Erika Maxson

ECUI 531
29 November 2018
Observation Analysis

This semester I completed 40 observation hours at North Pocono High School with Hella

Poehailos. She teaches 4 different classes including Spanish 2, 3, AP and Beginner Conversation.

Following the period schedule in place at the high school, Señora Poe, as the students call her,

teaches 6 classes throughout the day having multiple sections of Spanish 2. In comparison to

other semesters where I did observations at Valley View, my experience at North Pocono has

been at the bottom of the list. That’s not to say that it was a bad experience; I’ve learned quite a

bit, but probably more what not to do than what to do.

To begin with the positives, Señora Poe has a relatively good rapport with students and

explains things well, clarifying grammatical concepts and providing feedback correctly, in a

positive, timely manner. Students seem to enjoy her classes for the most part, but to me as an

outsider it seems that might be because there is a good amount of free time for them to chat (in

English), nap, or do other homework, whether it be between activities or at the beginning/end of

class. I will say, however, that although this doesn’t have any relation into her teaching

techniques, I did find Señora to be a very nice person and looked forward to going to

observations.

On the other hand, I didn’t have the easiest time establishing a connection to meet up

with Señora Poe for observations. The first TWO times we had emailed and confirmed

days/times, there was a teacher-in-service day when I arrived and then the students were taking

the PSATs in her class and the secretaries sent me home, so that was frustrating. Once I did

finally meet her, though, I got to see how her classes are run and how she teaches. My biggest

complaint, unfortunately, is how little Spanish she used in her instruction, even the AP class.
Students weren’t provided with very much input in Spanish and certainly weren’t expected to

produce output until the speaking sections of the exam when students struggled to produce the

most broken sentences (not surprisingly). There was a significant amount of time spent “figuring

out technology”, something that I think should be prepared before class begins, but Señora Poe

has told me many times that she doesn’t believe in bringing work home with her because were

payed so little from 7-3. Although I appreciate that she’s practical and doesn’t sugar coat how

teaching is in the real world, I think she is rather pessimistic and more in it for the “little

paycheck” than for the love of the language and student growth. I don’t fault her for this, it is just

an observation different from what I had noticed at Valley View.

Like I said earlier, I learned a lot from this experience. I know that I will have my

students speaking Spanish and listening to me speak Spanish from day one. I will spend lots of

time outside the school day preparing materials that are meaningful to students and that work

properly when arriving at school. I certainly won’t practice “coverage” of the textbooks as

Señora Poe did, because the Realidades 1 textbook still used in many local language classrooms

(at North Pocono, Valley View and Wallenpaupack, at least) is not culturally focused or

meaningful. Taking these major points away from this experience simply adds to the vision I

have of my future Spanish class and the groups of little language lovers I hope to inspire!