RE: The school as interpersonal space

Today was my second day of coaching at BJHS, and I felt it went well. My two students recognized me and were relatively cooperative. The class was working on memorization of the preamble of the Constitution. One of my students was working on that, and the other was writing a narrative that he had not completed the night before.

The E and R classroom always has a variety of activites going on because children are allowed to use that time to finish assignments that they may not have completed the night before for class that day. This class in particular has several students that tend to be disruptive and easily distracted. It seems that sometimes the teacher has difficulty maintaining control, mainly because there are so many different activities going on that she has difficulty keeping focus in the room.

The teachers at BJHS dress relatively casually, but professionally. I have felt a bit overdressed the last couple times I went, so perhaps I will dress down a bit more so the students do not feel intimidated by me. The students follow a variety of trends in their clothing. Personal styles are beginning to develop, for example, you see students following the punk/goth trend, the oversized clothes trend, and the tight-fitting expensive clothing trend. I had not remembered that developping in middle school at first, but looking back at my experience I realize that what you wore made a big difference in how people dealt with you.

So far I am not very familiar with the school procedures and rules as far as discipline is concerned, but I have seen teachers give detentions, and I know of students facing Saturday detentions as well as suspensions. There is a lot of diversity at BJHS, with children from many different types of upbringings and backgrounds. I feel that the teachers I work with are familiar with their students and can always provide the necessary information to help the students. So far I really admire the staff for their dedication to their students.