Wednesday, April 3rd (4-6)

All staff and students have pseudonyms.

4pm

    Deanna is back today, along with Ms. Mills and 3 other students that are familiar to me. Deanna wants to work on a Chromebook just like last time; the other students are working on desktop computers. More students come in and a teacher I learn is Mrs. Brighten leave the room. There is a new student that comes and Ms. Mills gives him a spiral notebook to take notes from the lessons in. Another student comes in that I've seen before, Phil. He sits beside Ms. Mills. There are 8 students in the classroom now.   

    Dr. Meyer comes in; Ms. Mills and Mrs. Brighten talk about something from a previous night that I wasn't here. A another student that I remember from last Tuesday is working on 10th grade Lit. He is doing a lesson on dashes, hyphens, and parentheses. There are now 9 students in the classroom. Mrs. Brighten and Dr. Meyer are talking about schedules. Ms. Mills reminds the students about the no-cellphone policy; Ms. Mills and Dr. Meyer start talking together.

     From where I sit, I can see a student as he clicks on the right answer for the guided practice. I don't see a difference in the corrected one and his answer. He seems frustrated that it says he's wrong when he's not. 

4:30pm

    Two students come in and sit at the back. They log onto the computers in front of them. Dr. Meyer and Ms. Mills discuss something in an email they sent to the online Foothills support. They discuss the Gradpoint curricula and about emailing someone about correcting the error they found. They talk about the student who found the error and about how they are impressed by his analysis and attention to detail. 

    The student who was working on dashes, hyphens, and parentheses moves on to apostrophes. 

    Dr. Meyer tells me that as a class they are going to work on note-taking skills. She is currently still working on the hand-out with tips on having organized, effective notes. Ms. Mills prints a packet that a student can use on his essay. It is an article on why Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible in the Cold War. There are now 12 students in the classroom. One student, Allie, is graduating this year; she comes to ask for help with an essay she's trying to write for her senior paper. Mrs. Brighten, the writing tutor, leaves the room with her to help her downstairs. Before they go, Allie says that she's ready to be done with this essay and graduate. She tells me that in the beginning of this year she thought that she was going to dropout.

    

5pm

   There are 14 students in the classroom; both Ms. Mills and Dr. Meyer are working one-on-one with students. A couple of students, from the last classes I've come to, are talking to each other in the back corner. A student comes in, sits at a computer, and begins working. 

    Ms. Mills leaves the room to go to the printer; she printed something for a student. She reminds Frank, a student I've met before, to get off of his phone as she walks out of the room. She comes back in shortly and hands the student the copy. Ms. Mills takes a notebook from the supply in the filing cabinet in the back of the room. She then walks around the room, making sure everyone is doing good. Dr. Meyer tells her that the Foothills representative she emailed about the quotation question just responded to her. They discuss their response and look up the issue with the quotation on the Pearson website. 

5:30pm

      I notice that a student directly in front of me has been on the same screen for a while now. Dr. Meyer and Ms. Mills are still discussing the quotation problem and the email. A student comes in and asks for a retake on a test he failed. Dr. Meyer helps him, taking a look at what he got wrong in the test.

     Mills is still looking over the quotation issue and asks me to come to her computer to take a look at the issue they've been talking about for at least an hour now. A new student, Anna, comes in; Dr. Meyer helps her with logging in and setting up an account. 

     The break takes place; I leave for the night. 

Reflection 

     I'm still trying to find my place in this type of school unlike anything I've experienced before. I do think it's funny (in an ironic kind of way) that I feel the need to understand my position in this environment, as if I am the reason this exists. And yet, I think it's important for me to have a grasp on what my role should look like. I know that I have the teachers such as Ms. Mills and Dr. Meyer as guides, but they've been a part of Foothills much longer than I have; they have power in the technology and inside look into the curriculum. 

    I understand that in this kind of classroom the students' main focus is on a computer screen. They are in charge of their own education- to an extent. They are limited by this specific program that was made by a company with specifically chosen material. They learn the things, definitions, concepts that these people have deemed is important enough. And yet, students decide when they come to school. They can come and go as they please. They don't have to be in a classroom where they may feel inadequate in comparison to their peers. Or they don't have to feel slowed down by them either; they have the opportunity to complete classes at their own pace. The teachers are here to help them when they need it, but not be the main voice in the classroom, louder than anyone else's. Though I'm still struggling to get used to this kind of school, so different from the ones I've been accustomed it, it does not mean that this program is wrong. It is just an alternative route to the traditional one taken by the majority of students. If I've learned anything so far, it is that students should have a say in their education. I think that students will work better if the teacher don't act as though they are the most important person in the room.