My Job Shadowing Experience at SHG

On March 30, 2010, the whole Junior class participated in a job shadowing day. It was an opportunity to see the line of duty you were interested in action. An experience that we could all push in our back pockets and take it out when we are trying to decide the job of our future. It was helpful to see what an average day was like. For my choice of occupation, I chose to job shadow a AP US History teacher and for the location, I chose SHG.

The teachers name was Mr. Lavin and he is a well-known teacher at SHG that is known for his wealth of knowledge in history. It was fun to watch as the class asked questions and he would either shoot back an answer, or honestly say that he did not know, but he usually gave an educated guess on the matter. Personally, I know what the teachers are like at Plains and know their style of teaching. It was interesting to see other teachers teach and what their techniques were. That is something that I won't forget. I learned things about the styles of teaching, that if I decide to teach, I can combine what I liked about the teachers and make my own unique style of teaching. While I was there, I also got to view other teachers to get a broader view. I also sat in on Mr. Bloom's AP English class. They were discussing my all-time favorite movie, Pride and Prejudice. They were reading the book for homework and then in class, they were discussing in detail the thought process of the book and what they observed or thought was interesting. In order for the students to better understand the book, Mr. Bloom would put the situation into a current day matter. He took a ball room setting with the polite manners, to what happens at prom. Techniques like relating the material so that the students can better understand, are techniques that I won't forget. Mr. Bloom was extremely nice and offered information on what type of things he teaches and how he does it. The other teacher that I visited was Mrs. Fox. She was also a English teacher and her class was discussing the book The Great Gatsby. Her teaching style was different by the fact that she used an overhead projector and wrote out questions for the class to discuss. Mr. Bloom, walked through with his students the main points and asked their opinoin on the topic. Two different styles, but both seemed to be effective.

Overall, I got to see multiple different teachers, all of which were very kind and informative. Mr. Lavin was the main teacher that I observed and I am very glad I had the opportunity to watch him teach. Also while there I got to see what it was like at a different school. There were some vast differences between SHG and Plains. I learned a lot of things by just watching what was going on around me. It was like being in a different pair of shoes. I enjoyed being there after I got over the shock of not being at Plains with my friends. It was a bit of a culture shock at first, but after the first hour or so, I got to the point where I felt pretty comfortable. I am very glad that I had this experience.