My First Middle School experience

When I arrived to the middle school for the first time on Wednesday I was very nervous. I wasn't sure what to expect or how the students were going to behave. I was taken down to the classroom by the front office secretary, who showed a lot of compassion for the students and the school itself. The classroom I observed was a 7th grade language arts class. I observed this classroom for two hours. The Teacher in the class was very young, but I learned quickly that she knew exactly how to handle these very rambunctious group of 7th graders. When I first sat down the class was in the middle of their bell work, which was silent reading for 20 minutes. Looking around the class room there was very little technology. They had about 7 computers in the back, which were very outdated. The clock did not work, and I noticed that their way of keeping time was their TV.When the teacher began her lesson for the day I observed that a lot of the students in this class had very little respect for her. She was constantly having to stop instruction because the students were constantly speaking out of turn. I also noticed how many of the students tried to tell each other what to do, this also caused many disruptions as well. After getting the class settled down the teacher asked the students questions about an article they had read the day before. It was a controversial article, so the the teacher explained the use of pro's and con's using  the overhead projector. The students were very interested in this article, and they gave many of their own opinions of what they felt were pros and cons. After the class made their pro/con chart, the teacher offered the class to start a debate.Unfortunately this class was not able to participate in a debate because their behavior was too out of hand. Instead they wrote on paper why or why not they agree or disagreed with the article. Many of the students had trouble figuring out what they wanted to write, but their teacher was very helpful by giving them ideas. After the students wrote their paragraphs their teacher asked if any volunteers wanted to share, and I was surprised to see that majority of the class raised their hands. While the students were sharing their papers, I noticed on the classroom walls their were many posters encouraging writing. In one corner of the room their was a board dedicated just for to the students work. The last 7 minutes of class the students were assigned as a group to make a poster advertising the pros and cons of the article. The students all made very interesting posters. When the class was over, the students were dismissed by their teacher. There were no bells which I felt was very strange. Overall my first day went very well, and I am looking forward to seeing what the next couple of weeks hold!