It was
an AP Psychology class. The room contained a lot of the typical furniture: a
teacher’s desk, student desks, a couple small tables, a pair of filing
cabinets, and a supply closet. The student desks were arranged in two rows in a
semicircle configuration, amphitheater style. The teacher’s desk was near the
corner of the room and would be left mostly unused throughout the class as the teacher
mostly moved around the “stage” area of the amphitheater. A digital projector
was attached to the ceiling. Unlike some classrooms, there were no computers in
the room other than the teacher’s laptop.
The
more interesting parts of the room were on the walls. There were typical
classroom items like the whiteboard, shelves with books, maps of Asia and
Central America, a United States demographic map, a clock, and cork bulletin
boards. But these were boring. Slightly more interesting were the various small
framed history related photographs/posters, like Lee Teter’s Reflections. The objects my eyes were
most drawn to were the painted portraits of The Joker and Harley Quinn above
the whiteboard. I wondered if these were made by a student and given to the
teacher. The other most eye catching object was a full-sized medieval armet
helm on the shelf near the books. It was a nice-looking replica, though I
suspected it was not student-made and constructed from acrylic or resin, not
steel.
Other
than the handful of oddities in the room this was a familiar, and thus
comfortable, classroom environment. The same could be said for what I saw of
the entire school. It was larger, but similar to the one I attended twelve to
sixteen years ago. This was probably because the majority of their construction
was fairly recent and utilitarian compared to Nathanael Greene Middle School,
which I assume is older with a more ornate exterior and interior.
I had
taken a seat in one of the student desks at the end of the semicircle before
the students started to arrive. There were only thirteen of them, eight female
and five male. It was not a very diverse group, as only one student appeared to
be Latino while the rest were white. It being Portsmouth, it was safe to assume
they were mostly from middle-class families. The only disability, which sounds
like too strong a word, that could be identified among them were vision
problems when a few of them had to move up to better see the white on grey (a
choice the teacher regretted) PowerPoint slides. The teacher himself was white,
and probably middle-class class too.
The
students were talking to each other a lot as they settled in, but were not out
of control and the teacher was unconcerned. Some of their conversations were
even about the class, and the teacher was able quiet them down quickly since it
was time for a quiz. The students took a short multiple choice quiz and once
they finished, the teacher had them exchange quizzes and began to go over it.
The teacher called on a student to read the question and the answer on the quiz
they had, he would tell them the correct answer.
Up to
this point the class was everything I had expected it to be, but here was where
things changed. Many of the answers the students had were wrong, but,
unsolicited, the students were asking why the answer was wrong and explaining
to each other why. A particular point of confusion was the concept of negative
reinforcement, but the students with a better grasp on it were able to help the
others. This kind of interaction continued throughout the remainder of the
class, with the teacher asking short, open-ended questions and letting the
students discuss them. Each student sometimes spoke for over a minute at a
time. This teacher had control of the class, but let the students dominate the
time.
The
environment seemed ideal and it was clear the students were fully engaged and
had a good relationship with their teacher. That is not to say it was perfect. Though
they were paying attention, four of the five male students did not participate
much in the class discussion, so the female students overwhelmingly dominated
class time. The students were courteous, allowing one another to speak often
without being prompted or called upon, but this was partially a result of the
small class size. It would be difficult to be so informal in a class with
twenty-five or more students.
As the
class closed, the teacher reminded the students of an assignment where they
were to plan a way to solve a theoretical problem in the school cafeteria
through the use of conditioning. After the class ended and I was leaving, I was
a little surprised with how great of an environment that teacher created in his
class. This classroom was similar to some of the better college courses I have
taken and I would have enjoyed being in this class in high school. However I had
to temper my enthusiasm, as this was the accomplishment of just one teacher
with an AP class, meaning all these students likely exceeded the expectations
of the school. I was right in my assumption, as the teacher in the next class I
visited had not cultivated the same impressive environment. Still, even with my
small sample size, I think most of the students like the school and receive a
better than average education in it.
