Zimmerman Observationii

Tom Schnoor [email protected] Purdue University Calumet Frank O’Bannon Elementary Mrs. Denny Third Grade Three days a week, two to three hours a day, two weeks

I had to sit in on Mrs. Denny, a white middle aged woman who was teaching third grade to 18 kids who were of different races. In my time observing Mrs. Denny’s third grade I have observed them learn reading, writing, and arithmetic. During their math lesson the majority of the students are very affirmed of what the basic rules of mathematics are. And during the writing lesson students they seem to understand the readings rubrics that were required of them. Some of the rubrics that were required of them, were to identify the key words in each sentence, and summarized the main idea of the paragraph. I also graded some of the student’s papers.

Thinking about what I have observed I feel that I got a very good taste of how the students and teacher treat each other in the few weeks I was there. I can only compare what I saw those times to experiences I have had before such as classroom discussion and my own teachers I had. I realized three things about Mrs. Denny’s classroom; there was no “gay issue”, the children were not sexist, and the teacher was not sexist. These three things added to the smooth system Mrs. Denny had set up. I think there was no “gay issue” because no one claimed to be a homosexual. I didn’t see anything in Mrs. Denny’s classroom that was antigay, but at the same time I didn’t see a plethora of pro-gay materials. I remember other people in class were talking about how their teacher had posters, banners, and books about being pro gay. I never sensed that Mrs. Denny was anti gay, she was just a teacher that didn’t have a lot of materials that sent across a “pro-gay” message.

The children were not sexist to each other or to the teacher. Unlike the children from the book “Gender and Teaching” (Mather and Ward, 2002) who were in Mrs. Nita Rodriguez class. The students in Mrs. Rodriguez class were very rude, in the aspect of their views of male dominance and female submission. They belittled the idea that a girl could possibly be the protagonist of a story. And the students flat out said that girls can’t do anything. Mrs. Denny’s class was not in the least bit like that. The teacher Mrs. Denny was not sexist either. She seemed to have a good grasp of what her role in the educational community at Frank O’Bannon. Her role was to be an educator who was not partial to a specific gender of students, she listened to all of them and she answered all of them. Her demonstrating this role showed me she was fulfilling the EDPS285 standard 9: Community (9.4: Role within the Community). Mrs. Denny knows the effects that a bad example would have, and doesn’t present herself in that way. I remember listing to one of my classmates talking about how their teacher was setting a terrible example of including both genders. This particular teacher had a boy in her class and every time that this student said anything or raised their hand to answer a question the teacher would look right through them. I was very disgusted at hearing how a teacher could neglect a student in such a way. I listened to the way Mrs. Deny talked about her “brightest students” when the other students weren’t around. She had a boy and a girl that were the highest ranking students, and it never seemed to me that she was valuing one of the students more than the other student.

The effects of the teacher & students not being sexist were seen in Mrs. Denny’s classroom. I think that the teacher not being sexist was very helpful for the students to have healthy views of the opposite sex. I saw the different genders of students react with one another and the were getting along like friends. That is the kind of environment that I would want to create for my students. On page 6 of “Gender and Teaching” (Mather and Ward, 2002) Nina Rodriguez, remembers how at her old school the students were not segregated at all by the schools rules. For example at Mrs. Rodriguez current school the schools rules had the boys line up in one line and the girls line up in another when they went to any activity. The school also had different classroom jobs for the students to be responsible of, depending on their gender. But Mrs. Denny’s class was totally different from that, the classroom jobs are all given to the students regardless of what gender they are. There is a sense of equality in her room, and knowing that things are going to be fair for students would encourage them to be more successful. Having seen the way the students and Mrs. Denny portray a non-sexist attitude assures me that any student entering her classroom would be getting a great non-discriminatory education. Although seeing a lack of progay materials isn’t the best example of a very accepting and diverse classroom, I still believe any student wouldn’t be intentionally judged and mistreated by Mrs. Denny on basis of their sex and sexual orientation.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Mather, F. A., & Ward, J. V. (2002). Gender and Teaching. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.