Field blog Hathaway Brown 2

Today I observed two classes, one of a junior anatomy class and the other of a freshman general biology class.

First I observed the anatomy class, this was mainly lecture using a PowerPoint and finished with half an hour reading from a book on anatomy. I have never seen reading a book used as a biology tool before so this was particularly interesting, because it was different. However, this was not the most interesting point that I saw whilst observing. As the PowerPoint was being shown many of the students had their laptops out, presumably to take notes. However, instead of taking notes a couple of them were looking at their social media, two were on their phone and one was somehow using her phone and on social media. This was amazing to me because when I was at school I wasn't allowed my laptops in class and if it even looked like you may be on your phone then you would be severely punished. This made me wonder, how useful is it for students to have their laptops in class? In reality very little I believe, they are less likely to concentrate and it provides a great way to be distracted from learning.

The second class, biology, in contrast didn't have their laptops or any other technology and were much more engaged with the class, not only were they engaged but their notes were more thorough. This suggests to me that, because there wasnt a distraction of the technology then they concentrated better and were more likely to learn more. The second thing I preferred about the biology class was that the teacher was perfectly happy to go off topic. They were talking about Blood Types and one child asked about why some people are sick at the sight of blood and others aren't, so the teacher went on a tangent to explain that. This engaged the students better and kept them focused on what she was saying, it also gave them deeper understanding about bodily reaction to external environments which is very important in biology.

Another thing that I have started to notice is that the teacher tries to encourage the girls to do their own work and praise them when they have done well by calling them "Clever girls". This is obviously to make them feel empowered and know that they are capable. However, for some reason, I found this particularly patronizing, but I am unclear as to why this is. However, the others in the classroom didn't seem to feel the same way, and therefore I think that it is fine.