This paper examines my two-week field experiences in School A and School B. I will separately analyze both School A and School B, and add a conclusion at the end about my thoughts on teaching and learning. The purpose of this essay is to synthesize and analyze the praxis of teaching in current schools. From my field notes and observations at both School A and School B, two themes such as Classroom Assessment and Motivation, and Creating Positive Space emerged. The reason why I explored these two themes was due to my curiosities on how schools support achievement and create safe, positive environments for students. Also, I explored these two themes so that I may be able to amalgamate my field …show more content…
For instance, whenever students publically answer questions with great interest, teachers often give candies to students as incentives (Field Notes, 2015). Also, I noticed that candies, as well as teacher’s empathy, were used to uplift energy and focus in class. In one math class, I observed the teacher giving everyone small Mars bars for ‘brain boost’ (Field Notes, 2015). She straightforwardly told her class that she empathized with their current struggles with upcoming exams. The teacher often repeated math rules to class as she reviewed difficult questions that many students struggled with, and even humored them when she detected fatigue in class (Field Notes, 2015). No students disrespected each other for being unable to comprehend a math question, which I believe made a huge difference in students’ learning. Students encouraged one another, and were eager to review over the materials that other classmates were unable to solve (Field Notes, 2015). From this, I deduced that the teacher’s empathy and care towards her students was what made them feel encouraged to solve perplexing math …show more content…
Through discussion, my cohorts and I believe that if the student were given critical feedback from his teacher about schoolwork, he would not have felt pressured to obtain top grades for his teacher’s approval (Field Notes, 2015). Instead, the student’s attention and behaviour was directed toward the teacher, not learning. I think that with the right amount of scaffolding in his lessons, the student will want to learn for the sake of learning. I believe that this student has potential to succeed in class if his teacher would nurture his critical thinking abilities and