Observation Experience

My Observation experiences within the TATC program were primarily filled with frustration.  That frustration has nothing to do with my mentor.  It's primarily the result of the lack of knowledge out there about the TA TEKS, as well as a certain amount of resistance to them.

 I was only able to complete the bare minimum on my observation - that's just the nature of my spring schedule.  I was able to work out 3 hours over 2 days with my mentor, Courtney Morawski.  Courtney is the ONLY teacher in the Mansfield ISD who is TA certified.  Sadly, she was not teaching a TA class this spring because there is so little awareness of and support for it in the MISD.  Technology education in MISD is coordinated through the "Career Tech" department, a division that essentially shuns TA courses in favor of its own pet projects, such as the American Airlines Travel Academy, which teaches students Sabre so they can enter the workforce and collect unemployment checks since the travel industry's been in the dumps for 2 years.  There's also the Cisco Networking certification program, an area so unstable that it's a victory if the teacher actually finishes the school year.  But perhaps I'm being too honest...

 This frustration is compounded by ignorance of TA standards and courses at the campus level, where BCIS is considered "high-tech;"  where a 2.1 megapixel Sony Cybershot that uses 3.5" floppy disks is considered "state of the art;"  where people refer to a single page formatted in HTML as a "website" and they think "java" is a slang term for coffee.  Now I sound just plain cynical...

The lesson I observed was actually a BCIS class but included TA elements.  On Day 1, students were to complete "The $100,000 Spreadsheet," which involved them properly formatting a spreadsheet listing 10-20 items whose values totaled exactly $100,000.  This involved internet research and obviously competence with Microsoft Excel.  On Day 2, students were to compose a slideshow presentation that included their spreadsheet, a graph, and images depicting the items they selected.  Video and audio files could be embedded in the presentation, so this aspect of the project was basic multimedia as opposed to straight powerpoint.  While it was not advanced multimedia, it still challenged the students more, which is a step in the right direction.

 Despite the frustrations, the experience wasn't all bad.  I learned an immense amount from Courtney just by talking with her about how she incorporates TA skills within the confines of BCIS courses.  We also got to share "dreams" about what's possible with TA courses, even if the fruition of those dreams might be far in the future.  And of course, it was highly enlightening seeing the techniques Courtney was employing in the classroom.  Even though the actual clock hours were brief, I gained a fair amount of insight from the experience, which is obviously the point--take the concepts & skills we've been working on every waking hour and applying them with teenagers in a classroom setting.  Still, I can't help but wonder how fruitful the observation experience would be in a true TA classroom, fully-funded and supported.  Perhaps I can work to make that possible for someone else who pursues TA certification in the future.