chisum Elementary School was very welcoming, every staff

member and student that I interacted with treated me with kindness and respect. I have strongly

considered making Chisum the school that I teach at when I become a teacher.

Mrs. Bush taught me many things during my observation hours, such as freedom for

students will not always end in disaster. Her classroom was set up without desks, and instead

allowed students to pick where they wanted to sit for the day, options including futons, round

tables, short tables with cushions to sit on, or bean bag chairs. Mrs. Bush allowed her students to

choose where they wanted to sit for the day, as long as that spot would produce the student’s best

work. This is something that I would like to implement into my future classroom because it

teaches students responsibility and encourages them to do their best. Another thing that I would

like to implement would be something I witnessed in Mrs. Howard’s classroom. When solving

problems, instead of having a scratch sheet of paper, she allowed students to write on their own
 Villarreal 2

desks with dry erase markers. This creates less paper waste and teaches students to clean up after

they are finished with their work. Mrs. Bush used a variety of teaching methods, such as

jeopardy review games, individual work days, group work days, and one-on-one time with her

students. The lessons were a mix of student centered and teacher centered, as there were some

days when students rotated around the room answering questions and other days when Mrs. Bush

read a book to her class and they answered questions as a class. I saw only positive interactions

between Mrs. Bush and her students, and I was especially pleased to see that one of her bilingual

ELL students was assigned a buddy to help him when he didn’t understand part of a lesson.

Overall, my experience at Chisum Elementary was exponentially better than my last

observation experience at Crockett Intermediate. Last year my will to be a teacher waivered

slightly, but being at Chisum has made me certain that I want to be a teacher. Each child is a

unique story and I can’t wait to learn about my future students. The staff and students were

extremely helpful and welcoming, and I made sure to tell principal Ruthart that I was highly

impressed with the inviting atmosphere of her school. I highly believe Chisum Elementary is the

perfect school for me!