Casey E. Doyle

Observation Assignment 1

The Met School, Providence, RI

This is a story about a school that doesn’t look like your typical high school in fact it looks like a small college campus in a city setting.  The names of the buildings are strong like equality, liberty and justice.  People walking by me make eye contact, smile and mouth “hello”.  I asked a man coming out of the equality building where the justice building was and he was more than eager to show me where I was to go.  The setting of this school makes me feel like I’m in a northern New England town away from the hustle and bustle.  I find the justice building and I’m greeted by my contact Elizabeth Boucher.  As we take the stairs I noticed the mural on the walls and remembered a similar one in the equality building.  Not exactly the same but similar.

As I step onto the second floor it’s reminiscent of an office building.  Not an office where you’re in a cubicle farm more like a large foyer with offices lining the walls.  These so called offices were the classrooms.  The windows were at the very top near the ceiling and some were painted by the occupants of that particular room.  We walk into a room and I’m instantly met with a wall of heat this room was like a sauna.  But then I’m greeted by about 15 students sitting at a long oval conference table.  The table is actually several smaller tables put together so that all may sit together as one group.  The teacher who goes by the name “Ed” shakes my hand and tells me to take the comfortable chair near the computers.  He informs me that this class is an hour and thirty minutes long.  He said he starts with algebra then moves on to geometry.  The students were sitting all with their Chrome books open working on problems online.  Fifteen students and three adults myself included and this room was silent.  They had a lot of stuff on the walls.  To me it seemed cluttered but it all seemed to have a purpose.  There’s a ceiling tile in each classroom where all the students tag it, basically stating “this is our space”.  I remember the classroom I used in equality a couple years back also having this “tag”.

Beside the clutter on the walls the room seemed tight.  As if there was too much furniture in the room. I like space.  There was a definite difference between the “foyer” area of the second floor and the “offices”.  When I was at the equality building I didn’t get that vibe of “office” nor were the classrooms lacking space.  In fact, I taught in several classrooms in that building all having lots of space, walls were not cluttered, several dry erase boards, a few computers and a flat screen TV.  Perhaps the name “Justice” for this building is fitting.  It was a rather stiff and stern feeling.

But everyone was pleasant.  I mean very well mannered.  While Ed taught everyone participated except for one student that came in late.  She seemed to have a distraction issue.  Not only for herself but also distracting the class.  Ed prevailed not missing a beat and he dealt with the student in a quiet manner after the class was dismissed.  I spoke with him after class thanking him for allowing me to observe and we spoke a little about their other school in South Burlington, VT.  He encouraged me to visit there because of my background and what I intend on doing after graduating.  As I left I knew I wouldn’t be returning but perhaps I would take a look at their other location up north one day soon.