I am working with two different teachers and for the most part they are completely different in their approaches to teaching. Mr. Johnson teaches most of the actual history courses such as U.S. History and World Civilizations. While Mr. Goslin teaches government, AP government, AP U.S. History, and Sociology. The biggest difference that I have noticed between them, is that Mr. Johnson likes to have the students do lots of worksheets and other projects, many of them in class, while Mr. Goslin leans more towards the lecture/discussion form of teaching. I admit that most of Mr. Johnson's students seem to really like him and his class, but I can't help but think that they are not taking much out of it. I have helped grade a number of their assignments and tests, and only a handful of them seem to be doing well. I realize that there are currently a number of reasons for these problems they are having, such as the ridiculous number of snow days that they have had, but I still don't think that they should be having such problems with the material.
In Mr. Goslin's classes there are a number of students who are not doing very well, but this is most likely because they are in an AP class. I looked over one of the tests that they did poorly on and I have to admit that I'm not sure if I would have done exceedingly well on it. Mr. Goslin's students also seem to enjoy his class and most of them also seem to like Mr. Goslin himself, but there is a lot more respect in his classroom than in Mr. Johnson's. It is my opinion that Mr. Johnson is not nearly strict enough with his students.
So far I have been loving this experience. The greatest thing that I have taken from this practicum so far has been the fact that it makes me want to become a teacher even more. I can't wait until I get to have my own class, and teach the way I want to. I am having a lot of fun!
