Jen Rohde

EDU 201
Madison Middle School Observation
Mrs. Gafford’s class

I was fortunate enough to be welcomed into Mrs. Gafford’s 7th grade science class at

Madison Middle School. We discussed what a small world was because after I learned who’s

class I would be observing I knew that I had heard the name before. It took me several days to

put it together but I finally realized that I had seen her name on numerous Facebook postings

because she is the sister of a girl I graduated high school with! Who knew? Nonetheless, I was

thrilled to get to sit in on a science class since it is my major. It was interesting to see the depth

that middle schools explore in the science field.

Upon entering Mrs. Gafford’s classroom, I was first struck by how large the room is

compared to others that I have seen. The furniture was adequate size for the age of children in

there. There was a small lab area inside the classroom for experiments. There was also lots of

storage. However, the lab and storage was definitely dated and was showing its age as were

the floors and walls when considering the materials used as well as color choices. I saw plenty

of equipment and books. I did notice the books that they use are not re-useable. Mrs. Gafford

said that they are called consumables and that they go through 3 books per year. The students

can write directly in them. The pages are colorful and had clear indications of what was to be

done on each page. Honestly, they remind me of the worksheets my children come home with

from elementary school. The walls also had numerous inspirational quote posters as well as

science posters. The furniture was grouped together in such a way that two students could sit

at a table and there were two tables back-to-back to make a square. So each grouping of tables

held four students. For technology there was a computer, Smart Board and microscopes.

There was a large wall of windows as well but most of it was covered. Only two small windows,
Jen Rohde
EDU 201
Madison Middle School Observation
Mrs. Gafford’s class

roughly 2ftx3ft were uncovered. But even one of those windows was mostly blocked by books,

a plant and a tapestry. There were also two window air conditioning units; one on each end of

the wall of windows. In my opinion they should have been turned on because it was incredibly

warm in the classroom. Perhaps they don’t work though because they looked like they were

from the late 70’s to early 80’s.

The class started with a practice test of items that may be on the upcoming Mstep test.

The test was taken by each student individually and once everyone had completed it they went

over the answers together. Mrs. Gafford made it fun to learn in her class. She had good banter

with the students and most of them responded well to her. One thing I did notice is that

several students throughout the time had their hand raised while she was teaching but she

rarely called upon them. This may have happened for good reason though and I am just not

aware of why. I just found it interesting.

Honestly what surprised me most about the observation was that I did not see more

disrespect and attitude in the form of faces behind the teacher’s back, eye rolling or making it

obvious that they were not going to participate. With this age of children in my experience, it

kind of comes with the territory. However, both classes that entered her room while I was

there were calm, collected and responsible and for the most part they were engaged. This of

course is with one or two acceptations. However, the questionable behavior I did see were two

that I thought would be the most challenging. One of those is the inappropriate jokes or

innuendo. At one point Mrs. Gafford partnered two students together that apparently has a

history of dating each other. Mrs. Gafford was giving instructions when she noticed that the
Jen Rohde
EDU 201
Madison Middle School Observation
Mrs. Gafford’s class

two students were sitting far apart from each other making it impossible for them to do the

partner project. Mrs. Gafford told them that she only asked them to be partners, not to hold

hand so they needed to grow up. Another student said “grow hair?” Mrs. Gafford said no,

“grow up”, then said that’s the problem with working with middle school kids. The same

student pointed out that “growing up” and “growing hair” are pretty much the same thing.

Mrs. Gafford redirected immediately. Another challenging aspect is their attitudes combined

with word choices. For example; one child got mouthy because he was competitive yet he was

not winning the activity. Mrs. Gafford threatened a referral to which the child responded that

he did not care. Mrs. Gafford mentioned that he was not her favorite person right now and she

asked him to stand down. He did. I think it is hard to handle this age group because their

bodies are changing so much. There is a lot of adjustment going on that they are not aware of

so it is difficult for them to see and recognize the behavior. In addition, the students seem to

be in a state of limbo. They are not the little kids, yet they are not the big kids either. Again

they are struggling to find their place.

I noticed that Mrs. Gafford did a great job hitting on all the different ways for a student

to learn like we discussed in Chapter 2 of our book. For instance, she had the students start

with a work sheet by themselves. Once it was complete the entire class went over it together.

She asked the questions in various ways, never hitting the same student twice. They were up,

out of their seats at one point answering questions. They did some of the questions as group

work where they physically moved around arranging statements in the correct categories. She

also had them drawing and coloring notes on the subject. In addition, Mrs. Gafford appealed to
Jen Rohde
EDU 201
Madison Middle School Observation
Mrs. Gafford’s class

their sense of humor. When all was said and done, not one student sat in their seat listening to

the teacher talk for an hour. Every student was engaged, being creative, learning and looked

like they were having fun.

All together I thought it was a great experience for me to see Mrs. Gafford in action.

Not only did I get to see a great teacher at work but I got to see how she made science come

alive for her students. By her example, I got some ideas on how to go about teaching a subject

in a fun way that some students would normally check out of. I also learned that even though

my preference is still elementary age children, middle school age probably wouldn’t be so bad

either.