Class Observation

Curiosity

Curiosity is the driving force behind human progress and development. Just like this class observation assignment, everything I found was based on my curiosity about this class. From the beginning, when I asked my friend HaoRen Chen if there was an interesting class in his schedule  I could sit in and observe, my curiosity began to stir. It makes me feel that this class observation is full of challenges and uncertainties. Following my friend, HaoRen’s schedule, I walked into his world humanity class.  As soon as I walked into his classroom, I saw only a few people waiting to start the class. I don’t know if it’s because this class started early at 9:30 in the morning, so there are not many people taking this course. I sat with him near the back. In order not to disturb the students in this class, I decided to sit quietly on the back and start my observation. While observing, I looked for many different aspects of the teacher, students, and the environment. As I know, the professor for this class is Professor Poltrack. The classroom is located at NAC 7/231. This classroom has no windows but 2 doors, both the front door and the back door. HaoRen’s classmates are quiet and only a few people in the front row were talking.

Professor Poltrack walked into the class with a nice smiling face. He looked very energetic. He was wearing a sweater and combing his hair back. His hairstyle reminded me of the same hairstyle as Captain America. When the class began, most students took out their computers and started reading. I took a look at HaoRen’s computer, he was reading a poem and doing a response through blackboard.  It reminds me that my after they were done with the poem response, the professor assigned his students to sit in a group. The professor told them to let them do group discussions on the poem assignment. Students discussed in groups of three or four people. After they started class, some students arrived in the classroom one after another. While they were doing group discussion, the professor was walking around to see how the groups are doing. During the group discussion, the professor asked several questions about the poem, but few people answered them. I saw those who answered the questions sitting in the front.

I interviewed HaoRen about how he views this class. He said, “This course is not difficult, just be active in the group discussion.” Besides, I found out that the professor seemed like he knows everyone’s name. Not only when the students raised their hands to speak, the professor easily spoke their names and said yes, but also when the professor walked around the classroom to help different group members, he can easily call their names and help them analyze the verse on the poem.  My curiosity sprang up.  I was thinking, is this professor’s memory really that good?How did his memory develop? Those questions suddenly raised up in my head.

 I couldn’t help curiosity and asked my friend. After class, I interviewed HaoRen that how he feels about taking this World Humanity class. HaoRen told me that even though only a few people answer questions in the class, Professor Poltrack always responded with enthusiasm. Not only that, he encouraged them to speak more actively. HaoRen also told me about the first class of WHUM 10200 with professor Plotrack and how he knew the way professor Plotrack remembered all student’s names. When the first time class met up, professor Plotrack assigned them into a big circle. All of the students took out a piece of paper and wrote their names. From what I heard here, I was wondering, what’s so strange about this piece of paper? Did the professor just recognize everyone by this name? Without this name card, how did the professor recognize their faces and call their names accurately? I became questioning the professor’s ability of memory. I was novel and surprised to know until my friend told me how professor Poltrack remembered. On the paper, the professor also told them to write down an adjective word that the first letter has to be matched with their first letter of their first name. This sounds like a conceivable picture that an adjective word can match with the person’s personality. Professor Poltrack made the first meet more interesting.  HaoRen told me that in the circle, they came up with a variety of adjectives to describe themselves. HaoRen used the word “hasty” on his name. In my opinion, that’s true. He is always in a hurry between his part time job and going to school.  I was amazed by using adjectives with names this effective way of associating. I assumed that there is an image of HaoRen was in a hurry in the mind of the professor too.

Curiosity drives us to seek the truth.  Observations help to show how experienced teachers manage their class. For this observation, it is important to pay attention to the way classrooms are arranged, the way professor Poltrack interacts with students, the management style of the professor, and interviews with HaoRen in the class. Through this class observation, I know more information about what a world humanity’s class is and it helps me to prepare my class option for my next semester.

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