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Amelia Brown
Dr. Ellis
Educ 1301
28 April 2015
Reflection of Ms. Leatherwood and her Class
I had the opportunity to observe Ms. Delinda Leatherwoods business and finance class
along with her yearbook class. I was able to spend a little over sixteen hours observing her class
and I enjoyed every minute of it. While observing Ms. Leatherwoods class, I not only learned
and gained ideas of how to run a class but how to set up my classroom and experience the
different types of student personalities there are.
Two of the most important methods of teaching I got while observing Ms. Leatherwood,
was to stand in front of my class to present a lesson and walk around afterwards and assist
students on the assignment I have given them over the lesson. By doing this I can affectively
reach out to my students the way Ms. Leatherwood was able to. While presenting the lesson to
her students Ms. Leatherwood kept a calm but stern voice, which to me represents leadership and
dominance in a class. As she walked around assisting students, she spoke to them in a calm and
positive voice which reassured the students that they were not dumb for asking questions. Both
of these techniques I hope to use in my own classroom.
Ms. Leatherwood had her room arranged where all of the students desk are facing her,
making her the center of their attention. She has positive posters on her walls along with pictures
of students of Cooper ISD that were taken by the yearbook staff. Her desk is positioned in the

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front of the room making it easy for her to view the classroom evenly. From this observation I
found it effective that she is located centrally in the front of the classroom, because it gave her
better control of her class.
While observing Ms. Leatherwood I learned not only from her but her students as well.
They taught me that my class will be filled with students of different personalities and
background. Ms. Leatherwood was able to demonstrate perfectly how to deal with a wide variety
of students simply by means of communication with them. For the students that I would call the
class clowns she had to be stricter and firm while talking to them so they would get their work
finished. For the students who were quiet and got their work done, Ms. Leatherwood would talk
to them in more of a calm and appreciative voice. She would reward good behavior with the
opportunity for students to finish work from other class, get on the computers she has around her
room, or simply play on their phones and listen to music. Ms. Leatherwood talked to all of her
students in a positive manner and they responded well to tone and eventually completed their
work with little argument.
I learned a great deal from observing Ms. Leatherwood. What I was able to take away
from her and her class I hope to use one day in my own classroom, from how I present a lesson
to class arrangement. She is really passionate about what she teaches, and I can tell that her
students love her class. I hope that my futures classes will feel that same way about being in my
class the way Ms. Leatherwoods students feel about her class.