Field Blog #7

Cleveland Heights High School

This visit was unlike any I had gone on in the past. The way the school operated was very different than any I had experienced in the past, it seemed very unique. Something I really enjoyed about my visit was seeing how small the class sizes were. I feel like in having your room be physically smaller, you are forced to limit the class size to a certain number of students. When there are less students in your class, you are better able to develop relationships with your children and are able to figure out a way of teaching that is most beneficial to them. The sizes of the classrooms I observed were generally pretty small and it seemed to work very well for both the students and the teachers. Something I found interesting about the school was the policy on cell phone use. It was very open and basically said that students were allowed to use their phones whenever they wished. I feel like having this policy be so loose was not a good thing and developed a disruptive environment. While students were being taught or were supposed to be doing work, they would often be on their phones. When I was in high school, cell phone use was prohibited and we were forced to leave them in our lockers for the day. When I went into my senior year, the rules were changed and we were allowed to have them during non-instructional times. Though some students abused and took advantage of that rule, I feel like it generally worked well and should be adopted in more schools, such as Heights HS. Overall, the experience was a positive one and it seems like a good school, there are just some things I believe need to be worked on.