Shadowing The Teacher

The individual that I chose to shadow was the main teacher that I work with on a regular basis. I shadowed her for the entire school day. Normally, I arrive around the time the children arrive and I leave when the children leave as well. But this day, I went earlier and was there when she arrived. The first thing she does when she gets there is to organize the class room and set it up for the day. She writes the daily schedule on the chalk board and arranges everything in a way that will be useful for the day. She then meets with the other two fifth grade teachers and discusses the plan for the day. In this school, the fifth grade children rotate around between the three teachers. While they have their home room teacher, where they learn math and writing, they move around to the different teachers for reading, social studies and science. So, they teachers met this morning to discuss what the children would be learning in the different subjects. They also discussed certain problems with particular children and how to change things for this child. I think that the way they rotate around and work with one another is a great way for the children to feel a sense of being an adult and to learn responsibilities. Anyways, after the meeting was over, the children were almost to arrive. She went down to the office to check her mail box and then went back to the room, waiting for the kids to arrive and begin teaching. Once this occurred, it looked like a normal day in the class room for us. However, during lunch I typically stay in the class and allow her to go to the office and do the things that she needs to do. This time, I went with her. She had to go talk to the principle and then we went to the Teacher’s Lounge to eat lunch and visit with a few of the other teachers. I realized how quick the lunch break was and she came back to the class to do some grading for the rest of the lunch. She also had to look over emails and respond. One thing I learned and had not thought of before was that all the fifth grade parents can contact her through email. She did not complain about this, however I can only imagine. When I was in school, my parents were not able to email the teacher on a regular basis. Today, parents can email the teacher about a homework situation, or any other problem. While that could be helpful, it could also be some sort of a nuisance. After lunch, we went back to teaching, watching what I normally do. I then learned that after school is over, she has to leave quickly; She grabbed a lot of papers to grade, and had to go. She is also a tutor three times a week and goes to meet her students right after class. I enjoyed shadowing and learning even more about the day in the life of this particular fifth grade teacher.