Field Blog 1

Today was my first day observing at Heights High. I am observing a high school biology teacher named Ms. Russell. She has been teaching for over 16 years and loves it. When I walked into Heights High, I was greeted with by a security guard and was asked to present my license. After this, I attempted to go to my teacher’s class room. A security guard tried to force me into the lunch room because the guard thought I was a high school student. I tried explaining that I was a student at John Carroll University and that I was doing teaching observations. She did not believe me, but when I showed her my Carroll card, she let me go to the class room. The class room was small and had bare white walls. The teacher said that the school used to be a small middle school but it is being used now while the new high school is being made. The students all came into the classroom talking and joking around. On this day, it was the day after election day. The students had just woken up and either had their dreams come true or their worst nightmare became a reality. The teacher struggled to get the classes attention because the students kept talking about the results of the election. All the students in the classroom were African American and it seemed like most, if not all, were unhappy that Donald Trump would be the next president. After about 10-15 minutes of time where the teacher tried teaching a lesson, she lectured the class saying, “I am a immigrant. You don’t think I am just as scared as you are? I am a woman, an immigrant, a teacher, and a mother. I am a mother of 2 kids who are the minority of the minority. They are mixed, and I am worried about them. We can either keep wasting time and keep being fearful of what the next president can do, or we can educate ourselves. He cannot take away your education and your knowledge. Now let’s expand your knowledge and learn today. He can only win when we stop educating ourselves.” This speech was amazing. The students listened to her and did their work. I gained so much respect for the teacher after her speech and the students did too. This helped me understand why the security was so tough on me today, because they may have been on edge after the results of the election. This teacher was able to inspire her students in 2 minutes and give them a new desire to learn. This relates to what we learned in class. We learned about how African Americans and other people can be discriminated against and how school needs to be a safe place. This teacher made the classroom into a safe space.